30th Venice Marathon 2015

Rob ran in his fifth Venice Marathon on Sunday 25th October.  For those of you who aren't runners, a marathon is 42.2km on the direct course but people usually run a bit more -crossing over for drink stops etc always adds to the distance. This year it was the 30th Venice Marathon and as usual Venice put in a lot of effort to make it a successful event.

The race starts in front of the Villa Pisani in Stra and finishes  near the Giardini on Riva Dei Sette Martiri in Venice.

Rob waiting for the bus to Stra.  We were up at around 5.00am to get to Mestre by 7.00am in time for Rob to catch the bus.  The race didn't start until 9.45am -a long time hanging around.

 The start of the Venice Marathon

(https://www.facebook.com/ASDVenicemarathon/photos)/

This is how Rob found the marathon this year:

The Venice Marathon starts at Ca Pisani, a Venetian villa at Stra on the Brenta River canal. After an Alpini brass band played the national anthem the music switched to a loudly played Back in Black by ACDC as the runners crossed the start line.

The first 18km is mainly along the canal with many beautiful villas along the way and passes through the towns of Dolo, Mira and Malcontenta. This is a great part of the race with fantastic scenery and great local crowds giving great support to all the runners. With many local runners in the event there were frequent shouts of recognition and local support.

There are a few kms of not so scenic running through the Marghera port area before moving through some leafy promenades and then the central piazza of Mestre. Runners then move through the large  expanse of Parco San Giuliano. At about 32km the runners reach the Ponte de La Liberta to run across the Laguna to Venezia. I always have mixed feelings here. It is great to be on the lagoon but the Ponte is a long 4km at that stage of the run.

Once in Venezia we have a couple of kms through the port area before running along the Zatterre alongside the Giudecca Canal. Runners then cross a pontoon bridge from Punta della Dogana across the Grand Canal. It is a long bridge set just for the event and gives a special view of the Grand Canal.
From there it is through Piazza San Marco, along the Riva dei Schiavoni and Riva dei Sette Martiri. The last 3 kms are amazing even though difficult because of the bridges - 7 just in the last kilometre.

From the beginning of the race the crowds were absolutely fantastic, cheering on runners they knew and visitors. There were about 20 different bands - garage, punk, blues, pop, metal, and a Kiss cover band. We also had locals banging pots and pans from balconies, lone saxophone players and generally people supporting any way they could.   I was lucky as I had some support too - Michele and Francesca in Mestre with the Australian flag and Chris at the finish.
The weather was perfect. A great event.  Thanks to the Venice Marathon Club and to the many volunteers who helped runners along the way.

 Rob nearing the finish line it was one of his best times yet which is pretty incredible as he had very little time to train this year. Sorry about the head in the corner of the photo, I did well to get a photo at all as there were so many people cheering and encouraging the runners. A really nice atmosphere.

 A tired Rob after the race

 It was a great medal for finishers this year -very Venetian in maroon and gold

Out and about and a visit to San Giorgio Maggiore

"The Garbage Patch State Venice" an installation by Maria Cristina Finucci At the Ca' Foscari University. It is an arm made of plastic lids creeping over the wall

Lids in onion bags

The Vigili del fuoco -the Fire Brigade Venice style

Vigili del fuoco. Fire fighting would be a nightmare here despite the water everywhere as access would be very difficult

There are a lot of scultures and other art works throughout Venezia from the Biennale. This one is near the Ca Rezzonico vaporetto stop

It was supposed to be a rainy day with lightning etc so we changed our plans to go to Torcello and went to S Giorgio Maggiore -the beautiful church across the canal in the background of all of those gondola shots taken from near S Marco.

S Giorgio Maggiore with a statue in front by British artist Marc Quinn:  "Alison Lapper Pregnant"

Alison Lapper Pregnant

Detail from statue

This photographer was fussing around posing these models in Carnevale type dress

We never tire of the beautiful mosaics

We went to the top of the campanile -our cameras don't do the view justice

Gardens in the S Giorgio Maggiore Monastery

Looking across Giudecca

Giudecca on the left and Zattere on the right

The bridge is being built across the canal for the Venice marathon on Sunday

No need for comment!

Later in the day we went to Parco San Giuliano and Rob picked up his pack for the marathon.  It will be the third time that he has run the Venice Marathon and this time it sounds as though the weather will be good.

Venice marathon - freezing, stormy weather predicted

Rob is running in the Venice Marathon again this year. He has been regularly checking the weather forecasts on Il Meteo and they are getting worse by the hour :(







The Bora winds were predicted to be 50kmh but from the rain forecast posted this morning they will be 50 - 80kmh, with rain and the maximum is expected to be 8C.  That's running into a strong headwind, soaking wet and freezing cold. It will be difficult for the runners who finish in just over two hours but imagine how hard it will be for those who take near the cut off time of 6 hours.  I'm so glad I'm not walking!



The marathon starts around 9.30am but runners have to get to Stra for the start of the race. That means we will leave the apartment around 6 so that Rob can catch the bus to Stra. After that he will be hanging around outside in the rain until the start of the race.  He really feels the cold so it is going to be a very difficult race for him.

(copied from  Venice Marathon Facebook)

We went to Parco San Giuliano so that Rob could complete his registration and pick up his marathon pack, he also bought a few warm tops -I think that he will need to wear all of them at once.  There was a buzzy excitement at the place and everyone was extremely friendly. We listened to a presentation  about the course and the runners joked about the weather and the possibility of snow.  How bad the weather will be is an unknown, but no one is expecting conditions like last year.
Photo from presentation

Very few Australians go in the Venice Marathon and after Rob bought some merch we had our photo taken -it will go up on Facebook somewhere so I'll post the link when we find it.

Venezia

We're in Venezia!  It is as beautiful as ever -even in the pouring rain.  We were met at the station by Rob's cousins -truly lovely people, and have caught up with them since which was great. They gave us some strawberry flavoured grapes from their farm in Miane -absolutely beautiful.

The trip from Rome was fine apart from the usual fun with jamming suitcases in a tiny area and groups of Americans who think that all spaces belong to them.
 We went to the Venice marathon registration place at Parco San Giuliano in Mestre yesterday and Rob picked up all of his stuff.  We had a look around the exhibitions and saw some really seriously fit Italian runners- lots of people looking the part, with that touch of Italian style.

Rob's back is not the best and has flared up after the suitcase fiasco and I think that it will be hard for him to run, but he's determined to give the marathon a go.  The bus from Venezia to the start of the race is for runners only so I won't be able to get to the start which is a shame as it would have been good to get some photos.  There are only around 7,000 runners as the course is narrow.  Rob found out that he will be up near the front of the starting lineup because he has a low registration number.  He will have to be really careful at the start to go slowly and not get swept along by the really fast runners otherwise he will burn out in the first 10kms.  42kms is a really long way!!