Florence Marathon

I found finally time to write something about the Florence marathon. I finished it
(and for that I am very happy!) and with it my second marathon in one month. I am
proud for it. The short (for me) recovery period and the "no running" between the two marathons due to a small injury to my left quadricep have paid off ;-) I finished in 4:42, suffering a great deal in the last 10 Km. My wife had a great run, 4:18 with just one long run of 28 km in her training and no suffering afterwards. She was (and rightly so) very proud to have run a marathon! I am also very proud of her.

But let's go slowly.

The start is on top of a small hill (Piazzale Michelangelo) and to get there you have to way: you can walk 1.2 km uphill or take a bus (there were many available for all the runners). We got at the bus stop at around 7:20 and were at the start around 7:40 (a bit early I must admit).

A good suggestion is not to give any bag to pick up at the arrival, the pick up point is far from the arrival and there is always a big chaos. We went there with a very old pile jacket that we threw away minutes before the start. When you enter the gates you will have to wait a long time (we had to wait roughly 40 minutes) without moving, and when is ca. 7-8 degrees C is cold :-)

So at the start you can get hot tea, cake (yum) and water. We got at ca. 8:40 in the starting area for 4:00-4:30 time and waited. The race started at 9:20 instead of 9:00 due to television needs
(the national Tv has a special 3 hours long on the marathon). The start is downhill, so is an easy start.

The first 15 km went very very good. At the half point I told my wife to go ahead, since I was having knee problems. So she continued at her speed and I did my race.
The course is breath-taking. When you enter the historical part of the city you will want to cry, believe me. I did the first 30 Km in 3:03 (that is rather good), and then things started to deteriorate. The last 12 km were very difficult, but since I don't quit usually I continue, I walk a bit and I ran a bit, but in the end it was a very wonderful experience. My wife cried for the emotions at the arrival!
Very moving.

So now I have knee and ankle pain (oh well)... so a couple of weeks of rest and then I hope I can start training again. Next year I plan to run only on trails and I want to prepare an ultra. I will
post my training plan and links since I spent quite some time in searching and I hope this can help someone else!