My final race of 2019 was at the Ascoli Xtreme Trail....
The race covered over 46kms and 2500m of elevation, with the race start/finish in the beautiful city of Ascoli Piceno located in the Marche region. The course went up over the Montagna dei Fiori (Mountain of Flowers) and at it's highest point touching just under the 2000m mark.
I only decided to do the race at the last minute and on the Monday before I knocked out a 55km/2500m training run, which put a bit of fatigue in my legs come race day. But still, I felt ok, just lacking a bit of leg speed.
The race started well enough but as soon as we hit some of the steep sections, I couldn't keep the pace and dropped back, letting the first two runners go. The first half of the course is basically "up", followed by returning back down to the finish.
I managed to find my legs a bit just under the halfway mark and caught up to 2nd, with the lead runner in view but on the final steep section of the climb, before the descent, I dropped off again. On the downhill to the finish I held my position and was content with crossing the line in 3rd, finishing off the season with a podium.