for the first time in 3 years and 6 marathons I wasn't sure I was going to make it to the end. my training had been poor and my motivation quite low. the weather forecast had predicted rain and indeed the night before the marathon I could not sleep because of the noise outside: it was pouring down and the wind was strong too!! I said to myself that if the weather was going to be the same in morning I was not going to race.

when I woke up, though, the weather was really nice and I had no other choice than walk to the start line in piazzale michelangelo (there's a beautiful view of florence from there). but once there, I got literally soaked before I set off for my 7th marathon. fate!

From the first minute of my race I knew I was going to finish...not matter how!!! I had a friend along the course who cheered me on on 3 different occasions: 12km, 25km and 41km; I had certainly something to look forward to. my parents were supposed to come to florence too but decided not to the end, because of the weather.

I adopted the same strategy of my dublin marathon: 5 min run and 1 min walk and despite my lack of training, my lack of sleep and the rain I closed my race in 4:56. not my best time, but not my worst either.

The course was nice, even though the stretch from 32km to 38km was pretty boring and looooooong. I had started to get tired by then but at that point I was determined not to pull out. so I kept repeating my mantra ('till the finish line) and alternating walk and run...by then it had become 4 1/2 min run and 1 1/2 min walk. It was a bit discouraging not to have much support by then and some of the people I met along the route kept saying "they must be the last ones", nice!....but I tried to keep positive and I crossed the line with a big smile.

now I am in Italy, at my parents', until sunday and I am eating a lot and relaxing a bit before I start marking exam!

it's really cold here!!!

two days after dublin I finally have some time to blog.

It was my sixth marathon and my first dublin one. after two years in this city and two years of supporting friends and fetchies I finally got to run it myself. I wouldn't have missed it for the world. so, even if my training was really bad I decided to do dublin and use it as a training run for the florence marathon at the end of november.

that was a great choice!

I have been under the weather in the last few weeks. my uncle, who had cancer, got really worse really fast and he died on thursday. I couldn't make it to the funeral and I was (am) worried for my dad (my uncle was one of his younger brothers). I was not in the mood for a race.

I have also been stressed for work stuff and the job applications to the states.

but when I turned up at the dinner with the fetchies and few other people I started to feel the buzz and on monday morning I was ready to go. I finished the race in 4:47, my second personal worst, but I don't care. It was the best marathon ever. The support of the people was just amazing. I couldn't believe it. I keept saying thank you to everyone who called my name or said GO FETCH GO. I was so emotional that everything made me cry, but I felt also very happy. so basically I run the whole marathon with tears in my eyes and a big smile on my face. weird.

I did the whole marathon alternating 5 min run to 1 min walk and that worked very well. My legs feels great now and I am ready to keep training for florence.

there's so much more that I should say about this marathon, but I can always write another post hopefully I'll do that soon.

oh dear...i am aching all over this morning and the official time is ever crapper than i thought: 4:39! there you have it...crap race, crap time :)

yesterday i woke up at 5.20am, in the car at 6am. I felt really exhausted and my eyes were closing. i was so happy i wasn't driving. evelyin though was very energetic. i don't how she does that. i should ask her what she's on :-) when we got to newry we met with some fetchie and once more i forgot to take pictures, silly me! there's one with me and eveylin but i think that for the sake of both of us i should NOT make it public! then off we went. i was supposed to run with geprig who wanted to finish in around 4 hours but wanted to take the first half easy. we knew about the hills, but maybe we didn't know them well enough. i lost him at mile 5 as i had to go to the loo. after that, i put my crappy mp3 on and i did the whole race on my own. at times i didn't see anyone in front of me. i tried to focus on the amazing views of the hills and valley surrounding us instead of the hills we were running on but that wasn't easy. they were tough and never ending. once i thought great this is done now we go down hill another one started. contiunously. i walked twice. i started to feel tired at the 10k marker!!!

half way through we headed back even though not on the same road (thankgod!). we run the second half on a beautiful towpath. we were a bit isolated, there were very few runners around but every now and then the marshalls on the bike would ride along you to ask you if you were fine if you wanted any water or gel. i thought that was a really nice touch. the day was beautiful, sunny, nice breeze and great temperature, at least for me. there was a nice shade on the towpath, which made it easier. well...a bit.

just half way through i started to get a nasty headache, which is very unusual for me, really. i started to think why that was. i was well hydrated, i ate properly for breakfast. i thought, maybe it's the wall, the dreaded wall is coming to get me. i was supposed to take a gel at 13miles but my tummy was a bit upset as usual. i had two choices: take the gel and run away from the wall but risking to upset my tummy too much; not take the gel and risking that my tummy could get worse anyway and the wall will hit me completly. it took me another mile to make up my mind and then i made my decision: take the gel and hope for the best.

my tummy strangely calmed down, but not my headache. my legs were getting tired, my glutei were very stiff. from 13 to 18miles i had to fight my demons. they were telling me to give up, that it was not for me, that i couldn't do it. but i kept going and i won. i crossed that line and got my medal! i kept running all the way through, slowly, grunting but i run. i walked very little, i kept going. the last two miles were hell. my ankles were hurting. the twopath was never ending. the last 800m was more than hell (what's more than hell i don't really know, but you know what i mean). we got into town again and the finish line was not in sight. at the last 200m i saw it. i heard people clapping, loud music and the speaker. i took off my crappy mp3 and i sucked in the nice atmosphere, people screaming when the speaker said my name. i run the bloody thing on my own, i run the last 200m minute on my own and on my own i crossed the finish line.

at the end HowFar? from fetch was waiting for me and that made my day. he had finished in 2:48 in fourth position! amamzing!!! the I met up with BS ans waited for eveylin to cross the line. and she did it in great style taking home her second best time. she and BS will be doing cork next monday....they're barking mad.

when i got to get changed i found out that my periods had arrived during the race. so maybe, after all, it wasn't the wall to give me headache and to take away my energy.

i am disappointed, but not defeated. the 4h mark seems far right now. but, since i've started to train for the 4hs in january i have improved so much. I took off:
3min my 5miles pb
4min my half marathon pb doing by best race to date
17' min my marathon pb

now i'll have to work on my speed and try to get my weight down to 60kg (now i'm 64.5kg). i know that i can do it. the 4h wall will be destroyed. i'm stronger. I WILL WIN, i know it :-)

pics!!

here we go...again! it's race report time!!

It was such a tough race. really hot day (25c), no shade along the route. it was the complete opposite of connemara and as a matter of fact my body (and mind) reacted completely differently!
we started at 8.50am. 4000 people at the start line, 1000 pulled out during the marathon.
I wanted to start behind the 4h pacers but I got to the start line a bit late and I couldn't reach them. I decided then to run on my own and try to keep them in sight and so I did for quite a while. I kept an even pace after the 25th k but everything went wrong after that. but let's proceed in order...
at the 6k marker I saw a friend of mine and he stayed with me until the 25th. It was nice to have company. we passed 10k in 57:36, maybe I was going a bit too fast, so I started to slow down. I was through the first half in 2:02, bang on time for a 4:10 marathon :)
I had planned to take 2 gels during the race. I had tried them during my 22 miler and I had no reaction to them. I took the first gel at 20k and I had planned to take the second one at 30k. But this time (despite having taken immodium as usual before the race) my stomach did not agree with it. I started to feel really unconfortable and there was no signs of partaloos. I started to get worried and I decided to take more immodium (even though I was scared of overdoing it a bit). 25k marker, 28k marker and the pain was really unbearable. I started to walk and the only thing I could think of was to get to the next drink station (30k) and then if the pain was still there, get on one of those horrible little buses with all the people who pulled out and get to the finish line that way. I was down down down......But once I got to the drink station the pain wasn't there anymore. So I carried on only to find out that there was something else wrong. One of my toe nails started to hurt and once more I resorted to walking. then I stopped. took my shoe off. took the sock off and I was ready to remove the nail if I had to. but everything was fine, the nail was in place...only a bit sore. I put the sock back on and the shoe back on and I started to run again. It was then that I saw the 4:15 pacers overtake me and I thought nooooooooooooooooooo!!! I caught up with them and I was hoping to stay behind them until the finish line. But at the drink station around the 35k marker my legs started to ache. I hadn't taken the second gel, of course, and I could feel it big time! I slowed down to drink and eat and I lost the pacers.
it was getting really hot. the excellent drink stations were at every 5k and after 2k we were given sponges (I loved them). at the beginning I could drink at the drink stations and get fine to the next one. after the 35k marker the drinks stations seems really far apart and got really thirsty and desperately in need of water!
I walked and run between 35k and 39k. I kept looking at my watch and I knew that I could walk all the way till the end and still beat my pb of 4:36:30, but I wanted to get a sub-4:20 and after the 39k marker I run, very slowly, but I run. Last drink station and we were in Padova. The city centre though was empty. People went to eat leaving us with no support. I could have done with some. I plodded until the last 400m. when you get into the square (prato della valle) then lots of people cheer you on. I looked around to see where my family was and I finally saw my bro taking pictures of me. I looked at the big watch: 4:20 and I knew I had done it!!! YAY! real time 4:19:29!!!!
I was a bit disappointed by the way the race went but was well chuffed with the fact that depsite all that I still managed to take 17 minutes off my pb. I know that I can get a sub-4. I just need some time. Maybe next year, but I'll get there.

After the mara it was just amazing: my family, my friends, pasta party, concerts, pictures. It was just madness!!

Now I want to get ready for NEWRY MARATHON on May 26th. I miss racing in the irish weather :-)

done!!
it was bloody hard and I don't think I'll do it again!! well...I mean...I won't do padova again :-)

but it was great to see my family at the finish line and to meet so many people from the various italian running forums and to meet all my italian blog's friends. I had such a ball....before and after the marathon that is!!

anyway...I don't remember much from the race, so I'll write a complete report when my memory recovers. What I want to say now is that my real time is:

17' sharp less than my (old) PB!!!!!!

I am a bit disappointed though. Not by my time, but by how tough the race was for me!!

I was chatting with a friend of mine tonight and he asked me about my first marathon. talking to him about it brought back all the joy (little) and the (great) pain of it all. i went back to my thanksgiving page and i just tought to post it here, so that you can read my report. i think it's sweet and i hope one day I'll do London again. I just LOVED IT, desptite everything...

justgiving page