Europe is under my belt
I got the official from the marathon, my watch died at mile 21.
Bib Number: 8530 – GILBERT CHRISTOPHER
Final Time: 4:12:35
Overall Position: 7384°
Here’s the weird thing, my Garmin was fully charged when I went to sleep, and was completely discharged when I woke up. As soon as it died, my times dropped off, which totally sucks. I was actually on pace to PR. But then again, this is a European PR! I’ve never run faster in a race here!
So first Euro marathon, first Euro race to be honest. There was good and bad. Let’s look a the good. You start and finish at the Flavian Amphitheater (The Colosseum). You walk through the Arch of Constantine on the way the start. You hit a few of the major attractions during the race, Vatican City, the Spanish Steps, Piazza del Popolo. I mean it’s Rome, it’s cool right?
So there were some issues, that make me never want to run this again. Firstly, the hoops you have to jump through just to register, run card, medical certification (or USATF membership), uploading all the information. It’s a giant pain. Now, let’s talk about the Expo, fuck. Get there and there’s a line, over an hour long to get inside. A couple days before they send you this email with a disclaimer and they say to print it out. I just figured, like many others (since I don’t own a friggin printer!) “Nobody ever collects these things”. Of course they do! So after standing outside forever, I get to stand in the expo waiting to print everything off. Now the Expo is huge, and there are no shortcuts. So you’re now walking through this enormous building with people getting in your way trying to hand you fliers for their races and shit. And that’s just the Expo.
There are 70 turns on the course, there are 7km of cobblestone streets. Cobblestone streets look all quaint and shit, they are hell to run on. The 70 turns weren’t appreciated either, I get you have to avoid the major hills in Rome, and there are some big ones, but 7o turns is excessive.
At the start the aid stations were alright, toward the middle, I lost lots of time waiting for people to pour me a cup of water. The worst part was most of them had 1/2 liter bottles of water that we could have just grabbed and taken with us, but they didn’t do that. But the aid stations did have a good selection foods. So that’s a plus, got to chow on some trail mix during the race. Always a good thing.
Have fun, keep running, and remember; If Gil can run then so can you!
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