The Venice Marathon was amazing! The video of Nancy crossing the line can be seen on the blog....
Training during the 2 week tour before hand had some interesting moments. One guy who joined the tour was an electrical engineer who’d run several marathons. He gave me on going support and advice. I was invited by a group of Italians in Rome’s Villa Borghese Park to run with them; they were training for the Florence Marathon. And then there were some comic moments. In Sorrento, where there was no way to run outside, I turned into a Popsicle, aqua running in an unheated pool. Then the next day, at 5:30AM, I tried doing laps in the tunnel going up to the hotel lobby and had the lights shut off on me. Picking up the bib # the day before the race was chaotic as the blog on the Internet described. It took 2 hours. If it wasn’t for a French woman on the bus helping us, it might have been longer. And there was a little doggie lost at the sports expo, which broke my heart. They actually email you your net time - I finished in 5:14:42, along with a URL to see videos of yourself running, to which you could buy the DVD. I know I said I wanted to finish in 5 hours, but I’m happy.
The weather was perfect. The scariest part was leaving the hotel at 5:30AM. There was no desk clerk at night and I knew the door was going to lock behind me. I kept thinking – what if I have to go to the bathroom? Dressed too warmly? Didn’t dress warm enough? Forgot something? Get lost? … They had these big clunky keys with no copies, so I’d left the key with Mom. As I left and walked through a totally empty St. Mark’s Square, which is a mobbed during the day, I thought “If I get mugged right now, this is going to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.” But then I saw a guy, Matt, with a post-race running bag, heading for the water bus (boat), and luckily he was from British Airlines and spoke English. I was so relieved, as the Italians didn’t speak English in Venice as often or as well as in Rome. We talked and Matt told me he planned to do the Stockholm Marathon next. From the water bus drop-off, we had to catch the bus for to the start. The concierge said to just go straight for 5 minutes to get to the fruit and vegetable stand where the bus was to pick us up. Thank goodness for the Italians – it was anything but straight. (After we got home, Mom started reading a book by Gore Vidal on Venice. He writes that if you ask anyone in Venice for directions, they tell you to just go straight.) The Internet warned – “make sure to get a seat on the bus! There is only seats for 1/3 of the runners and it’s a 40 minute ride.” I took it as a sign when I got a seat. I met a young Kansas woman in her mid-20s, Cagney, and a handsome British guy named Giles. Cagney now lives in Belgium working for NATO. It felt surreal. It was Cagney’s first marathon, so we hung together after we got off the bus. Cagney and I met Patty from California. She was in her 40s, and held two jobs, in order to put her son through college. She’d had surgery and chemo for stomach cancer a year ago and had recently gotten a respiratory infection, for which her doctor made her stop training. She’d told people she was just going to pick up the T-shirt and not run, but at the last minute, she changed her mind. She’d already run the Athens Marathon (where a cop directed her to go 4 miles in the wrong direction before she looped around to finish), and the Dublin Marathon, which she said is the best. Off we went. My Ipod had lost half it’s charge, when I was running in Rome, so Ipod free, I asked people “speak English?” I met the nicest people. One Toronto woman, at mile 18, said it was about this many miles she starts to think the whole thing was a bad idea. I joked I think that before I start. One guy at mile 20 spoke a little English. He asked “Giving up”? I said “Yes”, then … “You never know” and he laughed agreeing. But at about mile 22 an Italian woman, Elia, ran by me “Vai!” But I couldn’t run right then. Later I ran by her and said “Vai!” She didn’t know any English, but we ran/walked to nearly the finish egging each other on. We’d point to something and say “Corriamo! (we run!)” I knew just enough Italian to say what I wanted to run to. After I crossed the finish line, we gave each other a big hug.
Half an hour later, trying to walk in the mob back to the hotel, I saw Patty, and a little after her, Cagney running by so I could cheer them on. That was nice. The only down side was when I went out to supper with Mom, I threw up the vegetable soup I’d eaten in the lady’s room (TMI?). But as Larry would say, that just means you gave it your all. Thanks for all your support. It was wonderful.
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