Catching UP

As my friend David mentioned in a comment below I am long overdue for a posting. I still haven't written about the great time we had in London - which included a musically and socially splendid evening with David and Jeremy. Nor about the Hounds of Hell's first birthday. Nor From the House of the Dead at La Scala. Nor the visit to some incredible places here in Roma. Nor the Mefistofele last week at our own Opera House. Nor.. Nor... Lord the list does seem endless. I won't go into the mundane and dreary reasons for the paucity of posts recently just say that I hope I am getting back on track and that I am now up and running.

And speaking of being on track and running I did the Rome Marathon today. Well okay I didn't actually do the Marathon, more like Laurent, Larry, Walter and I watched our friend (and Larry's partner) Vincenzo run the Marathon. The four of us walked leisurely around the city stopping in for coffee and cornetti, a quick visit into one or two churches and a longer visit into the Monastery of Santa Santa Francesca Romana. However we did stop at several prearranged points to cheer Vin on and lend him our support. And there are to be no unseemly jokes about me being an athletic supporter!

The 42.195 km course began and ended at the Colesseo and covered both sides of the river and most of the major streets and sights. We waited at the Temple of Hercules (km 10) then went over to the Ara Pacis (km 35), on to the Corso (km 38) and finally greeted him back at the Colesseo. The official count indicated that there were 15,346 runners (8,834 Italians, 6,512 from abroad) taking part. I must say I was impressed with the organization that went into it as a spectator and Vin and Larry both commented on how well things were set up for the participants. This is the 50th anniversary of the Rome Olympics and Olympic Gold for the barefoot Ethiopian runner Abebe Bikila, who won the Marathon that year in 2:15:16.2. This year it was won by another Ethiopian Siraj Gena, who ran the last 300m barefoot in tribute to the groundbreaking achievement of his countryman. He took top place with a time of 2:08:39. It was a double win for Ethiopia with first place in the women's race going to Firehiwot Dado with time of 2:25:28.

And that would be our Vin in the red passing by the Ara Pacis in the top photo and a few km later along the Corso. It was a bit strange, at the two other points the crowds had been vocal in their cheering and encouragement but on Corso it was a silent bunch. In fact Walter's cheers were met with scowls from several of the better-heeled Romani. I guess one doesn't cheer in front of Armani?
Larry was at the finish line with a Winnie the Pooh balloon - what can we say, Vin has a thing about bears - and flowers to congratulate our marathoner.

And here's our Vin with his first Marathon medal. He completed the run in a time of 3:54:31.

Complementi caro, siamo fieri di ti!

21 marzo - Sant'Elia eremita