Trail running in the dark: 4^ Notturna di Sant'Antonio - Miane (TV), Italy.

Shhh...silence, please. I'm in the woods. On a trail. It's completely dark except from the light emanated from my headlamp. Shhh...silence, please.

Can you feel it?

This race is organized from a small group of running enthusiasts, there's no promotion, no advertising. It just happens every year, since 2008, and if you know it, you do it. Simple. As simple as the route: 500 m of positive slope, 500 m of downhill, 8.3 km the total distance; a gift for no more than 50 lucky runners, choosing a different way to spend their Saturday night.

The trail to discover during the race, meter after meter, is a typical "troi" ("trail" in local dialect), with a mixture of hard and soft slopes and a stunning panorama on the "Valsana" ("Healthy Valley"): it's difficult to find such dark places and hence seeing so many stars. Something that makes you feel lucky and erases all the pain. But the idyll is roughly stopped by a silence-breaking voice, right in the middle of the second climb. A man that convinced his wife to come and run this charming race, suddenly says with a sort of dyspnea: "after this climb my wife will ask for divorce; I must enjoy these moments as much as I can". It's a good training to improve your VO2max: running uphill and laughing as a child! Give it a try!

As usual, for the record, I post the results, the GPS track of the race and some pictures of last year's start. Keep on training, people!

1	Ivan GERONAZZO	38'30"	-
2	Daniele CASTELLI	39'07"	+37"
3	Paolo GRAVA	39'11"	+41"
4	Guido BUSETTI	39'14"	+44"
5	Maurizio FURLAN	40'06"	+1'36"
6	Alessandro SANTUZ	40'33"	+2'03"
7	Alberto FURLAN	41'30"	+3'00"
8	Denis MENEGHEL	41'50"	+3'20"
9	Marco BORTOLOTTO	42'40"	+4'10"
10	Carlo BOSCOLO	45'19"	+6'49"

The start.

To the mountains!

Native colours.