Venice Marathon Route

The first half was really enjoyable, lots of folks cheering as we ran through a number of little towns, scenice canal, lovely Villas.

From 25km to 37km it got really tough, the route goes through a more industrial area, then we looped around the park, it was very disheartening to be able to see where we had to go. The on ramp to the bridge and all 4 km of the bridge was really tough.

The last 7km was great, lovely scenic Venice, 14 bridges (easy countdown - 14 bridges to go .... 5 bridges to go ... 1 bridge to go).

Highligthts of Venice

A gondola ride along the aromatic canals.

And the group scatters

October 28, 2009

Our lovely stay in Venice is done and the Bonsor Breakfast Club (Italian chapter) scatters to all corners of Italy.

Carol and Larry are headed off to Florence for a couple more days of culture, Sue and Mary are off to Varenna on Lake Como for a quiet couple of days. Lots of rests, maybe a boat cruise or two ... or not.

The rest of the crew has several hectic but hopefully lovely days planned. They are taking the train to Cinque Terre, via Florence and La Spezia. If they successfully navigate their way there and find accomodation, they will be hiking/strolling the Cinque Terre tomorrow and taking lots of photos of the lovely coast line. Internet access is likely to be limited so we not get to hear their stories until they return to Vancouver.

The Marathon is over !!

We did it, two weeks of little or no running and we managed to survive the Venice marathon.

We were feeling guilty about not running so we went for a run in San Giuliano Park when we went to pick up our race packages on the Friday before the marathon. It was a large park, nice but mostly just bare lawn with few features, we were able to do a nice 40 minute run and we all survived that with not too many complaints.

The running expo was about medium size, we drank some mystery Yoplait type probiotic concoction, received dozens of Mentos gums and then found where to pick up our race packages. The race shirts are very nice.

We were informed while we picked up our packages that daylight savings would end on Saturday night, so in addition to the stress of getting our gear ready and trying to figure our where to catch the buses we also had to remember to change the clocks. We probably asked a dozen other people during the next two days to confirm that the time change was happening.

When we had all finished shopping at the expo and were ready to catch the bus back into Venice, we discovered that there was a one day bus strike on. We spent about an hour trying to figure out how to get back to town before we went to a hotel and got a cab back to town.

Marathon Morning:

up at 5 am so that we could go catch Vaporeto to where we needed to catch the bus to the start at 6:50. As we walked up to the Vaporeto stop we started to see the crowds of runners. We were very happy to see them as we probably wouldn't have been able to navigate our way without someone to follow.

The bus trip was about 40 minutes long (standing on the bus), we arrived in Stra (the start line for the race) at about 7:40 and then we had to wait around for a 9:20 start. The marathon ended up being very difficult which I think had a lot to do with the fact that we ended up standing around for over two hours before the race started.

The first 20 km of the race was a lot of fun, lovely country side, beautiful villas, friendly towns folk cheering us on. We were popular in our Running Room Canada shirts.

The middle section of the race was difficult, we went through a more industrial area of Mestre with few spectators and then we ran for several km weaving back and forth around San Giuliano park (I was happy to see something I recognized but was sick of the park by the time we finally left it). After we finally left the park it was on to several km of approach to the Liberty Bridge and then 4km across the bridge. I found this section especially difficult, there was a lot of traffic on the other section of the bridge and I think the pollution was bad. I walked the majority of this section as it appeared the majority of other runners did.

After the bridge the run became much more enjoyable again, the last 7 km was along the Canal and over 13 little bridges and one large pontoon bridge that they built over the Grand Canal. It made for natural walk breaks, walk up one side then run down the other. There were signs counting down to the finish (14, 13, 12, ........ 2, 1 bridges to the finish). I managed a finishing "sprint" for the last couple of hundred meters so maybe the pictures will look good.

I think I would recommend this marathon to others (I definitely would have recommended it during the first half). as long as you are well trained, well rested and can manage to stay off your feet for the hours immediately before the race (one of those race tours would probably be a good idea as they shuttle you to the start),

We're back

We have been out of internet access since we left Rome.

The Amalfi coast was fabulous. It rained the first day we arrived and then the weather was quite nice.

Folks scattered in various directions to tour Pompei and Herculaneum, the towns around Amalfi, etc. Another day we all toured Positano and our last day we all cruised over to Capri to see Anacapri and the Blue Grotto. It was absolutely fabulous.

We didn't manage to do any running in Rome or Amalfi but we did get to walk up and down lots of stairs and lots of hills.

Our trip from Amalfi to Venice was exciting. It turned out that we were on two different trains. Most of us were on the slow train that left Salerno 15 minutes late and arrived in Rome about 30 minutes late (we ended up with about 10 minutes to catch our connecting train). Susan, Doug and Margaret caught the fast train and they had a leisurely 20 minutes to change trains, however their train arrived at a platform at the farthest end of the station from our Venice connection.

Larry, Carol, Mary, Leanne, Sue, Sarah and Ken sprinted up one platform and back down to the end of the next platform, knocking over tourists as we ran. We dragged our bags onto the train as it was pulling out of the station. We were very glad to see Susan and Doug to confirm that we were in fact on the right train.

Venice is amazing, we were all spellbound as we stepped off the train.

Night sites of Rome

Rome night tour

A night tour of the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain and the Metro. It was a cool but beautiful evening and we got some lovely photographs and the fabulous San Crispino Gelato. We were less than thrilled with the bus service trying to get back.