Owen's Rome Marathon Report

Hi Dan - thought I'd send alnong somne results from the Rome marathon.

Berta and I arrived Saturday evening after 24 hours and four flights, tired but ready for the event the next morning. After an invigorating two hours of sleep, we met the driver in the lobby that our traveling companions had thoughtfully provided, and after a five minute £30 ride ($42Can) we arrived at the marathon start with 30,000 other jabbering souls. The weather was far from ideal - very sunny and hot - and the day turned out to be quite a trial.

Our little Canadian contingent had a tough day. Cobblestones, heat, relentless pooping and vomiting plus tears galore challenged our group, but they did remarkably well under the circumstances. Berta posted a personal worst, but it was a terrific result under the conditions she faced. She was in the top third of all women, and was the 4th best Canadian woman! 20% of all registered runners dropped out during the race - and there were a lot of sick, cramping, pooping, barfing and other ugly looking humans along the way.

It was wonderful, however, to see the beautiful sights of Rome along the way. The marathon was very poorly organized - there was no way for finishers to connect with their friends and family and it took Berta and I two hours to reconnect at the finish.

On a happy note, despite the fact that my hip injury did nopt allow me to participate, I received an email from the Rome marathon organization congratulating me on my finishing time that was a full two minutes faster than Berta! I have been taunting her ever since, and intend to print out my finishers certificate, have it framed, and lord it over her for the rest of our lives. The only small issue is that my name is now apparently "Rwanda Forwen", but I am prepared to have a legal name change if only to beat Berta one time in my life.

The rest of our trip was wonderful, we recovered quickly and walked millions of miles and saw many incredible and beautiful things along the way. We return a few pounds heavier, but that is a small price to pay for such a terrific experience.

Feel free to share this with the running gang
Rwanda