Ah! Roma!

Its hard to imagine an area so old! but when you gaze at the Coliseum you can almost hear the crowds cheering for and against the Gladiators! It's a stunning building - even as only about half of the structure remains!

I thought nothing in the realm of antiquity could compare to Florence - but wow these places are old! Parts of structures in the ancient city dating back to the third and fourth century BC. To come to an area as old as parts of Rome is almost overwhelming!

It seems that this city has continued to build on top of itself. Every few years it appears that someone will want to tear a building down and lo and behold a discovery will be found that dates back hundreds and even thousand of years. In 1926 two business men wanted to build some luxury apartments Well as they started to dig, a discovery came to light - that dates the building materials back to about the 3rd or 4th century BC. This is called Area Sacra d'ell Argentina.

The other amazing ruins area is the Forum and the Palatine Hill - first of all the area is absolutely huge - blocks and blocks of ruins!! We had no idea how big this area would be.

Those Romans - I'll tell you - its incredible how "organized" their civilization was - primitive of course - especially their probable treatment of human life. We had seen models of that central Rome -in some ways its hard to imagine it was over two thousand years ago. Then a collapse - during the dark ages.

One of my favourite spots is simply a wide open field, but your imagine can run wild! Circus Maximus - we ran by or through this area everyday. I would pretend I could hear the chariots and horses, with crowds cheering as I ran through this area!

The antiquity of Rome was simply mind-boggling! Being Canadian

a country that really parts only date back 400-500 years and that is in Eastern Canada. Western Canada is still a relatively a new land! I really felt humbled being in this land. I felt really happy that we could come to this city and discover probably some of the roots of humankind! To think of all these buildings and land that have been preserved and hopefully for years to come for many to see, really lightens my heart. To appreciate as humans where we have come from is very important. To know one's, heritage provides depth to our lives!

As we continued our Rome journey, one very important site that I wanted to view was the Vatican and St. Peter's. There was a strong draw for me to see St. Peter's. Having Catholism as part of my life, seeing the Vatican and St. Peters had special meaning for me.

The Vatican museum was simply immense. Room after Room of masterpieces was almost mind numbing. What a wealth of history. One of the amazing rooms housed the Sistine Chapel. A room full of people just gazing at that ceiling. The years it took to pain that ceiling. And then centuries to keep it intact and clean for generations following. I thought of all the wars that could potentially have caused damage... and still it stands for those of us in 2008.

After we left the museum we walked to St. Peters square, I could almost imagine a huge crowd there as we walked around the square.

As we entered St. Peter's Basilica I felt a sense of serious serenity. This was one of those moments that you know you will remember for the rest of your life. As we walked around and viewed the side altars, just taking in the most important Catholic church in the world. It was at that time I felt I was here for my entire family including my parents who couldn't be here. My emotions rose to the surface as continued through this incredible church.

I felt very satisfied as we left the St. Peters. This was one of the sites on my "list" of places to see in my life.

Ah Roma!

Florence- I love it!!

The next couple of days in Florence proved to be just as enjoyable as the first ones. We were feeling very comfortable walking and running around.

One of my favourite runs was across the Arno River and up the hill to the Michaelangelo Park - there on top of the hill was another David!! Surrounded by tourists and kiosks for souvenirs - the area boasted the best view to be found of the centre of Florence

As we ran a little further up the hill we came to a beautiful church called San Miniato. For about the last two hundred years it had been cared for by the Domenicans.the church, itself dates back to the 1200's!!

Of course another highlight was the Uffizi - one of the oldest museums in the world - boasting beautiful works of art by Botticelli, Leonarda da Vinci and even Rembrandt. One of the interesting sections was the hallway lined with Roman busts. Everything is so old compared to what our history in Canada is.

As we readied ourselves to leave Florence - I knew I would really miss the city and our hotel. The staff at the small 20 room hotel called the Hotel Davanzati were really in the service industry - they knew how to look after their patrons. I can honestly say we really felt spoiled!

Firenze I miss you already!!!

I Love Firenze!!!

I am ashamed to say I knew very little about Florence up until about a week ago. We arrived on Sunday evening the 9th of November - one day after Rick had completed his 100km race.

The train ride from Tarquinia to Florence proved to be very interesting. On the platform of Tarquinia train station we met Giovanni who boasted the Tshirt and medal of the race. I tried my very limited Italian with him and he was extremely patient and receptive to my attempt.

During our train ride I happily gave him one of my Canadian pins. In exchange he somehow saved Rick and I about $100E in a train penalty!!! The train station was closed in Tarquinia and there were no machines - so we thought we could buy the ticket on the train - wrong!! Thankfully Giovanni had our fine reduced form $50E to $5E. Then he even gave us a bottle of wine!

We parted ways at Pisa - where we caught the train for Florence. We survived the train ride and found the taxi queue outside the station. Finding the Davanzati Hotel was easy after that.

We were greeted very enthusiastically by Tommaso and assisted with our bags up a huge flight of stairs!! Eager to welcome us - it seemed our room wasn't ready - so we were upgraded to a suite!! beautiful and lots of room to feel comfortable in. We were invited later for happy hour that occurs every night with candlelight, great Italian music, some appies and great chianti!!

Really, I could get used to this. Tommaso also booked us reservations for dinner at Ristorante natalino!

The first day we spent just wandering in the old town and checking out the Ponte Vecchio, and so many of the small narrow streets that Florence has to offer.

The centre of Florence was very easily navigated on foot.

We found a very nice little place for pizza - which as it turned out became of our staples each day!!!

By Day 2 we ( or should I say Rick ) knew our way around. We easily made our way to the Academia where we stood and admired David for at least 30 minutes. There are very few places that you could feel comfortable looking at a nude with many others around - and looking at David was one of those times!! As we looked at the amazing sculpture - we continually heard the attendant say in English but with a very Italian accent "No Photo!" Of course there were those sneaking a photo now and then.

Closeby and another favourite landmark of mine was the Duomo - we just called it the Domo! what an amazing church. One thing about Italy they sure did churches well!

The streets of Florence were very runnable and each day we would head out in a different direction. I think my favourite run was often along the Arno river where we would eventually end up at the Ponte Vecchia - the bridge with all the buildings on it - which is simply a pedestrian bridge with shops on it. We were quite the pair - off running in all directions! what a great way to see Florence!

The Italian Journey

Italia Arriva!! Wow our two plus day adventure to get to Italy was accomplished. Our final destination was Tarquinia. This is a small town at the very southern end of Tuscany. It dates back three thousand years to the time of the Etruscans. These people like many others were overtaken by the Romans. It was a very historic town with many old walls and buildings.

This town is where the race would finish. The start of the 100km journey would take place about 35 km up the road in another town called Tusania.

Rick and I had two days to acclimatize to our new race home. The part of Tarquinia that we stayed in was called Lido di Tarquinia, that is the beach of Tarquinia. This part of the town actually looked deserted. Shuttered windows on all the buildings. A resort town mostly accessed during the summer.

We were watching each day to see what the weather was like. Quite warm when the sun was shining - it seemed about 16 C. And actually cool when it was cloudy. But for the race - as long as it wasn't raining it could be tolerable, well at least for the support crew!!

Saturday morning started early with breakfast for the runners and crew at about 630am. At 715am promtly the bus left for the start of the race in Tuscania. The crew, well we had a few more minutes to get the althletes supplies loaded into the car. We had no idea what time the roads would be closed to traffic, so after a recon trip last night in the dark!, we had least had a vague idea where to go!! Thank goodness Shauna and Jack had rented a car, otherwise we would have had no way to get the supplies to each of the aid stations. Well thats not quite true, we could have relied on the organizers to get them there for us - but we weren't going to take any chances.

As we each reached our station where we would spend the next many hours waiting for and supporting our runners, I was surprised to see the only tell tale sign that we were in the right area were two!! porta-potties in place. Most of the rest of the set up, tables, signs, supplies would not arrive until 1-2 hours before we were expecting our first runners. There were many, including myself who were feeling the uncertainty about whether our station would be ready, and feeling extremely grateful that we had brought our own supplies. We, the Canadian team, would be ready for our runners!!!

The day was partly cloudy but when the sun shone - it was very warm. We were concerned for our runners and worked very hard to make sure they had the necessary supplies when they passed or simply ran (Glen!!) through our station. It was a grueling and very difficult race as we could see on the faces of many of the runners. The heat, the cool, and the hills provided with runners with difficult challenges.

As Rick reached our aid station for the first time, which would have been about 41km he looked really good and had a smile for all the support crew. He took what he needed and headed off for the first circuit of the 14km loop, which they would have to do four times. By the second time round he was still smiling and said "I'm feeling pretty good!" He looked good and his time seemed very much at the pace that he had wanted to be.

As he approached us for the third time, with his great smile, I knew then he was having the race of his life. Many other contestants had either dropped out or had dropped back. He was looking good and said he was feeling very good. If he continued on well, he would be to the finish line with perhaps a personal best! As we prepared to leave the station and take the bags to the finish line to have them in place for the runners when they completed their Italian epic journey. I felt very excited for Rick, if he could continue to maintain his pace.... wow!

Thank-you to Paul who stayed to man the station, we made our way to the finish line, bags in tow to await the finishers!

Of course, the finish line was just so exciting! The first place runner was an Italian. The crowd was going wild. So about 6 hours and 40 minutes after the start of the 100km race the finisher crossed the finish line!

But , we were looking for the first Canadian to finish... which would take a little longer.

As we anxiously awaited and continued to look at our watches, we could feel the excitement build!

There he was! And he still looked strong! Rick was crossing the finish line in very fine form. His finishing time was 7 hours 39 minutes 50 seconds.

Not only was he the first Canadian to cross the finish line but he had broken the Canadian Masters Record for the 100km! The previous time had been set in 1997 - 7:50:06!! The Masters are athletes 50 and over. Wow, I was definitely excited and even shed a couple of excited tears! I felt so proud of him!! And he was still walking!!

As each of the athletes completed their Italian 100km journey, we took great pride in our Canadian team that each one of them finished this race, some happy with their times and performances others glad they had been able to cross the finish line!!

Great work team - athletes, support crew and the great management work by Armand, Lise and Nadeem!

Anticipating Italy!

In the days following the race, I had this warm feeling inside of accomplishment. I didn't run on the Sunday following the race. I was just too tired and actually my quads probably wouldn't have let me run anyway!

By late in the week I was back to running . I did start thinking about the upcoming weekend and knew that I would want to accompany Rick on one of his long weekend runs on the bike. I wasn't sure if my body would want to or not!

As I settled back into my daily routines again. I found myself very comtemplative about my lifestyle. If you had asked me five years ago what my life would look like now - I would never have suspected that I would on a daily basis run before work! pillow hugging is much more comfortable. And bike riding - who would have thought that I would like it. Feeling good about the Melissa's run was expected in some ways, but really, feeling good about being able to ride a bike while Rick trains made me feel as if I was truly part of the support crew!

During the weeks following my race, Rick has continuted his intense training. And at least once a week we head into Fish Creek Park, or load the bike into the van and head out in another direction. Rick would run between 40 and 50km, while I can honestly say, I struggle at times to keep up with him while I was on the bike!

As we count down the days until we leave for Italy, I realize how much fun I've had over the last few months, running and bike riding. I know I'll be able to enjoy the race and even more so enjoy the touring we will do after the run - maybe even some running on the cobblestone roads!

Race Day Dawns Early (but not too early)!

Sleeping in on a race day is a runner's worst nightmare, except if the race starts at 10:30 in the morning. How civilized! With only one wake up around 3 am and minimal anxiety at that time, the pre-race sleep was great.

The plan was to leave the hotel around 9:15, head to Starbucks then McDonalds - definitely not my race day breakfast, but we had to provide appropriate sustenance for the one member of the support crew! Who knew that the long line up, would be at McDonald's - not Starbucks. So we abandoned John in the McDonalds line up, as my anxiety about getting to the starting line on time got the better of me. That is another nightmare - racing to the starting line. Usually the nightmare revolves around Rick not getting to the start line on time - he is notorious for making me nervous about the start of the race.

As we arrived at the Banff Recreation field - the first thing that I noticed was the long line of porta-potties. There had to be enough, so that the wait wouldn't be too bad. Well, forget that! The line up was so slow, we'd never make it to the start line on time.

I did make it on time. We watched the three thousand runners start the 10k run. It must have taken 6 or 7 minutes for all of them to pass the start line!

Watching for the big guy to arrive was a little stressful - I needed my other support crew member to see me off as well. At last he arrived, McDonald's bag in hand, a big smile and hug for his mom and I was off to the start line.

It was really happening! And we were off! The neatest thing was hearing all the chips beep as we crossed the start line. As I watched for my support crew guys, I realized that this was it this was the race I had been training for since the spring. Pressure was on. Running along with the crowds. How exciting and then there were my guys - both with cameras. Photo taken and they were off to run alongside the crowd, jump ahead and get more photos.

Wait, what was John doing, running further and further. This normally wouldn't be a big deal, but really, he just sprained his ankle about 2 weeks ago! This actually could be good - I had someone else to worry about besides myself!!

The first three kilometers were fine, but then I started to feel my lower back. The discomfort didn't last past 8 kilometers, although an advil or two might have been helpful! What really helped was the amazing views! Through the woods then an open space where the mountains towered over us. So far the weather was perfect a little cool, no breeze and no rain. I managed to keep a lot of the same runners in sight. I ran without walking for the first 10k or so, then stopped and walked at the aid station. My support crew kept pace. Lots of photos, so many in fact many of the other runners thought they were the professional race photographers! Every couple of kilometers I would check with John about his ankle! Up until 12 km or so it was good. But then he started to feel it. Fortunately we were returning to the start area - which was about 15km - there he would rest. He was one of my two heroes that day - who eats a McDonalds breakfast, runs 15km on a sprained ankled and still has lots of smiles and warm words of encouragement for his Mom!

Rick, on the other hand, who happend to be my other hero! kept on moving - running ahead taking photos, then running on.! Who does that? Only an ultramarathoner.

Those last 7 kilometers were tougher as there was a couple of hills - which I managed to run! but it was seeing the other runners coming back at you from the turn around point. They were where I wanted to be! I slowed down at the 19km aid station and walked while I drank the water, I knew if I didn't get going very soon, the walking would feel too good! Onward, moving forward now. Down the last hill, through the trees and then I could hear the loud speakers. Almost done - literally! Wow - what a great feeling to see the finish line - and then finished. I couldn't believe it! I completed 22 km in 2 hours and 30 minutes. Yes, I know, there are some (including one of my support crew) who have run a marathon in that time, but for me it was a great feeling of accomplishment! Did I want to cry, for sure! even more I think I really needed a nap!

As for my support crew - they did a great job - lots of emotional support and words of encouragement, so many photos and even acknowledgement that I looked like a real runner! Could I ask for anything more! Not at all!