Rome Marathon - Richard Raw
April 9th, 2008Read about Gala Harrier’s Richard Raw’s Marathon report from Rome.
I had postponed my entry for this year’s London Marathon until next year to allow me to do Rome. The temptation of starting at the Collosseum and running through not only parts of ancient Rome, but also sites such as the Trevi Fountain and the Piazza del Popolo was too great to resist.
The marathon fell on the same weekend as Scotland’s rubgy match away to Italy, so there was plenty of Scottish support there. Coming back from injury, a fractured toe and badly strained ankle, my aim was to finish the marathon injury free, which I achieved. I hadn’t been aiming for any time. This was my seventeenth full marathon, but my first one in mainland Europe. I have ran one in Canada, Québec City, three in Ireland, Dublin twice and Connemara, and the rest in Britain. Next year I will do my third London.
The event was well organised and despite a very congested start to the run, the crowd support and the value for money on the entry fee was excellent. I ran some interesting splits, the first, and most congested ten kilometres I did in one hour twelve, then the second ten I did in one hour and seven minutes, and the third ten kilometres in one hour and three minutes, so up to about twenty miles my pace was increasing. I began to get cramp in the last ten kilometres which is unusual for me. The final split was around one hour thirteen, but it still meant that the second half of the marathon for me was quicker than the first. Despite a relatively slow overall time of four hours and forty five minutes (my best, set twelve years ago was three hours thirty eight), I took many positives from the run.
I felt that my endurance levels were strong, and I feel that the splits showed this. I need to work on my pace, but due to the limited time I had to train I made distance work the priority. I aim to run my twentieth full marathon some time next year, possibly at Paris, possibly at London. I will run the Reykjavik one in Iceland in August, then the Palermo one in Italy again in November. With more race fitness and hopefully some injury free training, my times should come down by themselves naturally.
I was satisfied with the marathon in Rome and will definately run it again sometime in the future, and would highly recommend it to anyone planning a marathon in March.
rosi capper Says:
Well done Richard - for both your marathon effort and a lovely write up of what must have been a wonderful day. Have you any pictures of yourself in that most beautiful European capital?
Richard Raw Says:
Yes, I’ll order a photo of me running past the Piazza del Popolo on my next pay day and post it. I enjoyed watching the London marathon today. I wished so much that I was there, it’s such a great day out. Congratulations to anyone who did it today.