Day 17 – Marathon Day

Today was the big day for Nathan, his marathon debut, and where better to make the debut than Pisa! (Kirsten calls it the butt of Italy!)

Race Recap

• We got there half an hour early and got to have some photos with the leaning tower (not the best ones you have ever seen!).
• We wished each other well and we split up, Nathan to line up for the marathon and Kirsten to line up for the 7km fun run
• Kirsten whipped through her 7km like it was nothing.
• Nathan had a harder time, he was having fun for the first 20km or so even chatting to a fellow Aussie for a few kilometres along the way, but with about 18km to go he started cramping in his calves, he had to stop every couple of kilometres until about the 30km mark when both his calves and both his hamstrings started cramping and from there he had to stretch every kilometre or so. Nathan eventually got back in a time of 3:03:35. ‘It was a painful but cool experience’ said the bleeding and broken Nathan at the end.

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Italian’s know how to put on an event

• The race had a great expo where you collected your bibs and had the seedings of all the runners printed out on the wall. They were giving out free massages before and after the race and you also got a free shirt and goodies bag, a great deal! Kirsten only paid 3.5 euros and got a goodies bag, a metal, a free chocolate tart and fruit and also the joy of running. Lucky girl!

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Off to the Cinque Terre

• Where better to recover than the beautiful town of Vernazza? We hobbled our way to the station and caught the 2.5 hour train to the beautiful seaside town in the Cinque Terre. It is very beautiful here! The only problem … so so many stairs. Nathan had a very hard time negotiating those post marathon but worth it for the views!

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