RunningIsLife Day 3: 2012 Venice Marathon

For 10 days, I’m posting a running photo, along with a brief recollection of the race where the photo was taken.  Here’s todays photo:

This is my official race photo from the 2012 Venice Marathons.  I rarely buy race photos, but I made an exception for this one.  It perfectly captured how the weather felt that day.

I do a lot of international races.  In some cases, I’ll choose a race because it’s in a place I’ve always wanted to visit.  In other cases, I’ll choose a race because it offers some type of unique race experience.  The Venice Marathon met both of these criteria.

I do a lot of solo trips, but I went to Venice with my wife Deb.  Deb isn’t into international travel as much as I am, but she was excited about this trip.  Deb has Italian ancestry, and this was our first trip to Italy.

When we arrived at our hotel, Deb didn’t even wait until we went to our room before asking the person at the front desk where we could find the best gelato in Venice.  Deb doesn’t usually feel comfortable traveling, but in Venice she said she felt like she was at home.

During our time in Venice, we took a walking tour of the city, we took a boat tour to three of the lagoon islands, we went shopping at Rialto Bridge, and we had the quintessential Venice experience of taking a wrong turn and getting lost.  We also enjoyed the food.  To this day, this is Deb’s favorite of all the trips we’ve taken together.

What makes the race experience unique is running through a city without streets.  Actually, we were only in the city for the last few miles, but those miles were intense.

The first 20 miles of the race are on the mainland.  Temperatures were in the 30s with steady rain and 30 MPH headwinds.  To get out to Venice, we crossed a bridge that’s five kilometers long.  There, we were completely exposed to the wind.  By the time we got into the city, I was so cold I couldn’t feel my hands.

To get through the city, we had to cross the Grand Canal, plus 13 smaller canals.  Throughout the city, there are numerous bridges over the smaller canals.  For the race, they put long wooden ramps over the steps.  They basically converted the bridges into a series of hills, which we ran in rapid succession.

Where we needed to cross the Grand Canal, they put up a pontoon bridge.  They can only keep it in place for a few hours, because it blocks the boat traffic.  The photo above shows me crossing the pontoon bridge.

At the time, I had a streak going.  Every time I ran a marathon in a foreign country, I qualified for Boston.  Other than enjoying the experience, my only goal for this race was to keep my streak alive.  I did.

After the race, I was struggling to keep warm as I boarded a ferry to take me back to the part of the city where our hotel was located.  A local runner who was with his family saw me shivering.  He gave me one of those plastic rain ponchos they sell to tourists.  It says, “I ❤Venice.”  I still have that poncho, and I sill ❤Venice.