Venice Marathon
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Rated 81%
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26.2mi
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Road
| Entrants (4) Club |
PB | SB | Pred | Time | WAVA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Anna Finn
VEGAN RUNNERS UK |
|
3:40:54 | 4:22:08 | |||
|
Cobham Runner
Harvel Hash House Harriers |
|
3:32:34 | 3:43:32 | 3:44:16 | 65.32 | |
Gibster
![Hi Everyone,
Flat, fast and great PB potential, is essentially Venice!
Early or what…..
My word…. what an early start, you see the marathon commenced at 9:20am, along the river bank of a small town called Stra, some twenty miles, to the north east of Venice outside the Villa Pisani, [spectacular]
We had earlier endured, 20ish miles standing on packed free public transport bus, and earlier still we had a half a mile walk -1C from the Pizza Roma[Bus Railway Station] and beforehand, in complete darkness a water bus taxi ride from St Mark’s Square around the lagoon at 6:00am in the morning….all before that, up at five o’clock, for a breakfast box and a walk through the narrow alleys, around the merrymakers from the night before - still congregated on the streets - so the getting to the start was quite a bind – the only bind through!!!
The start area was well laid out, plenty of toilets, free refreshments and more than a few marquees to take refuge from the frost.
Then onwards to the start pens, 7000 runners, in five pens, all in pen four and Carol on her lonesome in pen five.
We’ re off….but we are not off..as we wait for the mass ahead to clear….eventually we started. Earlier I’d had a bet with Clive[Siddall] on my finishing time; I duly set my Virtual Partner[Garman] hit start on the garman and I set off…the virtual garman man set off too, a running… I more ponderously, due to the horde of runners now stalling my race progression:
ah well…at least I could watch the times and miles to come on the garman, echhh not recording[garman], except my virtual runner watchman was now virtually half a mile in front of me....alas
No watch timing, and the virtual target way in the distance, I thought let’s enjoy the race....eventually at eight miles going past the 4:15 race pacer.
As we ambled through firstly Dolo, Mira and Oriago to clear blue skies and the encouragement, on the way of 22 different rock bands, I aquired a nice tempo pace, and I was feeling great….as now as I am recollecting the crowds in Mestre and especially their charming town square where heartening race followers were so encouraging , then through Parco San Giuliano where we registered for the marathon[Saturday] and then the mind breaker – Ponte delia Liberta, a 3.5 mile causeway, beginning at mile 20.5, elongating, forever. Still remembering every step, never seeming to get you any closer and it all looked the same all the way, a road wall in the sea, we kept going, many others walked.
24 miles and still running all so much slower now onto the lagoon island of Venice itself and we are greeted firstly by the ferry port and the towering ocean liners in the sky, around the apex of the lagoon island and the spectacular medieval frontage of Venice comes into view , and the first of fourteen…yes fourteen bridges over the canaled streets, it becomes much harder now to force the lactic legs over the elevations of the bridges, then the most spectacular of the bridges, a pontoon bridge stretching across the width of Grand Canal – no one gets to run across the marathon canal bridge, other than the marathon runners, it’s about ¼ mile long, raising higher in the middle of the pontoons, to let the ferries and smaller gondolas under. Again over a couple of more bridges, passed the famous Harrys Bar and into St Mark’s Square, we loop round the square…shouts of bravo and praga reverberate, the Doges Place and the basilica of St Mark’s; onwards now past the shore fronted gondolas rocking in the gentle tide and sunlight: A couple more bridges and the finishing line [area].
The digital clock reads to my surprise 2.04.33, after an expectation of 4:20:00, as I hadn’t got a clue on times, other than to set a target of 4:15, Eilleen and Chris 4:30.
Venice Marathon Chip Times
Alan Gibson 4:00:17
Eileen Hiller 4:11:30 - 1st in age category
Chris Tetlow 4:18:59
Clive Siddall 4:36:48
Carol Lord 4:39:32
The times speak volumes for our training, no one had a bad run and we all ran faster than our previous marathons…my 4:48:05 in Athens 2010, now seems a distant memory.
Lasting Memories
To my fellow Stainland runners, veterans of many foreign adventures, you all share a true love of the marathon, with many others in the club - it is a captivating event. It has everything. It has drama. It has competition. It has camaraderie. It also has heroism. Every runner like us can't dream of being an Olympic champion, but we can all dream of finishing a marathon.
Of the city… I tried to be a realist….. a realist in Venice though becomes a romantic by mere faithfulness to what they experience before them, truly breath-taking!
http://www.venicemarathon.it/home_en.php
I cannot wait for my next marathon](/images/icons/icon_chat.png "Hi Everyone,
Flat, fast and great PB potential, is essentially Venice!
Early or what…..
My word…. what an early start, you see the marathon commenced at 9:20am, along the river bank of a small town called Stra, some twenty miles, to the north east of Venice outside the Villa Pisani, [spectacular]
We had earlier endured, 20ish miles standing on packed free public transport bus, and earlier still we had a half a mile walk -1C from the Pizza Roma[Bus Railway Station] and beforehand, in complete darkness a water bus taxi ride from St Mark’s Square around the lagoon at 6:00am in the morning….all before that, up at five o’clock, for a breakfast box and a walk through the narrow alleys, around the merrymakers from the night before - still congregated on the streets - so the getting to the start was quite a bind – the only bind through!!!
The start area was well laid out, plenty of toilets, free refreshments and more than a few marquees to take refuge from the frost.
Then onwards to the start pens, 7000 runners, in five pens, all in pen four and Carol on her lonesome in pen five.
We’ re off….but we are not off..as we wait for the mass ahead to clear….eventually we started. Earlier I’d had a bet with Clive[Siddall] on my finishing time; I duly set my Virtual Partner[Garman] hit start on the garman and I set off…the virtual garman man set off too, a running… I more ponderously, due to the horde of runners now stalling my race progression:
ah well…at least I could watch the times and miles to come on the garman, echhh not recording[garman], except my virtual runner watchman was now virtually half a mile in front of me....alas
No watch timing, and the virtual target way in the distance, I thought let’s enjoy the race....eventually at eight miles going past the 4:15 race pacer.
As we ambled through firstly Dolo, Mira and Oriago to clear blue skies and the encouragement, on the way of 22 different rock bands, I aquired a nice tempo pace, and I was feeling great….as now as I am recollecting the crowds in Mestre and especially their charming town square where heartening race followers were so encouraging , then through Parco San Giuliano where we registered for the marathon[Saturday] and then the mind breaker – Ponte delia Liberta, a 3.5 mile causeway, beginning at mile 20.5, elongating, forever. Still remembering every step, never seeming to get you any closer and it all looked the same all the way, a road wall in the sea, we kept going, many others walked.
24 miles and still running all so much slower now onto the lagoon island of Venice itself and we are greeted firstly by the ferry port and the towering ocean liners in the sky, around the apex of the lagoon island and the spectacular medieval frontage of Venice comes into view , and the first of fourteen…yes fourteen bridges over the canaled streets, it becomes much harder now to force the lactic legs over the elevations of the bridges, then the most spectacular of the bridges, a pontoon bridge stretching across the width of Grand Canal – no one gets to run across the marathon canal bridge, other than the marathon runners, it’s about ¼ mile long, raising higher in the middle of the pontoons, to let the ferries and smaller gondolas under. Again over a couple of more bridges, passed the famous Harrys Bar and into St Mark’s Square, we loop round the square…shouts of bravo and praga reverberate, the Doges Place and the basilica of St Mark’s; onwards now past the shore fronted gondolas rocking in the gentle tide and sunlight: A couple more bridges and the finishing line [area].
The digital clock reads to my surprise 2.04.33, after an expectation of 4:20:00, as I hadn’t got a clue on times, other than to set a target of 4:15, Eilleen and Chris 4:30.
Venice Marathon Chip Times
Alan Gibson 4:00:17
Eileen Hiller 4:11:30 - 1st in age category
Chris Tetlow 4:18:59
Clive Siddall 4:36:48
Carol Lord 4:39:32
The times speak volumes for our training, no one had a bad run and we all ran faster than our previous marathons…my 4:48:05 in Athens 2010, now seems a distant memory.
Lasting Memories
To my fellow Stainland runners, veterans of many foreign adventures, you all share a true love of the marathon, with many others in the club - it is a captivating event. It has everything. It has drama. It has competition. It has camaraderie. It also has heroism. Every runner like us can't dream of being an Olympic champion, but we can all dream of finishing a marathon.
Of the city… I tried to be a realist….. a realist in Venice though becomes a romantic by mere faithfulness to what they experience before them, truly breath-taking!
http://www.venicemarathon.it/home_en.php
I cannot wait for my next marathon"){kind=icon}
Stainland Lions RC |
|
3:54:11 | 4:00:17 | 4:15:00 | 4:00:17 | 54.94 |
|
runninggirl74
Unaffiliated |
3:30:00 | |||||
7 Blogs About This Event
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31st Oct 2008 -
31st Oct 2008
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30th Oct 2008
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30th Oct 2008
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30th Oct 2008
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28th Oct 2008 -
27th Oct 2008
3 Reviews
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