Training for the GUCR while in Italy has been a problem. I need long, flat runs, and flat speed work. Long runs around Venice were a problem because of the number of canal bridges, long runs around Siena were difficult because everywhere’s hilly, long runs around Amalfi were difficult because the roads were death traps (and hilly), it took hours to drive anywhere, and the only local lengthy stretches of trail involved huge numbers of steps (see previous blog posts).

So getting to Rome, and its relative flatness, was a relief from a running perspective. After 7 days of carb-loading on spaghetti and pizza, a long run would finally be mine. My plan was to do 15 miles total, 10 miles of easy and then 5 miles of decent effort, leaving myself feeling fatigued and happy before further carb input.

I knew that I had propensity to get lost, so I checked Mapmyrun for routes that I could upload to my Garmin. I found one that looked good at around 15 miles, and then found that the export button on the site didn’t work. 20 minutes of research down the drain. I tried Mapometer and found a good-looking route of about 12 miles, and altered it to suit my start and end points down by the Colosseum.

I set my alarm for 6:15 and went out at 7am, ran 3 miles easy on a route I’d run a couple of days before, and then hit go on my new route. All set. Except for… people. And traffic lights. And traffic. And more people. I couldn’t get any kind of rhythm with all the stopping and starting. Even my semi-aggressive London running style didn’t work so well here, where a slightly wrong move could literally get you killed by the vehicles that hare around the streets. Even the green man at a crossing doesn’t mean you’re safe, cars can go through if they see it’s clear – so a rapidly moving runner can surprise a motorist when crossing the road at speed on a green man, and I was always wary of collisions.

Added to this, I got lost around the Vatican. The route had a way into the city-within-a-city somehow, and I couldn’t figure out how to get in. There was a crossover of route at one point too, which was tricky to navigate on the Fenix 2, and I ran the wrong way a few times.

On the positive side, Rome is stunningly beautiful on a warm cloudless morning like it was today, and without my run I wouldn’t have seen the river Tevere so closely, I wouldn’t have seen the wonderful view of Rome from the Piazza di San Pietro in Montorio, and although I’m neither a Catholic nor religious in any way, it was good to see the ol’ Pope’s residence and the majesty of the Vatican’s architecture. (We later further celebrated this by purchasing a Pope-themed fridge magnet for Sarah’s brother, which I thought was fitting.) Also positively, in terms of effort I managed to up it for the last 5 miles as planned, so although from the Garmin data it looked like a washout, I definitely feel fatigued, ready for a rest and a recharge, then back to England before getting back to a normal running cadence on Saturday.

I had the strangest experience today. Scary, because I’d been stupid and underprepared, and exhilarating… because I’d been stupid and underprepared. I descended the cliffs from San Lazzaro, where we were staying, to Amalfi, along Sentiero dell’Antica Repubblica (the Path of the Ancient Republic). We drove there the other day, around 20 miles via winding roads, but I was told that the steps reduce that to a small number of miles and it would take 100 minutes to walk. I do love a challenge, so I wanted to see how fast I could run it.

I figured I’d run for an hour total including the steps and dodging traffic on the road into Amalfi, then that would give me 90 minutes to get back and get up the steps. I knew it could be nightfall before the end so I took my headtorch. One of the wiser safety decisions I’ve ever made.

Getting down the steps was a doddle. I lost count at 1,500 steps down, I’m told it’s 4,000 but I don’t think that’s right. Maybe 2,000 down and 2,000 up, that could be it. Anyway, although some were broken they were largely complete and much more recent than their title suggests, so I was safely down the 2,000 feet in 25 minutes and down to the Amalfi beach in 40 minutes. Sorted. I stuck to my hour plan, so ran through Amalfi and out the other side, through Castiglione and almost to San Cosma before turning back for my 90 minute return. Or so it was planned.

What I didn’t bank on was ascending the wrong set of steps on the way back, twice. The truth is, one set of steps looked pretty much exactly like another – to my, the untrained, eye – and I thought I knew the direction I needed to head (up!) so I stubbornly stuck to that plan. I kept climbing, always looking up to see where I was going and seeing a wall, beyond which I thought would be a road that I could run to San Lazzaro, family, and dinner. There were no steps any more, just a series of rough paths and higgledy piles of rock. I’d get over the wall, or through it where a gate was available, and beyond that would be a climb over some rocks and yet another wall. It was all getting a bit weird, and it was only after I’d done this six or seven times that I realised where I was standing. I was on a terrace.

The beauty of the Amalfi coast is enhanced by ancient agricultural terraces, that look like this:

People farm the slopes using these terraces, which are large channels dug into the rock where crops are grown. When you’re looking at these from your car, or standing and marvelling at the view, they look utterly magical. Timeless. Wonderful.

When you’re standing in one, unaware of the way either up or back down, realising that each of these terrace drops to the next by around 10 feet, and the sea is several hundred feet below you, with sunset approaching, they are fucking terrifying.

I remember clearly saying out loud to myself “You could be in trouble here,” and I think that galvanised my senses and I decided to try to find the path back down. That was a sensible decision but it was really tough – I kept choosing a path that ended in serious brambles or some other dead-end, and having to turn back to try a different fork. My legs were getting torn to shreds and the sun was going down. I passed a very large aloe at one point and then found a few steps that I recognised. I went down them as fast as I dared. I got back to the road, relieved, and ran west towards San Lazzaro and therefore, surely to the correct steps. There they were. Excellent. I got up them double-quick, only to find that they fizzled out into trail again. I scouted around to find some trail, and spotted something that looked like steps – but east. I ran along there for a while, and found… the aloe. I couldn’t tell for sure if it was the same one, but the sun was now seriously setting and I could hear duelling banjoes playing in my head, so I retraced my steps, switched on my headtorch,  and bolted down the steps.

I found a house on these steps and knocked on the door, half-blinding a small child with the awesome beam of my Nao, before her dad appeared and I explained in my basic Italian that I was lost and looked for the steps to San Lazzaro. He pointed back up the steps, left, then up again, then left, and continue doing this until I reached the target. I thanked him and gave it a try. I eventually found my way to the original trail, and then just had the simple task of climbing 1,500 or so steps , and around 1,500 feet of climb in 1.5 miles, to reach San Lazzaro. That was a bloody good workout I can tell you! For those of you who know the North Downs Way 100, Detling should be pretty simple now I know I can get up these!

As you’ll see from the trail here, it was indeed the same aloe plant that I found from a different direction, and I did ascend the wrong steps twice. Next time I’ll take much greater precautions, as I would not have liked to have been negotiating my way around those terraces in the dark.

Total recorded ascent was 3,200 feet, but my watch crashed at one point for a few uphill/downhill minutes, so there’s a few more to be added in. About 12 miles, 2 hours 40 mins. Not the greatest of GUCR preps but about the best I’m going to get around here.

We’re off to a relatively flat Rome tomorrow, hoping to get some decent (rather than descent) miles in.