The Venice Marathon

Rob finished the Venice Marathon!! A huge achievement given the horrible weather which turned out to be as bad as predicted - Il Meteo got it right again,unfortunately.

The amazing thing is that Rob ran it faster than last year (4hrs 30 corrected time) and said that he would have done it faster but for  around 60kmh winds on the Mestre Venice bridge. 
Sarah and Paul cheered Rob on at Zattere, it was a nice surprise for him, and Jules and I were at the end with warm clothes etc.

At our apartment at 5.30am -we had to catch the train to Mestre so that Rob could catch the bus to Stra

The bus was packed, standing room only

The woman on the right must be from Alaska -it was really cold and windy

I think that every bin in Venice was full of umbrellas -we saw so many like this

This runner was doing everything he could to keep the rain off and stay warm -including running with a plastic bag on his head :)

It was exciting to see Rob coming over the last bridge at the end of the race.

Rob ran over to us and high fived Jules. We were all really happy

Nearly there

I don't know how he does it but Rob still has heaps of energy after a race. We walked back to our apartment in San Barnaba,

I was trying to smile but was just frozen :)

After this photo Rob put on a few dry things and then back to San Barnaba for a much needed hot shower

Rob ha fatto la Maratona di Torino!!!!!

Rob ran in the Torino Marathon today, three weeks after the Venice Marathon!  He originally registered in the Torino marathon around the same time as the Venice marathon just in case he missed the Venice marathon.  Anyway, he finished the Marathon today in 4hrs 47mins -about 16mins faster than Venice.

He didn't tell anyone that he was going to do the marathon (apart from nostri figli) because he only really decided last night  and didn't change his diet etc -except he had a beer with dinner instead of a glass of wine :).

No more marathons while we are away! 

In Via Roma on the way to the start in Piazza Castello

 

 A very cold and bit nervous Rob

Getting colder hanging around

The start was about 30mins late and they had the usual national anthem etc.  These were the 'ordinary' runners the elite runners were a little further in front -Rob was put with the elite runners in Venezia by mistake :)  During the pre-race announcements Rob was mentioned as being a"straniero da Australia" who was participating.  I was videoing part of the start for family and happened to jag that bit :) The runners were pretty much all Italian whereas the Venice Marathon had a lot of people from other countries.

Rob near the finish line

Checking his time at the end

Pretty tired at the end.  Those legs didn't have much left.

Rob was very happy to have finished -just a little tired :)