Marathon done

I woke to a very very wet marathon day! Early breakfast at the hotel then I caught the subway to the marathon start - located near a very cool expo building that was definitely an architectural highlight. Given the weather hundreds of us milled about in the carpark waiting for the start. I had paced some of those little sack things that heat up when you expose them to the air, so mostly kept the chill at bay. The course was flat a wound through farmland initially, including a sweet little town that was a picture perfect image of a "little Italy". Coming into the city I saw a bunch of other sights as well but the real highlight had to be running around the Duomo. It really is an impressive building. Given the weather I was surprised at the number of folks out cheering. It really is true, Italians are very expressive - even if I didn't know what they were saying ('go' does sound a lot like 'die' when you are running tho....). Rose and Jo met me at mile 20, so a real boost to get me through the last 6. It really did rain the entire time and some puddles were unavoidable. Yay for the best running socks in the world, no blisters! Rose and Jo met me at the end with my chocolate milk (and dry clothes) then we caught the subway back to the hotel. Now to find somewhere to eat!