Late April

Early morning, and outside is dark, cold, windy and it’s raining. Winter has just arrived and it is hard to find the strength to hit the road for a 20km run. Yesterday I had a hard session, running stairs for almost 2 hours, and in my legs the lactic acid is still burning. But today is the 25th of April. Today is a special day in both my countries. In Italy is the “Festal della Liberazione” while in Australia is “ANZAC Day”. In both cases the day marks an important event for the country during the World War. And in this day we celebrate the brave soldiers who died in war, to give us the freedom and the life we enjoy today. I think of these "kids on the front line" of war, between life and dead. They must have seen a few gloomy, cold, rainy days and sure enough they must have been tired too. But in war there is no time to rest. And so the ANZAC spirit got me out of my bed, I put my runners on and hit the road at a good pace. The more the head wind, the more the rain on my face and the more I decided to push. And as the miles passed under my wet runners, and the more my mind travelled far away, on a much colder place called Cho Oyu. 

At the 5 km mark my mind was arriving at C1, at the 10km mark my mind was at C2. With 15km gone and I was at C3 waiting in a tent for the final summit push. By the time I had been running for 1h it was time for the final push. I took a deep breath and increased the speed to 16.5km, at 3m40s/km. The heart rate indicator was on 178bpm and the legs felt heavy but I had no options but hang in there for another 15 minutes. The eyes were wide open, but all I had in front of me was the top of Cho Oyu and the thought that I was 127 days away from commencing the adventure. In my heart I know will be get on top of Cho Oyu because I want it more than anything, and it is as simple as that. This is the ANZAC spirit, the spirit I bring with me in every training session and I will bring with me during my expedition, because when you have nothing left you dig deep, you hang on to your pride, you hang on to the memories of how much you have invested into your preparation and to the thought that giving up is not an option. 

20km, 1h19min was the final time, for my morning training session. The rest of the day progressed with a shower, light breakfast, and a little rest before the afternoon training session, with 2 hours of weights at a low intensity in the gym. Thank you joining me and my thoughts during this session of training on ANZAC day!