Running along the coastal trail in the Cinque Terre region of Italy.

A year ago, I wrote about running through my hometown on my 40th birthday. Now, having recently celebrated my 41st birthday by running, hiking and eating my way through a 40K in the mountains of Tuscany, I’m reflecting on how running affected our round-the-world travel and how travel influenced my running.

So much changed in one year: We left our home, Morgan left his job and our family experienced an entirely different lifestyle as we traveled the globe. Our trip is drawing to an end, with just a few weeks until we’re back in California. There are so many things about this past year I will miss, but running in far-flung destinations is near the top of the list (behind family togetherness and a simpler, less scheduled lifestyle). Week after week, in whatever place we found ourselves, running was a friend and travel guide, providing familiarity and pointing me in new places to explore.

I haven’t written much in this forum lately, aside from a once-in-a-blue-moon race report, mainly because my attention is focused on the travel blog, Away Together, and running weaves its way through those posts, as in Eat, Run, Love. Running is such a daily, dedicated part of travel that I’ve come to think of it as another mode of travel; that is, a way to explore byways and meet people from different countries and cultures. There’s nothing very dramatic or interesting about my running these days (aside from the scenery); it just is. I’m in a comfortable phase of being slower and heavier and simply running to see the sights and stay healthy.

I was fortunate to participate — and I’m deliberately using the verb “participate” rather than “race” — in two events recently in Italy that were utterly fun and noncompetitive, capturing the spirit of my running these days: a hilly trail 10K through vineyards in the province of Treviso, and the 40K hike/run along a mountain ridge from Prato to Montepiano outside of Florence. Bottles of wine were handed out to all participants at the 10K, and elaborate buffets were laid out for the 40K.

Getting ready to run a trail 10K through the wine region near Treviso in Northern Italy.

The 10K course ran over hills famous for producing Prosecco, Italy's sparkling wine.

I had never experienced anything like the 40K event. Runners and hikers, in clusters of families and friends, gathered early morning loaded with layered clothing, packs and poles to climb around 4,000 feet over fairly technical terrain. There was no official starting time because there was no clock, and people embarked on the trail whenever they happened to show up. I alternated hiking and running at an easy pace, chatting in broken Italian and English to people along the way, and settled in for what would be my slowest and most relaxed long run ever: about six and a half hours to go 24 miles.

Runners and hikers in the 40K had to carry a card and get it stamped at checkpoints along the way, which I'm doing at a summit here.

Most of my time was spent at aid stations, which were set up like parties with food galore handed out by sweet gray-haired Italians. They all fussed over me since I was the first woman to show up, and they had all sorts of questions when they found out I was American. When I mentioned it was my birthday, they fussed even more. Mangia, mangia! I must sit and eat, they said, and hence I found myself in the middle of virtually nowhere, near summits exposing rolling green hills of Tuscany, eating bruschetta, grilled chicken, biscotti, and even a steaming dish of penne pomodora and a glass of red wine.

What an aid station! These volunteers poured red wine and served penne pomodoro.

The friendliest volunteers at five aid stations along the course handed out the most delicious, authentic Tuscan cuisine. It was hard to run with bruschetta and cheese in my tummy, but worth it!

Like a guest invited to a party, I felt I must linger and get to know the hosts while sampling their food and conversation. More than once I inwardly expressed gratitude for the gift of running that brought me to that trail in Italy, where I could see those views and interact with locals in a way no regular tourist ever could. Savor this, I told myself.

Just as I have very mixed feelings about returning home and getting back to “real life,” so do I feel conflicted about getting back to competitive running. I don’t want to lose the closeness and simpler, slower lifestyle that our family rekindled through the journey, nor do I want to lose the more intuitive approach to running that shaped this year. By “intuitive,” I mean running at whatever pace and distance my body feels like and circumstances allow, rather than having goal-oriented runs with predetermined distances and speed workouts.

And yet, I can’t deny that I get excited at the prospect of working out a schedule to build up to a few fall races that will take grit. I’m going to do my first 50-miler in October (the Dick Collins Firetrails 50) and also might try once again to meet a perennial goal to break 20 minutes in our hilly hometown Thanksgiving Day 5K. (Just typing that gives me flutters of nerves, because in the shape I’m in now, that goal seems as distant as California is to Europe.) Why not run those races in the spirit of that Tuscany 40K, going as slowly as I like, soaking up sights and sensations along the way? Because racing is undeniably exciting, and scheduling weekend long runs to build up to the 50-miler and getting closer to the fitness level I was in a year ago is compelling. Admittedly part of it has to do with fighting back age — of not wanting to slow down or run fewer miles as the years pass, though I surely will — but mostly I feel an ingrained and satisfying rhythm and seasonality to this process of getting in shape to meet running goals.

I also have a hunch I’ll welcome the routine and stability running provides when we get back home. Morgan and I have to move back into our house, figure out what we’re going to do professionally and help the kids readjust to school. We’ll try to adapt our travel lifestyle to our regular lifestyle and hope to save and plan for another long trip. Once again, I’ll rely on running — my friend and guide — to lift my spirits, clear my mind and point me in new directions.

This shot is from a recent rainy 9-miler up a valley with countless waterfalls by Interlaken, Switzerland.

Tags: 10K, away-together, Italy, marathoning, Running, running while traveling, trail running, Turkey Trot, Tuscany, Ultrarunning

This entry was posted on Monday, May 17th, 2010 at 10:07 pm and is filed under Blog, Content. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.