Rome Marathon: 3h05'22''

I had declared that I would be happy with a time under 3h15’ but that the real objective was 3h. In hindsight, I'm glad as if I had reached the target for the reasons I will explain later. It has not always been the same in the past: sometimes when I hadn’t achieved the objective, I had a sense of dissatisfaction, which began already during the race. Not this time, running I perceived clearly that I was managing the situation well and that there weren’t the conditions to do much better. Probably this has avoided me a big crash at the end.

Let's go to the story:

Wake up at 5.30 am, tested pre-race breakfast (tea, bread with jam), physiological formality, dressing. I have an appointment at 7 at the subway station with a group of friends. The weather does not seem good, it is cloudy and windy, for the moment at least it is not raining.

We arrive at the Coliseum to the 7.40. I and other newcomers had planned to go into the grid as soon as possible (7:50), but (first error) between a joke and the other, a group photo, the one who has not peed and so on, we are ready to 8.20. 

While it starts to rain, we are going to deliver the backpacks to the truck and, surprise, we realize that the organization is crazy! The trucks just before the grids, in a narrow area in front of the Coliseum, it is even difficult to identify your own. As result, we find a crazy crowd where it is almost impossible to move. After a grueling job, we go to the grids, which of course are already full, so we stop far from the starting line and we did not even have a minute of heating. 

With ten minutes away there is a violent downpour of rain that soaks right, after the heaven clears and the sun comes out. We do not feel anything, but we see that the people in front begin moving. I try to recover some places and after nearly 3' am going to pass the starting line. Here I make the second mistake: in the chaos, I don’t understand what is the actual starting line of the race and I switch on the clock at least 45'' before, something that will affect my race tactics. 

I know that in the first few kilometers I should overcome people as quickly as possible and that I will heap a delay, which in theory I should recover later. First 400 meters above 6'/km! Downhill near the Theatre of Marcellus I can run on the sidewalk and I begin to go. Wherever I can I take advantage of the sidewalks going to 1km in 5'10''. First minute lost.  Following kilometer, same tactic, favored by the fact that I follow another athlete who guides me in traffic. 2^nd km in 4'40''. Another 30'' lost. And now it’s about 1'30'' lost. 

Now the group has slightly widened, then I keep on overcoming in the crowd, managing to reach the planned pace (4'15''/km), even slightly faster. The heart beats are also at the level that I had correctly assumed, from 163 to 165. 

At the 5^th km mark my Garmin signs 22'11'', I already would have recovered more than 30''. I wrote “would” as actually the Garmin vibrated 150 meters before the official signal, where the clock signed 22'50''. I begin not understanding: I may have proceeded so much through disadvantageous trajectories? Or the Garmin did not take well satellites? Bah! At the official signal I would thus still have a minute and a half to recover.

I continue keeping the 4'15'' pace because I feel that going faster so soon would be dangerous. Now I even feel hot and I regret to have let ​​a short-sleeved technical T-shirt under the jersey. 

From the 5th to the 15th km I pass through a phase that I would define "boredom”, I cannot find a fighting stimulus. I should just keep the 4'15'' pace, something that is not hard for me now, and so I have time to think too much. I remember the femur- pelvis joint discomfort. It is still there, but so far I had not bothered that much, but you know that thinking about it amplifies the discomfort. Then I think I get too hot, I need to sponge me. I feel other small annoyances in knees and feet. 

Just before the 10 km mark, I begin to apply the food strategy food! And you lady, you know that you cannot face a marathon without eating! It’s a homemade strategy in the sense that I brought a bag of honey (100 gr) with the idea of sucking a bit every 10km, drinking some water to clean the mouth. The second and third 5km go away completely in line, split 21'10'' and 21'14'' respectively. Same problem at the official signal, I have 45'' more ... 

At the 15th km boredom phase ends, because I see forward some pacemaker balloons and finally I find again the fighting stimulus.

I take them in a hurry, and I discover with surprise that they are those of 3h15’. Immediately after I reach and exchange a few words with one of my friends. I ask him what time he is going to reach at his pace and he tells me that if he continued with his rhythm he would finish within 3h05’ (actually he arrived in 3h14’, which confirms the conclusion of the story). This motivates me, because I can go faster, I greet him and accelerate. 

The sky is overcast again and is no longer hot, still another good 5km, arriving at the 20th km with a split of 21'10'' , honey sucking , water sip and I am at the half marathon mark. Official time 1’31’33’’, At this point, I make the following argument: I have still to recover 1’30’’ so I should make a substantial negative split. I do not think I have all this energy, and then I will continue with this pace at least until 10 kilometers to go, then if I still have energy I will try. 

In fact, I'll find out later on timing website that I passed the half marathon in 1h30’53’’! I had to recover "only" 53’’. I think, knowing me, that if I had not messed with the clock, the strategy would have been: 53''on 21 km means 2''/km, just go at 4'13''/km pace and it is done, then I would have slightly accelerated. I do not have the crystal ball to know how it would have gone, but thinking as I finished the race, I have some suspicions, I would have finished against a wall! 

The 5km leading at 25° km, in 21'10 '', so good. I continue to pass a bunch of people without almost anyone passing me, even though we are now in single file and there is space between a group and another. It starts to rain again and with also a very violent burst. Now I am very glad I put the shirt under the jersey, I am clever! 

After 28 km, it begins the  mosque hill, one of the two of the marathon. I push until I reach 165 bpm and then I try to keep the beat. Uphill I feel the pain in the joint, but fortunately over it passes quickly. Honey sucking, downhill toward the auditorium, sip of water and we are at the 30° km. Last 5k in 21'46''. I lost something, but there have been rising and refreshment. At the official mark now I would have a 2' delay respect to the 3h table (in fact for the usual error I was 1'15'', still perhaps recoverable) and I needed the energy to go at a 4'05''/km pace. 

Thus I definitively give up the 3h idea and decide to keep my pace. I do not know if it was just to have dropped the 3h idea or something that would have happened the same, but just after the 31 km mark, pushing with the same effort , I begin to see 15-20 seconds higher times on my Garmin. Also I begin to be passed by some athletes that I had passed earlier. I worry a bit, because there are still 12km to go! But I do know that when I will be back downtown, it will miss not so much and so I keep going. This is the most difficult moment of the race, we are on the Tiber and there is almost no one besides us. I am running back two runners that have just re-passed me and I try to keep their pace.

At the 35^th, the 5 km split slower of the race, 22'40''. If I continued to decline I would put at risk even the 3h15’! At the underpass that leads to Ripetta Street, where we find a lot of people, a "miracle” happens. Everything stems from the fact that one of the two athletes that I am following is going easier than the other (he probably was helping him) and raises his arms to the sky inviting people to applaud. And the people begins cheering and shouting that It seems to be at the stadium! 

The thing likes me! It gives me the stimulus maybe I had lost and then giving up the 3h goal, so galvanized I accelerate and overcome the couple ahead of me and many others. As soon as the effect wears off, however, I slow down again. In Piazza Navona, in spite of the bad weather, there are a lot of people, my “friend " repeats his action and I go faster again. 

I understand that in order to make the last 7 km, which at that point seem to me too much, I have to recreate the cheering effect. Now I’m at Largo Argentina, which is packed with fans, then I cast out a scream, " let’s go”, and people start cheering so much, inciting and calling me by name (which is written on the bib, of course, they don’t know me) .

I pass everyone who is near me, including one dressed as Flash, who now is actually Flash for me and I’m a superhero too. I'm in a racing trance, I do not watch the clock anymore and at each huddle of fans I repeat the "scream”, which sometimes becomes an "I cannot hear you" with eloquent gestures, and you can imagine the effect. I do in this way the entire Via del Corso , and I'll see later on my pc , beats at 170 (as in a half marathon! ) and again at a 4'15'' pace. 

Piazza del Popolo, less than 3 km to go, but it still seems too much. I see the entrance to the via Milano tunnel far away and I know that after that it is almost done. Last 5k up to 40° km in 21'46'' (scream effect). 

I keep accelerating and decelerating helped by screams and gestures and now I’m at the beginning of the last effort, the slope of the tunnel. It's really tough, by itself it is not so steep, but after 41km it is killing for the legs. I pass lots of walking people (and if they were in front of me it means they were going for a 3h time, not unprepared athletes, maybe it's the mythological wall), but I come out of the tunnel in slow motion. 

Via Nazionale (it wasn’t downhill?), running completely haphazard, the legs two logs. Here now the final descent, I roll holding the final scream in my throat, the one that will turn Piazza Venezia into a riot, which is equivalent in my excited head to the entry in the stadium of the first marathoner (that would be me), at the Olympics game. In fact I think I gassed up a bit too much (it had never happened in other races) and already 500 well-performing and more talented than me athletes had passed there, so after my baritone scream, there is a slightly smaller answer than I expected! 

Last effort and I am on the finish line. The Garmin signs little more than 3h06’, but then I will find out the error of the start and my official time will be 3h05'22''.

Last remarkable fact of this long story. Just stopped running, after the trance racing, I couldn’t even walk, I mean moving in the most literal sense of the term, the muscles refused. I bended, because I also had severe pain in the lumbar and health care people came near me. But I was fine, just I couldn’t walk! 

I will think with a cool head in the next few days at the "technique" analysis of the race, but I already have an idea. Surely it wasn’t a good occasion to make the time: everyone I know, and the winners too, wasn’t able to have a negative-split and suffered the final part. The weather conditions did not allowed optimal performance.