But then my plan changed when I saw a day trip with LPN at the beach with a 10K in the evening. Sounded great so Lori and I signed up. Well, more like I told her we were participating but "please double check your calendar so you don't miss anything while spending the day with LPN."
And that's how our Saturday morning landed us on a bus headed to a town we couldn't remember the name of to spend some time on the beach, eat Italian food, and then run a 10K before the trek back to Naples. Rough life- right? Sometimes it's not half bad living out this way.
We arrived in Castellabate late morning and after some wandering through the streets, found the right section of beach to set up our umbrella and lounge chair city. With the sand burning our bare feet there was a lot of inspiration to move quickly when making the dash to the water. The initial shock of mild temp water wore off pretty fast, but the fact you could walk out for yards without the water passing your knees still amazes me. I guess this really is a sea and not ocean like I keep being corrected on! No matter what type of body of salt water I was splashing around it, it felt fabulous and was entertaining. Why? One of the other club members convinced his daughter that there were no sharks because all the jellyfish scare them away. When she got over both sharks and jellies...he started mentioning other predators. To the point that she thought a piece of trash (one of few we saw) was something other than just a piece of paper floating in the water.
After a good soak in the sea we warmed up under the sun and threw clothes back on to walk down the beach and head up to the place we were eating lunch. Although we're one big "LPN family" there are some family members I get along with really well- like my running partner and a family where he's the one that runs, but I work with her. So we plopped down together at the end of the large table around a backpack we didn't know. Turns out the owner of the backpack AKA "new guy" fit it right away with my little segment of family and we spent more time laughing and talking than eating. Yeah, nothing like a multiple course meal before running a 10K- right?
Post meal soak, water hydration, and sun then it was time to get ready for our race. We had already been warned by Uncle Gianni (club leader) that if anyone bailed due to sun burn we'd be killed. You better believe that was extra inspiration to keep the SFP50 going on my body. Getting ready for the race consisted of shower poolside then deck changing. Yep. Another one of those useful skills I learned in high school! Of course it was more like when we'd have pool practice then have "dry land" and not of our clothes quite wanted to get on our still damp bodies...but we managed.
The 10K race lead us around town and then back on some country roads right around sunset. Absolutely beautiful along the water front (think Pismo Beach, CA), and then in the back roads even the bugs were pushed to the back of the brain as the sky turned its night time pinks, oranges, and purples. Um yeah. The sun had already set by the time that I finished the event. Still have no idea what time I did it in either...note to self- charge your watch. I wasn't among the last group to cross the finish line, but I wasn't too far ahead of them. All I know is, even if it took me 2 hours to finish this race I wasn't going to give the satisfaction to the ambulance driver (bringing up the end of the race) trying to tell me it was time to quit. And no, it really wasn't. By my calculations if there is a 2 hours time limit and you're 1/2 way by 35 minutes...I'm pretty sure I'm going to finish under the time line.
Yes. He made me that mad. Almost to the point when we stopped by the last time I told him I was finishing it no matter what and nearly offered him my race #. From that point on it was my goal to start picking off the runners I saw in the not so far distance just so I didn't have to talk to him again. Well, that and avoiding bugs in the eyes. Managed to pass a runners and it felt great. Until a massive hill, but like in every other race I've done some fabulous Italian comes up from behind and slows pace to encourage me with a forte or piano piano as we both make it up the hill. The race trail finally lead us back into the middle of town where 95% of LPN was waiting for me to cross the line, which always makes it a fabulous adrenaline rush. Best part though? My goodie bag had a bottle of wine. And yes, (mom I'm ashamed to type this but) as soon as the award presentations started the bottle was opened and I was sharing it. (And we wonder why Americans often get a bad name...)
Tired from the sun, miles, and wine we loaded up the bus and started the trek back to Naples. Something like 2 am was when I finally walked through the door. Why? Well, it's horrible traffic super late at night time of year again. Oh well, nothing like a "come back run" with your running family soaking in all the beautiful things Southern Italy has to offer.
