I can’t remember exactly when I signed up for this but it was very shortly after speaking to Richard, who does a lot of pacing at various events, who said that it was a must do marathon. It doesn’t take much for me to be convinced to explore a new city so that was that, I was heading to Rome.
Fortunately another club friend Darija had also entered and she is incredibly organised. Darija messaged asking if I wanted to stay with her, sent me all the details and booked the tours so all I needed to do was transfer her the £. What a treat! I have to say that we really did have a great weekend. Lots of laughing and lots of fun and I really hope we get to do another trip together again because it worked so well.
We landed in Rome, flew through security and bag collection before making our way to our hotel where our room was all ready. We were both very impressed and the receptionist was very helpful in giving us directions and recommendations. Soon we hopped on the metro to go to the expo and grab our numbers. We decided to do this Friday as we had a busy day planned Saturday and also thought it would be less busy. The expo was a bit confusing but eventually we found our packs and T-shirts and loved the bags we were given.
We woke up Sunday at 5 and due to the flat lay the night before it was very easy to get ready! I was pumped and couldn’t wait to be on the start line! It was a 25 min walk to the start so after eating a bit of breakfast and one final check we had everything we needed, off we went. The closer we got it seemed runners were appearing from everywhere! The crowds just got bigger and bigger and we were well and truly swept up. This is where the chaos began. We didn’t know this at the time but last years event had 10,000 runners where this event had 19,000! No signs or directions meant we just followed the crowd and by chance we stumbled across the right bag drop. With bags dropped off we then made our way to find our ‘pen’. Oh my goodness, there was no system, no-one seemed to know what was happening and even the pacers were all mixed up. Richard had mentioned that it was very strict but obviously not this year because everyone was mixed up together! Typically I really needed a wee but the queues were horrendous so I made the bold decision to not bother and hope for the best, not great after waiting nearly 40 mins for the race to eventually start however I made through!
Both myself and Darija were sold this race based on how good the start is, there is normally a fly over with the Italian flag colours going over the start line and the national anthem is played to get the participants ready. Our reality was that for no apparent reason none of that happened this year! Instead we were squished to the point of beginning to feel a bit sick and think we heard one song! Oh well, we were in Rome about to begin a marathon through this beautiful city so it was hard to be to be disappointed and it felt very surreal to pass the Colosseum.
Have I mentioned it was hot!! Already by 8.30 the sun was beaming down which was definitely a shock to the system after a lot of winter training! I had no time goal so Darija and I said we’d run together and see how we got on. Darija kept telling me to slow down which was very handy as I do like to take on a kamikaze approach to races! The first couple of miles I couldn’t really settle, I hadn’t run since Tuesday so had no idea how my body was feeling. ‘Does my knee hurt, why does my knee hurt, oh no it’s fine but now my calve hurts’ – These were the thoughts for the first 2 miles!! Thankfully nothing hurt, just classic paranoia at the start of a race. 5K in and whoo finally I felt GREAT and ready to get this done.
The whole race the crowds never really let up, the amount of energy we must of wasted by dodging other runners must be insane! The water stations were hectic to say the least, people were ruthless in making sure they got their water even if it meant sending you flying as they barged you out the way. I believe there was a water/salts/gels station every 3K, which was brilliant and they were giving out sponges soaked in cold water to help keep cool. Absolute life saver!! I had opted for my belt with 2 GU gels so was stopping at every station to ensure I stayed hydrated, my left shoulder starts to hurt (??) if I don’t drink enough so that was a good indicator when to have salt tabs. Darija had her vest so she had water but still grabbed some from the stations and had a whole array of sweets and voom bars.
At some point we decided to do a Facebook live to show the fans how we were getting on, that was fun! Both of us kept checking in on each other and soon we passed the halfway point still feeling good. We stuck to roughly 10.20min miles and decided that felt comfortable, Darija keeping me on track if I started to go too fast.
My first gel, GU caramel macchiato, was taken at mile 15 and it was like a hot pudding!! Oh well still delicious in my opinion, also good to know I can stomach gels in the heat! Before I knew it we passed the 30K sign and I looked at Darija and could tell that she may be in a slight dip. Darija is amazing to be with if you are struggling in any way so I really felt like now was my time to shine and be that support to her. Totally f**ked it. I decided to ask if she was taking in the sights. I then decided to look around and realised we were heading down the most boring street, right in the sun, with road works everywhere. Her totally apt response was to laugh and say “What sights?!” oh well job done, got her to smile and we pressed on.
A little bit down the road there were porta loos with no queue so Darija was brave enough to try them, I wasn’t and still very much needed a wee but one look at a guys face told me I was better to wait. Whilst I waited for Darija I took that as an opportunity to take my 2nd gel which again was very warm but also read the little inspirational message they have on the bottom, this one said ‘Do something epic today’ which made me smile! Before I knew it we were off again and I could begin to feel the finish line!!
Watch hit 22 miles and my little legs felt fresh! I accidently got a little ahead and then held back looking for Darija, when I found her she said to go for it. I thought about it but didn’t really want to leave her as we’d had so much fun running together. The next time I got slightly ahead I got swept up and with one more “Go for it” I went.
I actually got competitive!!! Who was this person? Mile 22 of a marathon and I was picking people I wanted to overtake and with little effort just passed them. 5K to go, a park run left!!! In the distance I see a blue balloon and Richard had said he was in the blue wave pacing 4.35. We’d passed 4.40 so it had to be Richard!! I flew, my watch said I was running a 7 min mile pace which is pretty much my sprint, oops. But if i caught Richard then I could run the last 2 miles with him which would be amazing.
Imagine my disappointment when I catch them to realise it is NOT Richard!! (Turns out Richard had a yellow balloon!). I then had to take a cheeky walk break totally ruining my pace. Oh well lessons learnt. Got back to my comfortable pace feeling recovered and ready to go in for the overtake again.
I’m running along with the crowds when to the left I see the barrier that has no other runners near it. Made much more sense to stick to that rather than try and weave in and out of people. Didn’t take long before I noticed someone passed out, then another, in fact someone was on the floor maybe every 20 meters. Hmm maybe this is why no one is running this close to the side!! It did make me feel a bit weird so I joined the main pack again.
Turned the final corner and low and behold…. there is a hill! Not a huge hill but still it is an incline. I grab a sponge and with one squeeze down my neck I decide to tackle it with everything I have, whoo job done. The spectators picked up a bit so with one final boost I am heading for the finish and passing the colosseum. The last 200m or so there are no spectators so tricky to see the finish line but once spotted I picked it up and did a cheeky sprint finish! I just love the feeling after finishing a race!!
My watch told me 4 hours 30, this was 7 minutes faster than my previous marathon in Portsmouth so I was thrilled. Especially as I’d felt very comfortable throughout! We had quite a few people tracking us and it must of been spot on because once I’d finished lot of messages came through and then more when Darija had also crossed the line, she also achieved a PB and came in 4 minutes after me.
Overall a brilliant race! Lots of fun to run the majority with Darija and will remain a very special memory. In terms of running in felt like I got my nutrition spot on which is great and was reminded how important it is not to go off too fast! Can’t wait for the next one!!
I now have a couple of 10K events and then my next big one is the South Downs Way 50 in a few weeks time! Very exciting!!
Happy running,
Jade x
My Journey to 100 miles! 
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