We did the Corsa dei Santi run!

It’s a holiday on the 1st of November in Italy. And on this day, Claire, Cart and I woke up bright and early to head to the monumental Saint Peter’s Square for the 3km charity Corsa dei Santi Run.

Normally, trying to park around the area would be a nightmare. But luckily for us, participants could park their cars at a multi-storey carpark called Terminal Gianicolo at a reduced price. From there, it was just a few minutes walk to San Pietro.

And here we are, all nice and shiny! I’m so proud of Cartcart for joining us, even though I know that he’d rather stay home and relax

Oh! By the way, do you see our three digit number bibs? Unlike the run in mid-October, here it was very crowded with participants. In fact, when Cart and I were there at the registration counter last Sunday, just one hour after it opened, we were already number 526 onwards. Woah! There were already 500 people before us?!

The race started at about 10am and by then, there were so many people! Even while walking on our way to San Pietro, there was a crazy huge line forming outside of the porta-potty (which I have absolutely no intention of ever going inside again) Which is why you should always empty your tank before going out of the house kids!

In any case, it’s a bit of a confusion trying to get to the correct section as I didn’t see any signs for the 10km and the 3km runners to head to.

It was only later when the race started, we were herded to the correct lane by the marshals when they spotted the colour of our bibs. The three of us happened to be standing next to a huge organizational group. I was amused that they kept screaming out their region as soon as the cameras went towards them.

Not too long after, off we went! It was such a beautiful sunshiny morning. Just as we left the area, there were people cheering on at the sides. It was nice to see that even though I know that they were cheering more for the 10km runners! Hehe!

At every crossing, we had precedence to go even though the traffic light was red for us. It felt like such a privilege, as if we were a celebrity or a a royalty somewhat. I don’t envy the vehicles on the road though, they were honking at the policemen like mad, but it’s not like they’d have a work appointment to rush to!

It was a pretty easy run since we’re all running on a solid, flat path and we went to picturesque areas where we’re seeing with different eyes, the sights that we’d have missed as we ran through instead of rushing over in cars.

And before we knew it, we’re running next to Castel San Angelo (which is directly opposite of San Pietro) and thus we’ve already made a complete round and close to the finishing line already.

And we finished it in about 20 minutes or so. Hooray! Such a nice feeling! What would make it better is if I had my own entourage cheering me on, but that’ll be asking too much

And here are how we looked like after the race. Still fresh and clean! Not so red this time as it was an easy run for us.

And here is Cart.

Still looking good and hensem! I feel like such a bad wife for leaving him, as much as I’d prefer that we start and complete together, Cart needed to go at his own pace. Hopefully he’d go for more regular walks with me in the future

(Instead of always being glued to the computer … *coughs coughs*)

I’m a little bit disappointed in the goodies though, not much food freebies this time round. I spotted a stand where only this cake and a cup of water being distributed. But I shouldn’t complain much as it’s all for charity.

Next year, I’d love to try out for the 10km one. Each participants have medals … I want a medal too! But I think I just have to train a little more, for me, my aim is just not to be last and be forced to ride the “slow bus”

Here’s a video of the race :

On a slightly unrelated note, Alex, Claire’s fiancé joined us as well as her brother Peter and his girlfriend Katie who were in town and we were chilling out around the area after the race.

One of the places that we went to was Gelateria Pierrot where I found this interesting machine. It’s sort of like a blender/mixer. Intrigued, I wanted to try something different instead of a typical gelato.

And that was when I learnt that Frappè is milkshake = gelato + milk. There’s also the frullati which is like a smoothie made of fresh fruit + milk.

I was quite fascinated looking at my ice cream and milk being shaken together in the machine and some minutes later this is what my pistacchio and hazelnut frappè looks like.

Mmm! Totally yum! (I didn’t share) But with the amount of calories in there, my lunch was already settled