This New Year’s I ran off to Monopoli, with that small, stubborn hope that maybe it would be warmer. It wasn’t exactly warm. It was better than back home, but it was still cold. 😂 The difference? Here, the cold comes with the sea, with quiet, and with time.
What did I actually do? I slept. A lot. 🤭 A ton. Well. Guilt-free.
Even on New Year’s Eve. I ate, I drank, I celebrated on Romania’s clock, and I went to bed peacefully. Exactly the sleep I needed—and the sleep I’ve been putting off for months.
Yesterday I ran with Carmen. 10 km with no hurry, more of a stroll than a run, from beach to beach, along Monopoli. Running, walking, laughing, eating, then running again. Cold? Not really. Just the good kind, in the evening, the kind that sends you right back to sleep. 🤪
Together we found a bike path tucked between old stone walls, the kind that feels like it pulls you out of time. It’s not long, but today I kept going on it alone to see where it leads. And I messed around like a kid. No plan, no pressure. Just joy.
At first I wanted to do the classic 20.26 km—the run that matches the year that’s starting. But yesterday something else happened. I passed 22,000 people here on Facebook, and I had to celebrate somehow. I did it the way I know best: with a massive Code d’aragoste (a sfogliatella taken to the next level) and an absolutely dreamy run this morning, on the fly, before we checked out.
Monopoli also kept us well fed. Plenty of sea on the plate—seafood this place is famous for, lobster two ways, pasta with vongole, and other “craziness” I’ll tell you about another time.
The conclusion? In November I’m coming back here to do my hundred. I’ve already decided. 🤭
I ran away from home to reset a bit. To sleep. To eat. To run without a purpose. And it did me a hell of a lot of good. 😊
Thank you for being here, for following me, for running with me through all my crazy ideas. Sometimes it’s not about kilometers or numbers. It’s about knowing when to run. And where. 🤗
PS: The runs from these two days are already playing in a live on YouTube, with good music and no rush. 😉
The link is in the first comment. 👇
Gallery
