I was looking forward to the weekend itself however, and tried to talk myself into looking forward to the race too. I spent the week beforehand telling myself it was going to be lovely... how much nicer would it be to run in a foreign country for a long training run instead of around my usual haunts? Yes, I convinced myself... this is going to be good and I'm going to enjoy every single minute of it.
The weekend was indeed very good. We looked around Venice on the Friday and did the touristy thing, had a lovely meal at one of the vegan places I'd found to eat at, and then when Sandy, Emma, Brian and Louise met up with us on the Saturday morning, the weekend really started and we had great fun looking about, going to the expo and finding nice places to eat.
The bus, unsurprisingly, was full so we all had to stand up for the 20 odd miles to the start line. As I looked out of the window I couldn't help but think all of the little villages looked like the ones I ran through when I went to Lyon. Again, I told myself I would enjoy this race... I loved running through Lyon after all.
It seemed to take forever to get to Stra, and it really does bring it home to you how far 26.2 miles actually is! We were finally offloaded and went on a "Cup of coffee" search. We were all really fancying one. Going in to the main area we spotted a sign saying "Tea". Excellent... that would do! Emma, Louise and myself went for the tea while Sandy and Brain got us a seat inside a big tent. I took a big gulp of the tea and winced... yuk... hot lemon tea which was far too sweet. I drank it anyway! It wasn't too long before the tent became full. Watching some peoples pre race routines was strange. Women practically stripped off to put lube on. Didn't they do that when they got dressed to come out? I thought! The Italians aren't shy, let's put it that way!
Brain, Louise and myself left the other two to do their speedy thing at the front and walked to the last pen. Brain was pacing Louise after suffering himself from injury. My plan involved avoiding the 6 hour balloons attached to a pacer. I'd be gutted if I didn't reach the cut offs today and got hauled off the course.
It seemed a very disjoined start what with the wheelchairs off (when I thought the masses had gone) and when some bloke was paragliding over the runners it at first was funny but then a little annoying after the third sweep. I joked that this must be their version of the Red Arrows!
And then finally, we were off. I switched on my Garmin and my Gymboss timer and said goodbye and good luck to Louise and Brian. I was a little faster at the start than them, but I knew as soon as I walked I'd probably lose them completely as they went past. Surely enough, a minute into my walk and they waved as they ran by. The support was very good and there were far more people out today than I had expected. I heard a couple of surprised, "Oh... Vay-Gan" and after a while realised they were commenting that I vegan. There was a lot of support for one runner in front of me dressed in a royal blue vest. He held his hands in the air and nodded confidently to the crowd as they all screamed their heads off. He was either famous or from their village... I guessed from their village!
The first few miles ticked by nicely. I ran very easily and didn't get out of breath. The local support was very good and the bands playing along the roadside were excellent. At this point I didn't get too much support as I continued to run behind the famous blue vested man and he got all of the attention. That didn't bother me though... I'm not one for needing cheery support from onlookers. If anything I'm the other way and prefer everyone to ignore me so I don't have to acknowledge anyone. It took me 18 minutes of running and walking before I finally "lost" the 6 hour balloons. Phew, that made me feel better. I could always see Brain and Louise ahead and they were following the 5 hour balloons. I would often lose sight of the 5 hour pacers, and I knew I stood no chance of doing that sort of time, but it was comforting to see them every now and again. I saw a little disabled girl hold out her hand to high five me. I hate high fiving but couldn't turn her down. I gave her a tap on the hand and she returned a huge smile. This suddenly gave me an dose of "High five disease" and I spent 6 minutes running along slapping anyones hand who held it out. Coming to my senses, I stopped my foolishness (after all... doing that is completely knackering) and I moved into the middle of the road to avoid further relapses! I looked up and was suddenly right behind Louise and Brain and I noticed Louise had also caught "High five disease". She said she was going to stop doing it too! I stayed with them for a while but again, as soon as I walked they were off in the distance. Louise said she was knackered, but I thought she looked good.
It was during the next water station where I walked with Louise and Brain for a while. They were walking through the 5K section and having a drink and a bit of a rest before running on. I carried on as I was about to start a running section. I'd been dying for a wee since 3K and I was feeling pretty desperate now. Lots of people had been going in bushes/behind trees, and I promised myself as soon as I saw a good spot I'd stop too. I was enjoying the scenery. It was very beautiful as the first 14 miles or so were along the canal. It was like looking at a postcard it was so pretty. I seemed to be running with the same people all of the time as we overtook each other and then were overtaken. A bus came past me and I noticed it was full of runners. A bloke running ahead of me waved it to stop and got on and it drove away. I was very surprised as he seemed fine. Getting around a corner there was a building and outside of it were lots of gold space blanket draped runners. They all looked miserable. I wondered why everyone seemed in such a bad way.
I finally spotted a place I could go for a wee and ran out of view from the other runners. I pee-ed on my hand and on my shorts and rolled my eyes at myself. What an idiot. At the next 5K station I got clean water and washed both places. The weather was getting really warm now. My internal dialogue was good though... probably the best it has ever been during a race. I "bigged" myself up, concentrated relaxing my muscles (despite my right calf feeling tight from the start) and told myself today was great. It certainly is clever what you can feel about something if you force yourself to feel that way. At 17 miles I was very tired and decided to run as much as I could and walk as little as I had to. At first this worked out well and the running ratios were better than the walking ones, but then I got a terrible urge to go to the toilet and my stomach was in agony. There were no toilets nearby and I was in pain. I was almost at San Guillano Park and so struggled on thinking there would definitely be toilets there. There was a big loop around the park and I scanned everywhere looking for a loo. Nothing! I ran bits and tried some deep breathing whilst picking points ahead of me and trying to get to them before I had to walk. The pain was bad and I would have killed for a portaloo. As I ran out of the park and onto the main road I realised all possibility of a portaloo was now gone. I was about to hit the big bridge!
We had all dreaded the big bridge. It was from the mainland and into Venice at a total distance of 4KM. A long, straight, boring 4KM. I tried to ignore the pain in my stomach and picked a sign ahead and ran to it. I walked only a short distance and picked another sign to run to. My calves were now really hurting and I had to walk earlier than the sign as I was in agony. I deserved it to be honest... I hadn't done the training. I stopped myself from negative self talk and instead chose a "200 step" run. I did this over and over and over again whilst walking as little as I could. I found myself with a new set of people here although I wasn't any faster... I just think everyone around me had also slowed down. I later found out that everyone had struggled with motivation over this bridge. It seemed to take forever to get over, but when I finally got into Venice I felt hugely relieved.
I found myself run/walking behind a bloke wearing a Suunto Pacer outfit. He looked like he was struggling too. He looked way fitter than me... he was obviously having a bad day! I tried to run past him (and succeeded a number of times) but he seemed to get a lease of life every time I did that and ran past me again. He probably didn't want to be overtaken by a vegan!!! We ran and walked around the corner and past the docks and the first of the bridges in Venice came into view. A sign before it said "14 BRIDGES TO GO" I felt quite excited and although I'd spent all weekend saying I was going to walk every bridge, in reality the change in elevation was a relief and I ran up and down each one. The Suunto Pacer ran them too. I'd run ahead on one then he's overtake me for the next. I ran past the restaurant where we had eaten at the night before. The waiter said he'd give me a glass of Prosecco if he saw me. He wasn't there... gutted... I wanted to run around St Marks Square shouting, "Salute" whilst holding the glass up.
Next up was the big pontoon bridge (which is built especially for the race every year). From the vaporetto it looked huge but in reality it wasn't steep at all. Then we were in St Marks Square. I ran around the corner and got lots of people cheering and calling my name (which was on my bib). I was almost out of the square when I decided to have a walk break, only to hear someone shout, "C'mon Claire, get a bloody move on!". Some random English bloke summoned me to run and I laughed as I started to run again.
The place was absolutely packed and I ran up the next bridge near the Bridge of Sighs and then onto the bridge right next to my hotel. My calves were in absolute agony and I wished I was back there and already in the bath! Each bridge had a "X BRIDGES TO GO" sign and I walked up the on saying there was 2 left. Typical, Graeme was on this one, so I ran up that one too.
I had always wanted Venice to be my first marathon, but it ironically has ended up being my last. I really did enjoy it but unless I can comfortably do a marathon on a run/walk basis and be nowhere near any cut offs, it's something I won't consider again. What a great marathon to end on though eh?
No comments:
Post a Comment