There was that time I travelled to Rome to attempt the annual Rome Marathon. I had taken up running little less than a year earlier, in April 2014, and then completed my first marathon in Athens, Greece in November the same year. The sport had grown on me, so once the Athens marathon was completed, I started looking for my next race. I felt like any race I wanted to do had to be something out of the ordinary in a way, otherwise I was afraid I might find myself bored with it too quickly, since long distance running can be quite a monotome sport. Several races were considered, amongst them the Baikal Ice Marathon in Siberia (I had, afterall, started running because a Discovery Channel documentary about the annual North Pole Marathon had caught my attention, so an ice marathon in Siberia seemed an obvious choice). My financial situation didn't allow me to travel all the way to Siberia at the time though, so I started looking for something closer to my home country. That's when I heard of the Rome Marathon (okay, so maybe not too close to my home country, but hey, it's still way closer than Siberia!). The Rome Marathon attracted me because the course would take the runner all over the city to see all of the most historic attractions the city had to offer, from the Colosseum to the Vatican City and more. Having a keen interest in all things historical, this was definitely a race for  me!

As with the Athens Marathon the year before, my family decided to accompany me on the trip. We spent the week roaming the city and once race day came, they would be waiting for me at the finish line. My father had since the Athens Marathon taken up running too, having been swept away by the intoxicating ambiance that sourrounds these big national races, so he was up for a 5 K race on the same day.

Unfortunately the weather gods weren't as supportive as my family, and race Sunday was the only day during the entire week where it was raining (really, Jupiter?!). Fortunately though, you tend to forget about that once running, and since the exercise keeps you warm, being soaked isn't actually that big of a disaster.

We started in the rain...

I got of to a fine start, feeling the heat of the moment with thousands of runners surrounding me, our enthusiasm robbing off on each other. Things were going really well for me until I came to around the 18-19 K mark - then something happened to my legs, which rather suddently turned quite stiff, and keeping up the pace became really difficult. This didn't sit well with me at all, since in my opinion, this way way too early in the race to be struggling. Unfortunately the feeling didn't pass, and shortly after half marathon mark (21.1 K), I had to let go of the red balloon I had been following up until that point (these are speed holders that you can follow if you are looking to make a specific finish time - each balloon has a different colour and finish time printed on them and is carried by an official speed holder runner employed by the race organisers). I didn't actually expect to be able to follow the red balloon with the 4:45 h finish time all the way to the finish line, because this would have been a bit too ambitious for me, being a slow runner with only one race on my resume so far. But I had hoped to follow it for a bit longer, thinking I might then be able to make the next balloon, the purple 5:00 h one, and this too was a fairly ambitous goal for me. Afterall, the balloons don't stop for you to make toilet breaks, so I was going to have to let the red one go eventually anyway.

By the time I had to let the red balloon go, I did have to make a toilet break. See this is a time where I really wish I could just do as the guys and go in a random corner somewhere instead of having to wait in line for the bathroom and lose an awful lot of time doing that (fun fact: the world record for fastest finish time for a marathon is held by a man, and the best finish time for a woman is just ten minutes slower. This corresponds quite well with the amount of time you have to spend on bathroom breaks during a race - coincidence? ...yes, it probably is...I am sad to admit it...).

...but finished in the sun!

Two toilet breaks later and just 8 K more to go, I was confident I had long lost the purple balloon I had hoped to beat to the finish line. Afterall, I had let the red balloon go only halfway into the race, taken several bathrooms breaks, and the balloons were only 15 minutes apart. But then, shortly after the 34 K mark, when I felt really exhausted and low on energy, guess who caught up with me? That's right, the purple balloon! This got me really excited and had me spending the reat of the race desperately trying to run away from the purple balloon, which stayed right behind me all the damn time!

This really wasn't a good time for more bathroom breaks, but damn, that was just out of my control, and so I spend about two kilometres running ahead of the purple balloon to earn enough time to take another bathroom break. This might not sound that difficult, but at aound 38 K, I started to contemplate letting the purple ballonn go, as my body was running really low on energy and I was feeling really physically ill at the time, fearing I might suddently collapse. This thought ran through my head continuously onver the next 2-3 kilometres, while the purple ballon was literally right behind me the entire time - not a very nice feeling when you feel nauseous and quite weak. By the time I neared the 41 K mark, the purple balloon was right beside me and slowly passing me, and I felt like I was going to pass out, really pushing myself beyond what my body was up for at that point. I crossed the 41 K line and stopped to combat the whooziness - that was it, I thought, I have to let the purple balloon go. Devastating, so close to the finish line! But then the runner with the purple balloon came up to me, padded me on the should and told me to keep going (or so I imagine - he was speaking Italian, afterall) - and then I took of, full speed, running the last 1.2 kilometres (which were partly down hill!) faster than I could believe, feeling both terrible and thrilled at the same time, then crossing the finish line at 4:52:47 (official time - because you don't actually cross the start line when the race starts due of the huge crowd of runners), with tears of relieve bursting out - a full 48 minutes faster than my first race just 4.5 months earlier!