Marathon in Trieste, Italy

        The first weekend of May we headed to Trieste, Italy. The purpose of our trip was to run…26.2 miles to be exact!  Taylor ran a half marathon and I ran a full. We went a couple of days early to see the town. 

On our way there, we stopped by a town called Grado that is on the coast. It supposedly has great beaches. It was a little chilly that afternoon and the public beach we were on was not that great. We stopped long enough to have lunch at a beach - side grill.

This is where the umbrellas go.

We loved Trieste! It is a port town of about 220,000 people. It is sandwiched between Slovenia and the Adriatic Sea. It has Austrian, Croatian, Slovenian, and German influence. 

Miramar Castle was built in 1856 for Archduke Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian and his wife, Charlotte of Belgium.

During WWII Germans inhabited the castle. After the area was liberated, U.S. troops made the castle it's headquarters for its peacekeeping areas. This plaque is there in remembrance of the 7 years they were there. 

Around the town of Trieste...

Taylor took this sign literally. 

At the marathon expo they had a Zumba trio do a workout on stage. There were tons of people in the audience doing their little work out routine. 

Piazza della Unita opens up to the harbor. This is where the finish line was. 

The first Buick we have seen in Europe. 

This huge yacht was tied up in the Harbor. It's name is Montezuma II and belongs to some Mexican billionaire.  

View from the top of the town. 

One of the nights we ate at this amazing German restaurant. Taylor ordered a plate of various meat and potatoes. It was a ton of food!

We visited the San Sabba concentration camp which is the only one in Italy that had a crematorium in in. Most of it was blown up by the Germans towards the end of the war. 

These are the small cells where they kept the prisoners. It said that they were at least 5 people to a cell. 

The tall steel structure is where they think the chimney was located. 

The long piece of paper belonged to one of the Jews in the concentration camp. She had written down the names and birthdays of other women in the camp. 

A few nights shots around town. 

My friend Tara taking pictures. She is a really good photographer. 

We stayed at a little B&B and when I talked to the guy on the phone about parking he said that he had a car box we could use. I was curious to see what this car box was about and it turned out that it was just as he he said…a car box.

Kind of resembles a storage building. 

Race Day!! 

The race was Sunday and the full marathon started at 9:00 and the half started at 10:15. They bussed us over to the town we started in. The 5 ladies that ran the full were me, Stacy, Annette, Dwanna, and Tara. Tara's husband Chad ran it as well.

Days before the race the forecast was 100% chance of rain all day, then thunderstorms in the late afternoon. I was expecting the worst. Luckily it rained on us a little at the beginning and then again towards the end, but nothing too hard. It actually felt pretty nice.     

       Here it is raining at the start line. 

Chad and Tara.

Stacy, Annette, and Dwanna

Me, Stacy, and Annette

Annette and Dwanna running through the first little village. 

Some of the images are a little distorted because I took them with my iPhone. 

Chad

Chad and Tara

Annette and Dwanna

Stacy

I had so much fun running this marathon! I loved running through the towns with the people on the side cheering us on! I think this is the closest I will to get to feeling like a movie star, so I soaked in every minute. I waved and said Ciao to everyone! 

Dwanna and Stacy on one of the slight hills.

This was one of our drink stops. There was a sea of red cups on the ground. This is the only time I get to litter! I'm not going to lie, it still kind of hurt my heart when I threw my cup on the ground. 

The views we had at the end of the marathon were awesome! 

These are pictures that Taylor took at the finish line. These are our friends, the Bower's, that ran the half marathon. 

The guy in blue on the left cracks me up. He really wanted to beat Brandy!

Annette and I ran together the second half of the race. This was at the very end. 

I was so happy to be almost done!!

Turning the corner for the finish.

Annette beat her PR by 10 minutes this marathon. I was so happy for her!

Here come Tara and Chad!

This was a cute picture…these two kids joined their Dad a the very end. 

Here comes Stacy!

Here comes Dwanna!

Taylor did awesome! He finished the half marathon in 1:54. And that was with a hurt foot! I finished in  4:32. The weather held out and I felt good the entire time. Annette and I felt good enough to increase our pace quite a bit towards the end. My brother-in-law, Joseph, runs a lot of full and half marathons and he told me that after you finish your first marathon you will either love it and want to run another one, or be glad that you did it once and never want to do it again. I definitely want to run another one some time. I really enjoyed getting to know the ladies that I trained with and I just love all the energy and excitement on the day of the race. 

My friend Tara and I. It was Tara who asked me if I wanted to run the half marathon at Lake Maggiore. It is because of her that I met all these amazing ladies and was able to train for the races.

There was a big pasta party after the marathon!

One last picture on our way out of town