Warning, very long post!
We very nearly didn’t get here, as we got an email on Wednesday afternoon (while I was merrily pootling round the NEC at the Caravan and Motorhome Show) to say our flight from Luton on Friday lunchtime had been cancelled. Shake-and-run immediately contacted our agent, but decided they were useless so went ahead and booked a Jet2 flight from Birmingham at 5.55am on Thursday, plus a hotel for the extra night, as ours was fully booked. By this time, it was 4.30pm so Mr Sandie and I drove back home to Lincoln, had something to eat, I packed my bag and drove back to Stratford-upon-Avon for a very short night’s sleep until Mr Shakes took us to the airport.
Anyway we decided that every cloud and all that. We had almost 2 extra days to explore. On Friday we went off to race HQ to collect our t-shirts, bibs and registration goody bags (water, beer, nibbles, blister plasters 😂).
After another day of sightseeing, it was a 5.15am alarm call as we had to be on the vaporetto to the port to catch the transfer coach between 6.30 and 6.50am. That went quite smoothly, but, oh my, the queue for the loos was horrendous. 30 minutes, so I didn’t get my planned espresso.
We had entered the ‘non competitivo’ 10k because we didn’t need med certs and there seemed to be thousands of us. It took about 25 minutes to get over the start line and then, for the first 4k we were following the monorail track across the causeway from the mainland onto the island. During the first bit there were as many walkers as runners and we had to do quite a bit of weaving and lots of ‘scuses’. By this time it had got light and the sun was trying to break through. Once on the island, the route went through the docks (not the prettiest) and then the bridges started. Thankfully they had all been furnished with ramps so that we didn’t have to go up and down the steps. There was an amazing temporary bridge across the Grand Canal especially for the event. Along the edge of the lagoon, then turned into St Mark’s Square, where there were a few more spectators, around the square, completed the crossing of 14 canal bridges in total, the last of which was something of a traffic jam, and a sprint finish to the end by Garibaldi park. My 10k time was 1.07.25, which was 10 seconds quicker than Spitfire. Very happy 😃 Total course length 11.14k in 1.15.30. Apparently it isn’t a measured 10k because it goes from race HQ in San Guiliano park to the finish line for the 10k, HM and Marathon, which are all on today, starting a different times in different places but all finishing in the same place. When in Italy!
Collected the bling and finishers’ goody bag - more beer, water, fresh fruit, protein bar, nibbles and arnica gel 😂 Free massages were also on offer, but the queue was humongous so we skipped it and caught the vaporetto back to the hotel. Now for a shower, then go and find a nice lunch.
The race was definitely not great for speedy runners due to narrow walkways, ramps (and walkers), although I don’t know if the competitive race would be better, as they do have pacers (not sure how they manage the distance issue 🤷♀️), but it was great fun and, of course, there is the advantage of, as it turns out, 4 nights in La Serenissima. Thank you Venice 🇮🇹 we’ve had a blast 😃😃
Well, I seem to have run 10k...without intending to: a strange sort of graduation after a strange sort of week.
Tatton Park 10k - Pretty Bling! 😃🏃♀️🏅❤️
Report on my first 10K, and reflecting on a year of running.
First race ✅ New PB ✅
