Venice Marathon

Overall, probably the best organized marathon I've ever run. From sign-up and submission of medical forms, to packet pickup, to race execution, everything went incredibly smoothly. The bus to the start got me there early but I appreciated the large tent with benches to rest and stay warm. With my previous PR of 4:34:00 I was placed in the last corral. I wasn't running to set a PR (I was on vacation, after all) even though I did. I loved the support of the spectators, the support of the volunteers, and I especially liked how organized things were at the end of the race, with the medal, the goody bag, drop bag pickup and changing area. I plan to run this one again. I know that there was a change in sponsors for the 2017 race and hopefully that hasn't taken away from the race experience.

This was my 5th marathon and my 4th foreign marathon. The course was flat and relatively fast (a few inclines and some bridges in Venice being the only slight difficulties). It is a point to point race starting in Stra in the Italian countrside and finishing in Venice itself. Only the last 6k is in Venice but the countryside part is quite scenic and relatively well supported through the towns. The thing that let this race down for me was the organisation.Buses are supplied from Venice to the start. I took the latest bus and still arrived more than 2 hours before the race started. The queues for toilets at the start were 45 minutes long and there was no toilet roll or sanitiser in them (fortunately I brought my own). I was hoping to finish in around 4 hours and had stated this during the application process, this was an ambitious but realistic target as my previous best was 4:11. However I was unable to follow the 4 hour pacer as I was in the 4th corral and the 4 hour pacers were in corrals 2/3. I asked to move but was quite rudely told no (I expected the answer to be no but politeness costs nothing). As it happens I paced myself relatively well up to 20 miles, getting to 20 at 2:59, 10k in 1 hours is no problem right? my legs had other ideas, I cramped up and finished in 4:09:40. However my official time was over 4:11 with my first split being 30 minutes. The difference between my gun time and start time was only 30 seconds which was incorrect as I was as mentioned in corral 4, so it was around 3 minutes. My watch has autopause on it but Strava has the elapsed time on it which was 4:09:40 (with pauses it was 4:09:03 so I know that the elapsed time was correct). I know that 2 minutes difference between times is not a lot, but it was the difference between being a PB and not being a PB, so was quite annoying. I emailed the organisers to ask if they could check this result but received no response. Finally after the finish, I asked a marshall where the free water bus to Tronchetto departed from, she corrected my pronunciation of Tronchetto but neglected to tell me where the boat departed, again I felt this was unnecessarily rude. I can't say any of this ruined my enjoyment of the race, but it would put me off doing it again. Venice is well worth visiting and if you are looking for a flat marathon abroad in beautiful surroundings then this could be an option. I hope for the sake of competitors that next year is better organised.

Registration (for 2016) was in the Guiliano Park, with a free bus from Mestre train station. Lots of stands at the registration, a nice t shirt, and well organized, enthusiastic officials. The marathon itself starts in Stra, a suburban village way out of town. I took the free bus to the start, leaving from 7am from Mestre. The start is next to a beautiful old building and everyone was wandering around the gardens warming up. Then it heads east along a nice flat road, alongside a river. In this sleepy neighbourhood I was surprised to hear a band covering a Led Zep song after only 1km. In fact there was a band, mostly rock or heavier, nearly every km all the way to Venice! Fabulous! And the locals in every village along the way were out in numbers and making a lot of noise, cheering on _everyone_ not just the people they knew. Drink stations every 5km, and km markers every km. After about 20km we came to Mestre, then on to the park, and then the long straight bridge (4km?) between the mainland and Venice. This was the toughest bit, but the reward was about 4km around the South side of Venice, over numerous bridges (all ramped, which helped), with tremendous support, and a joyful finish. A nice goody bag with a beer in it!, a chunky medal, and a quick free ferry back to the bus terminal. I finished at 13:20 and by 14:45 I was in the airport. The route is really good, and mostly flat. The finish is spectacular (including a loop in St Mark's Square in the last km), and the Italian crowd were SUPERB!