southcheshireharriers

Despite still having a tinge of tendonitis, little training and only one half decent long run (the Great North Run) yours truly managed to crawl round the Venice marathon on Sunday.

By some miracle I also set a p.b. of 4h 15m (5m up on previous). Up to 35k I was consistently running toards a 4h 3m finish but then the lack of training took its toll and I had to drag myself through the last 7k.

Anyway, Venice (for those who have not been) is a wonderful place and the event is fantastic.

Amazing Taz, well done. You can often get away with little training in short races, but to do it in a marathon shows a good base of fitness. Well done "International Athlete".

Well done and I bet the pre-race pasta party was pretty good.

A great result, how much was swimming in the canals?

Pre race pasta was good but the post race fish, chips and beer was even better!

No swimming but with the heat of the day (want to see my suntan?) there was a great temptation on a few occasions to go "off piste" and jump into the canals to cool down.

It's a great race to do, organised well, with a scenic and flat course. Easyjet fly direct out of East Midlands and the hotels are not too expensive. I stayed in the Plaza Hotel in Venice Mestre which is on the mainland and had a free bus to the race start and a free bus back after the event.

Well done Taz on your PB. . I did this race back in 2005 and would also recommend it. We also stayed in Mestre (a lot cheaper than Venice itself) and I remember catching one of the free buses laid on for us out to the start in Stra. I remember the most spectacular part of the course being the final miles along the Liberty Bridge and then over the numerous bridges to the finish near St Marks Square. A great marathon and city, but quite expensive!

Pete, (taz)
Great to see you still running and posting -- very well done and hopefully see you soon