Veterans and Running

When several people asked me to start a blog, I wondered what I write about.  They told me I had a lot of subject matter.  Who me?!  The Army wife with Celiac Disease who runs marathons, lives in Italy and has an expensive and unused journalism degree from BU?  Truth be told...I don't actually like dwelling on many of these topics.  I'm not a good GF eater and it makes be bitter, frustrated and socially awkward. (Except that now with my slow cooker, I've made some pretty awesome dinners!) . I'm a terrible runner, writing about traveling is tedious for me and I never really intended to use that BS from BU (sorry- expensive mistake Mom and Dad!).  But...today I will actually talk about a few of these topics!

It's Veteran's Day and even though we are in Italy, we follow an American schedule.  Unfortunately, my Veteran is actually working today and I have the day off.  Very unfair...but I'm making a delicious dinner (in the slow cooker!).  Dinner doesn't exactly seem like a fair exchange for military service, but I'll try to throw in some additional perks like letting him win in a game of Monopoly Deal tonight.  (Seriously, if you've never played this game, go get it now.  It's amazing and probably deserves its own post.)
In other Veteran's Day news...it's been a busy time around here.  We've had many soldiers returning from a year-long deployment this month and it's hard not to get excited for their families and to feel very proud of their service.   

Now onto topic #2- Running.  This morning, I went for a long run in the Italian countryside.  Team Hart is running a half-marathon this weekend that we kinda forgot to train for...oops.  We were a little too content in the post-marathon hangover stage that we let this race sneak up on us while nursing some of our injuries after Berlin.   After months of getting up before the sun, we enjoyed our weekends sans (or senza in Italian) long run.  Needless to say, there will likely not be any PRs this weekend.  We can't take too much time off though because we just registered for the Stockholm Marathon!  That's right...we're celebrating our anniversary in May by running 26.2 miles in Sweden...how romantic!

My run this morning was certainly entertaining.  It was VERY foggy (apparently, November is foggy season in Italy) and I had a hard time seeing too far in front of me.  This proved to be a problem when some people were out hunting...and all I could hear were gunshots.  I was also asked for directions.  I don't even know why I pretend to try and help, but I responded with one sentence asking if she was looking for the center of town...to which she said (in Italian), "You're not Italian, right?" Um...yea.  So much for trying.  I think I almost got hit by a truck too.

The scenery on my country runs. Not too exciting...

I don't love running in Italy.  And I hated running in North Carolina.  I'm a city runner.  When sidewalks end, so does my run.  I hate fighting for road space with cyclists, tractors, animals and anything else. Earlier this summer, I came across a couple walking their bikes down the road I was running.  Attached to their bikes were several freshly killed chickens. (I'm used to seeing rickshaws/bikes stacked high with cans, so the chickens caught me off guard.) I hate looking at corn fields that seem to make the miles drrrrrag by.  I miss my runs on Wollaston Beach, down Hancock Street, even crossing over the Neponset Bridge. I miss my random runs after work along the Charles and trying to figure out if we were dodging Berklee students or homeless people on Mass Ave.  When we need to log over 8 miles here, we usually have to drive into the city so that we don't run out of roads. Unfortunately today, I ran more than this here in the countryside and ended up on a super busy major road...missstake.  To make matters worse, we are currently without our GPS watch, which sadly succumbed to the LG Intellowasher 7KG. (No longer a "neat" thing in the house.)

A typical two-way street around here.  You compete for this space with cars, trucks, tractors, bikes and animals. 

I'm also not sure what running protocol is here.  I've only seen one other woman out running and she was in a full sweatsuit (remember, Italians do NOT like to be cold).  Italian woman are just naturally slender and in-shape looking.  When I'm out in shorts, I think it may seem inappropriate to some, especially since I'm a bit bulkier (as Uncle Ricky would say) than my Italian counterparts. I've been beeped at, yelled at and have had what I'm sure were curse words thrown my way.   I've seen this one man a few times around town and when I ran by him once, he flashed his hand in a way that meant either run faster...or take off your shirt.  Glad I haven't seen him much since.

There will be much more on running in Italy after our race this weekend...until then, we will be busy cramming in some miles!

Blind corners add a bit of excitement to every run.