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While in the city proper, cobblestones were the only terrain, definitely
making up more than a third of the course. But they were well worn, so not
as bad as we feared. No mile markers, but we were savvy enough to figure
out how we were doing kilometer by kilometer, especially after being in the
back of the pack since the race actually started early!! Lori took pictures
along the route and we often had this conversation--"Hey, take a picture of
that!"; "What is it?", she replied; "I don't know but it looks cool (old)".
Support was great with water and Gatorade every 5K and we saw Sharon, John
and Kyle a couple times. It was about 30K the last time we saw them in
Piazza de Popolo (another piazza!) and after that Lori's three marathons in
4 months began to make themselves known. After taking pictures at the
Spanish Steps and Trevi fountain, we started to separate and I picked up the
pace some to pass the 4 hour balloons. My last 5K was about 22 minutes and
I ended up finishing about 8 minutes before Lori did. She crossed the line
just as happy as when she started, we got our medals (the best medal either
of us had ever received by far) and made togas out of our foil wraps! Then
we had to rendezvous with our intrepid supporters back near the Colosseum,
what better way then to walk through the Roman Forum. That's where the real
cobblestones were and we definitely got some interesting looks. And the
rest is, well...history.
Ciao ciao ciao,
Chris
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