Insert Catchy Title About Italy Here

The view out my window.  The course is above the buildings.

Course markings near the town square

I'm currently in Passo del Tonale, Italy, where in about 40 hours or so I'll run in the 28th World Mountain Running Championships.  It's Italy, so there are lots of Alps, pasta, small cars and people smoking.  I won't go into details about getting out here (because lines like "then I sat in a bus for four and a half hours" just aren't interesting).  I've been out here long enough to check out the course, and it should be fun.  I don't think anybody reading this is close enough to attend, but the race is on Sunday morning.

For those of you who can't make it, there should be a few options.  The race will be live on Italian TV, so it may be possible to watch at

http://www.teleboario.it/tbonair.asp 

Also, the US Mountain Running Team will be posting Twitter updates:  https://twitter.com/usmrt
Plus, they may be posting live video on YouTube.  Check their website (www.usmrt.com), facebook (facebook.com/usatfmut) or Google+ (google.com/+USMountainRunningTeam) for that.

The local race times on Sunday are as follows

The Italian name for duct tape

09:40: Start of Junior Women race
09:45: Start of Junior Men race
10:30: Start of Senior Women race
11:00: Start of Senior Men Race

Since I'm from the Mountain Time Zone, I'll use that as an example.  There is an 8 hour time change from home to here, so that means my race will start at 3am on Sunday.  Sorry.

Recently, the rain and fog moved in.  It snowed not far above where we're staying at the finish.  Hopefully I have a picture to back up this claim either above or below this paragraph.

The fog and the snow.

Mmm.  Granite toast.  Good for sons and daughters of Dartmouth.

I'll try to get in a post after I race but before I leave.  Otherwise, I'll post when I get home.

Also, on another note, the NewBalance 110s should be excellent for this course.  I brought a spare pair in case something happened to my race pair during travel or something, and I may have a teammate wear them during the race (I won't mention any names just in case that would upset other sponsors).

Leaving for Italy in Less Than 36 Hours

It's been a while since I wrote.  Sorry.  There hasn't been much to write about.  I feel healthy.  I have been training hard to make sure I'm ready for World Mountain Running Championships, and I haven't been racing.

In other news, I saw two doe deer almost get in a fight out the window today.  I have no idea what the one was so angry about, but she kept charging the other one.  Maybe it's the same deer that's been chasing the cat.  Speaking of which, I have a cat now.  It's a barn cat and lives outside.  Basically, it's a living rodent trap, because there are too many chipmunks everywhere and mice are moving into the car.  Apparently there are also a lot of shrews around, but I didn't know that until the cat showed up.

The big news, though, is that hopefully when I get back from Worlds in Italy, the house will have power.  It's been a long, arduous process, but actually being connected to the power grid will (hopefully, assuming it actually happens) be really nice.  And just in time for winter.

Insert Goat Joke Here

First off, soleus is doing well.  So that's good.

It's been an interesting last 8 days for me.  A week ago, two goats came after me during my long run.  When I saw them out of the corner of my eye I thought they were dogs.  It's been a while since I've been chased by goats (yes, it has happened before), so maybe such an experience was overdue.  I was a little worried about the billy headbutting me, but I think the goats were just excited to go on a run with me.  They were noisy and the biggest problem was that I spent half a mile of my run laughing before I dropped them.  For the record, off the top of my head I can remember being chased on runs by dogs, turkeys, goats, cattle and elk.  And I think maybe a pig once.

Today I had a goat free long run.  In fact, there were no close calls with animals of any kind.  Until the drive home, when I almost ran over a deer.  I do not ever remember ever being chased by deer during a run.

I am far more excited about this next week of training than my legs are.  That said, my legs should come around.  I did do a long run earlier today, after all.