Rome Marathon Pacer Story: Balloons, Shawarma, Beer & World Record

Paul Vining(MM15580) – Late post, but been busy.
Friday: Arrived in Rome, picked up race packets, attended pacer technical briefing, walk around a bit, went to bed a bit early to recover from jetlag. 27,500 steps
Saturday: Ran a 5k Fun Run in Rome, kind of a shakeout run, lots of families, kids, dogs, and all sorts of runner, great event, a great shirt and a quarter sized medal, but for $10 it was a GREAT deal, i would say ~8000 participants, still managed an easy 10:00/mile pace, had fun. 28,000 steps
Sunday: I woke up at ~4:30am, pacer meeting at 6:15, in corrals with balloons by 7:30. My pace group actually crossed the starting line ~9:20. Beautiful weather for a marathon, overcast and 45 degrees at the start, warmed up a little, a few sprinkles. Route this year had a few more cobblestones, a tunnel (but a redbull station with cups of redbull waiting for us at kilometer 37 🙂 ) Crowds along the last 5k or so were great. Lots of first time runners with us, one who hadn’t even run anything longer than a half previously, but he did great. A few in the group got a PR that day.
After the marathon, the entire pace team was treated to a nice ceremony with a Guiness Book of World Records representative, and we were presented with the record for the largest marathon pace team, 252 members, very proud moment. I finished with an official time of 6:14:23, just 37 seconds early.
Post race, Suman Silwal and I walked 2.7 miles back to our hotel and to stretch our legs. I gave my 2 pace balloons to some children on the way. We got to meet a guy that ran the race (and Lndon) in a full rhino costume, it was very humbling for him to tell us were awesome for pacing. Next we stoped by a shawarma spot we eat at every time we are in Rome, and the owner was happy to see us and gave us some free baclava for running he race. Finally, when we got to the hotel, Suman gave his balloon to the host at the hotel, we took photos with him and he gave us a couple of bottles of beer 🙂 Great day and feeling on top of the world. 78,000 steps
Monday: I just slowly wandered around Rome for a few hours, had some gelato, the place where I wanted to get some Tiramisu (Two Sizes) was sadly closed on Monday 🙁 . I got in 7.8 miles of walking and still managed to get in 20,000 steps. Headed back tomorrow, back to reality.