TURIN MARATHON 2000
Steve Woo (Palo Alto Run Club Newsletter)
Ciao Italia
When
your job demands that you fly to France's Lake Annecy for a week of "work," by
all means, dont fight it. Upon receiving the marching orders, I admit I moped around
for a day, trying to figure out how in the world I could squeeze in a long 20+ mile
training run for Boston while I was out there. Fortunately, the Torino Marathon
(that's Turin to the lay-Italians) was being run the weekend before I was scheduled to
arrive in France. So, I took a slight detour and headed to Italy, arriving 36 hours
before the marathon, and then flew to Geneva 3 hours after I finished.
The marathon was, like,
really Italian. Take the “goodie
bags,” for example, containing beer and salami, and the official race shirt--a polo
shirt, with the city of Torino’s emblem, a cherry, shadowed in the shape of
Torino’s signature landmark—I was there less than 48 hours, so I really have no
clue what the name of this monument is—sorry already!
There were very few foreigners in the field of about 2500 runners. Turin probably doesn’t attract the hordes of
runners that the Rome, Venice, Florence, and Milan Marathons do. Neverthenonetheless, Turin still has a lot to
offer. Keeping in mind that this was
just another training run for Boston, I kept my pace relaxed, and was not in any rush to
finish. I had other distractions to pre-occupy me, whilst running the loop course,
which started at Torino's Palavela stadium, then proceeded into the industrial country
side and villages, and back to the heart of the city, passing multi-million-year-old
churches and monuments along the way, or perhaps just centuries-old--it all just looked
really, really old. Running on the cobble-stoned streets of the villages and back
alleys of the city probably took 15 years off the life of my precious regenerated
cartilage, and probably added a good hour to my finishing time (otherwise I would’ve
given Khalid Khannouchi a run for his Olympic medal, if Congress ever wakes up to grant
him his citizenship.) However, I’m just grateful my knee cooperated again, 19
months after surgery.
Abondanza
After the marathon, I went
in search of a good Italian meal, but failed to locate Mama Celeste. No Abondanza
was to be had because almost every restaurant I passed was closed. Fortunately, and
this is what makes me really, really proud to be Chinese-Mexican-American, there was a
Chinese restaurant open (anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day!), so my post-marathon
carbo load consisted of curry chow mein, mushroom & bamboo shoots, a bowl of white
rice, and this salad smothered in some grotesque thousand island dressing--of course, I
had to rearrange the lettuce leaves to make it look I ate some, so as not to insult the
chef, who I didnt know, but with whom I share a common heritage.
Parles vous-la-la?
So after Torino, I spent a
day in Geneva and 4 days at Lake Annecy, about 20 miles from Albertville, site of the 1992
Winter Olympics. Torino, incidentally, will be the site of the 2006 Winter Olympics. The only time I could squeeze in my daily runs was
before "work" in the early morning. So, waking up at 6AM, I set out on
paths that took me along the shores of the Lake, where kilometers were conveniently
marked. I averaged 11 miles each day, and dragged myself outta bed at 5:30 one
morning to get in a good 15 miler. It was quite an eerie feeling running in the
pitch, pre-dawn dark, with barely anything visible but the snow-capped peaks of the
surrounding Alps, and little to be heard along the way, except for my snoring and the
do-re-mis of 7 children, their cooky governess, and a nasty baroness coming from the
mountains a few countries over.
BUTT-COLD. It was frrrrrreeeeezing during my runs, with
temperatures in the low 30s. For this San
Francisco wuss, it might as well have been 50 below. However, my anticipated trips
to the boulangerie/patisserie after my runs kept me going, pulling me through the worst of
the bitter chill.....oh, and the sunrise over the Alps, yeah, that was OK too. By
the end of the week, I had logged over 70 miles between my time in Italy and France, my
highest weekly mileage since knee surgery.
Tony Bennett
Upon returning to San Francisco, after an 11 hour flight mit einer Deutsch kinder screaming in the row in front of me and after functioning with no sleep for 25 hours, I went for a shake-off-this-jet-lag 5K run in Golden Gate Park. The next day, I continued this obsessive-compulsive behavior, going on a detoxifying 24 mile run to shed some of the excess carry-on-baggage I brought back, after ingesting a week's worth of the Frenchies' fat & cholesterol-laden bries, crepes, salmon, quiches, salmon, pastries, croissants, salmon, fondues, and Swiss chocolates. The red wines, on the other hand, were an excellent escape from the ubiquitous Evian. Containing resveratrol, red wine supposedly has anti-inflammatory properties. That's right, go ahead and treat your knees to a bottle of red wine today--but bear in mind that I'm still working on my Board Certification, and may be for a while. Anyway, thank goodness this culinary nightmare is over. Back to the simple pleasures of dim sum and Cliff Bars.
Ciao Bella, San Francisco. Tony Bennett was right.