D’un male nasce spesso un bene.
Do I really want to script something about this jog? Not really to be direct. Maintaining a blog does also mean to write about unpleasant experiences and that’s what is laid out in the next couple of sentences.
It would have been the icing on the cake to this weekend excursion to the Tiber. Yet again, the miserable truth of road racing and a long overlooked stomach whinge caught me badly.
Till I paused at around 22k into last weekends Maratona di Roma it all went like envisioned. A sub-3 hour finish was on Fabian’s and my whish list. However a marathon does not end at 22k. I had to rest. Essentially, my stomach required me to stop. It did not take to long and I vomited. I puked a lot and the race-officials must have been a little bit anxious. Some dudes just came along and asked me if I want to take a shuttle back to the finish. “No, grazie!” was my answer. Luckily. I took some time beside the street to recover and then went on to finish well outside my goal and ability. It has been a while since I broke the 3-hours on the road and I obviously would have loved to dip below the magic mark yet again or even get a good long run in (as seen in Quito or Santiago de Chile). Maybe I lacked some long or tempo training runs, maybe my stomach got upset with the gels I used. Possibly. Maybe.
So I did not score the icing, but the cake was certainly a pleasing one. Had a blast during the weekend with my good mates Fabian and Steffen. It was not my first time in Rome but I’m always astonished by this city and fascinated by the charismas of this matchless place and the Italian people. Combining all off that with racing it is just a perfect environment, at least when you get something out of the actual race.
The marathon itself does not really feature a fast or flat course. What it features is a remarkable course around the city and most of the tourist attractions. The race website features the fact that you run across 7,6k cobblestones. I’d say it is way more. Also my Garmin and the general feedback of fellow runners told me that the course is a bit longer then it should be. It all did not really matter during this Sunday long run. Put it in the pipe and smoke it. Unfortunately. Onto the next one.
Anyway. Grazie Roma.
Brooks News / Race Website / Pope
