Florence Marathon...November 2010

altercor

Hey all,

So, I wasnt happy with my run at Cork at all...Had a stomach bug the day before and on the day. So to make amends and run a quicker one this year I am looking to do Florence Marathon in November. It looks flat and fast, which is nice. Has anyone had any experience with this race? If you have any thoughts or advice on the race, accomodation etc. I'd be delighted to hear it.

In particular, how you got there..Flights etc.. It seems a difficult place to get to (which means a horrible trip home :eek: )..

Thanks in advance!

asimonov

3 stars (average)

altercor wrote: »

Hey all,

So, I wasnt happy with my run at Cork at all...Had a stomach bug the day before and on the day. So to make amends and run a quicker one this year I am looking to do Florence Marathon in November. It looks flat and fast, which is nice. Has anyone had any experience with this race? If you have any thoughts or advice on the race, accomodation etc. I'd be delighted to hear it. In particular, how you got there..Flights etc.. It seems a difficult place to get to (which means a horrible trip home :eek: )..

Thanks in advance!

Hi

i did this in '09 and loved it. We outsourced our kids for the weekend and flew out to bologna with ryanair on the friday. its an easy train ride to florence from there - and you can book your tickets and seats with trenitalia before you go. A few others flew to Rome i think and went there - the final possibility is to fly to Pisa.

We had good weather for the weekend - short sleeves during the day - blue skies and around 15 degrees, though the year before it was wet. We stayed away from the hotels and went for a guest house in the city centre - but florence has outrageous amounts of accomodation. Everything is in walking distance - the expo, city centre, train station and there is a shed load of great restaurants as well.

The course is flat and fast with loads of pacers (4 per time zone), and aid stations with all the usual continental oddities (tea and cake anyone?). The caveat here is they are changing the course a little this year i think. The only difficult part of getting home will be the flight of stairs off the plane.

I've booked my place for this year already and my OH is planning on making her debut there as well.

dermCu

I'm thinking about doing Florence this year as well. I haven't done it before but asimonov's review might just tip me over the edge. Will decide in the next week or two.

hunnymonster

asimonov wrote: »

I've booked my place for this year already and my OH is planning on making her debut there as well.

fantastic. Best of luck S. from me.

asimonov

3 stars (average)

hunnymonster wrote: »

fantastic. Best of luck S. from me.

cheers HM - i'll pass it on; i don't know who she might have met recently that started her thinking about doing marathons.

hunnymonster

lol, should I point out that the TV cameras were glued to our little possie when it was Mrs Asimonov and I running, and they buggered off as soon as she handed off to you :-) Only teasing.

asimonov

3 stars (average)

hunnymonster wrote: »

lol, should I point out that the TV cameras were glued to our little possie when it was Mrs Asimonov and I running, and they buggered off as soon as she handed off to you :-) Only teasing.

i wouldn't have minded only you tried to convince me your dad with his handycam was definitely "off the telly"...and i've been watching TG4 ever since

altercor

3 stars (average)

Thanks very much for the reply Asimonov! Very informative altogether. It seems thre's loads of flight options so, which is nice. I must get on to booking it..It's a sad sign when you have done a poor marathon and about 2 hours later you're on marathonguide.com looking for the next one..

Great review, thanks for your help and best of luck with the training for Florence!

C.:D

Burgman

asimonov wrote: »

i did this in '09 and loved it. We outsourced our kids for the weekend and flew out to bologna with ryanair on the friday. its an easy train ride to florence from there - and you can book your tickets and seats with trenitalia before you go. A few others flew to Rome i think and went there - the final possibility is to fly to Pisa.

You have tempted me too after a recent disappointing marathon. However, neither Ryanair nor Aer Lingus will be operating Bologna or Pisa after the end of October as far as I can make out from their websites. Rome seems to be a possibility.

gaf1983

Entered it in 2008, I say entered because unfortunately I didn't finish, I was carrying a knee injury having ran a marathon three weeks previously and dropped out around the 10 mile mark.

Florence was very easy to get to like the previous poster said, we flew into Bologna and home from Pisa. The race was very well organised, we got a very decent race pack, including a long-sleeved running top and a windbreaker type jacket.

Course wise, it's quite flat. In a way it's quite similar to the Cork route, in that you start in the city centre then kind of do a figure of 8 running out and back along the river, through the city centre, out and back along the river again. Needless to say some of the sites along the route are breathtaking.

Unfortunately when we did it not only was the route similar to the Cork one, the weather was a carbon copy of last Bank Holiday Monday's. Although I wouldn't let that stop you, from speaking to some of the locals - including a guy who had run it every year, seemingly '08 was one of the only years when their was that much rain.

Best of luck with it.

altercor

3 stars (average)

Well, if it is anything like Cork this year it's sure to be no fun! Man, tough day out...

Yup, looks like Rome is the only option for now with Ryanair. Except the Ryanair airport for Rome is probably in Gdansk...So, getting to a train station is adding another leg on to the journey..

Anyone ever fly in to Ryanair's Rome Airport??

RayCun

Funnly enough, it looks like Ryanair fly into an airport that is actually closer to Rome than the main airport.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_Ciampino_Airport
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci-Fiumicino_Airport

runrabbit

The Ryanair airport (Ciampino) for Rome is actually closer in distance to the city centre than the main aer lingus airport (Fiumicino). i think it's around €30 in a taxi, and there is a shuttle bus too. However Fiumicino has a train station in it with trains every 20 minutes to the main train station in Rome so it's handy in that regard (especially if wanting to travel onwards by train).

Are you sure it's not just that the flights haven't been released for October onwards yet? Though they probably should have been at this stage...

altercor

3 stars (average)

Wow..Ryanair getting us closer?? Great news..Thanks guys..On Sky Scanner Aerlingus is coming out at 123e return to Rome for the Friday to the Monday..Not too bad me thinks..

asimonov

3 stars (average)

runrabbit wrote: »

Are you sure it's not just that the flights haven't been released for October onwards yet? Though they probably should have been at this stage...

this could well be the case - the marathon is on the 28th November; ryanair and aerlingus are currently showing flights from dublin to bologna for october; so chances are they are not released yet.

altercor

3 stars (average)

asimonov wrote: »

Hi

i did this in '09 and loved it. We outsourced our kids for the weekend and flew out to bologna with ryanair on the friday. its an easy train ride to florence from there - and you can book your tickets and seats with trenitalia before you go. A few others flew to Rome i think and went there - the final possibility is to fly to Pisa.

We had good weather for the weekend - short sleeves during the day - blue skies and around 15 degrees, though the year before it was wet. We stayed away from the hotels and went for a guest house in the city centre - but florence has outrageous amounts of accomodation. Everything is in walking distance - the expo, city centre, train station and there is a shed load of great restaurants as well.


The course is flat and fast with loads of pacers (4 per time zone), and aid stations with all the usual continental oddities (tea and cake anyone?). The caveat here is they are changing the course a little this year i think. The only difficult part of getting home will be the flight of stairs off the plane.

I've booked my place for this year already and my OH is planning on making her debut there as well.

Hey Asimonov! Just to let you know: I just booked my flights for Florence this year. Dublin to Bologna (As you suggested) for 61e! A bargain!! Get em while they're hot!

Hope the training is going well for you! Roll on Nov 28th!

asimonov

3 stars (average)

altercor wrote: »

Hey Asimonov! Just to let you know: I just booked my flights for Florence this year. Dublin to Bologna (As you suggested) for 61e! A bargain!! Get em while they're hot!

Hope the training is going well for you! Roll on Nov 28th!

Thanks a million for the heads-up, I was beginning to think ryanair had pulled the route from the end of october. Tickets booked last night...Training had been going well but i'm just back from two weeks holidays that were a bit of a non-event when it came to running. 16 weeks to go.

Blueskye

Booked my flights for this too, well one way to Bologna, haven't decided how/when to come back. Really good deal with Ryanair!

altercor

3 stars (average)

Good Deal is right!

Ah sure you're grand asiminov, I have to play best man at my brother's wedding at the end of August in The US...Needless to say the ol training will be difficult to maintain during that! I'll pack the runners and do my best though!

So..What kind of times are we hoping for? Im hoping for sub 3:10...That'd be Christmas early for me :D

asimonov

3 stars (average)

I haven't fixed on a time target yet; I'll wait till to see what kind of shape I'm in with a few weeks to go. But I imagine it will end up somewhere in or around the 2:50 - 2:55 range.

Slogger Jogger

asimonov wrote: »

I haven't fixed on a time target yet; I'll wait till to see what kind of shape I'm in with a few weeks to go. But I imagine it will end up somewhere in or around the 2:50 - 2:55 range.

Secure those gels this time around and you'll go faster

asimonov

3 stars (average)

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Secure those gels this time around and you'll go faster

thanks SJ, but i've been practicing dropping and picking them up on my lsr's....specificity and all that

altercor

3 stars (average)

That'd be a great time Asimonov! Is it a fast enough course so?? Man, I'd love to get under the 3:10...

asimonov

3 stars (average)

altercor wrote: »

That'd be a great time Asimonov! Is it a fast enough course so?? Man, I'd love to get under the 3:10...

its very, very flat, at the expo last year they were warning about a hill around mile 16 and how best to handle it in terms of pacing...turned out it was just a bridge about 40m long. There are lots of turns on it, some of them quite tight so that slows things down a little.

Its a slightly different course this year but there's a lot of time between now and then to prepare for whatever target you pick.

altercor

3 stars (average)

That's good to hear! I do love the flat... Roll on November so!

altercor

3 stars (average)

Any idea what kind of energy drinks if any are en-route? Im just getting that sorted in the lsrs now and the ol gels aren't feeling the best in my stomach at all..THe website says there will be water and tea???!! Will Miss Doyle be there too? Is she a decent runner??

asimonov

3 stars (average)

altercor wrote: »

Any idea what kind of energy drinks if any are en-route? Im just getting that sorted in the lsrs now and the ol gels aren't feeling the best in my stomach at all..THe website says there will be water and tea???!! Will Miss Doyle be there too? Is she a decent runner??

Enervit are the sports nutrition sponsor, so i'd imagine they are enervit. But I don't remember sports drinks being given out - there were electrolyte / salt drinks there but i didn't try them and i don't know if they have carbohydrate in them. I found the enervit gels to be pretty nice especially the lemon flavour / cola flavour as they weren't as cloying as the usual orange ones. You can buy enervit gels mainly from cycling shops here (cycleways etc) so maybe try them first. Hope training is going well...starting to get good and close now.

altercor

3 stars (average)

Great..CHeers for the heads-up..That is interesting alright.. The ol energy drinks are handy. Ah well..

Training is going great, clocking consistent mileage and mixing it up with a bit of speed work too. Fingers crossed I'm fit and healthy at the start line..

BEst of luck with the rest of it!

Any recommendations for accomodation. I've looked a bit but not found anything yet really..

hot to trot

4 stars (good)

I have had to withdraw from venice marathon but have Ryanair flights that I need to dispose of. Is the consensus that ryanair gets you pretty close to do this?
Considering it... First post seems very encouraging.:)

hot to trot

4 stars (good)

Ryanair are flying 18.50 each way ( no taxes and charges) but they are going out only on Saturday am and not returning until Tuesday. To Pisa.

asimonov

3 stars (average)

We're planning on staying in a guesthouse in the centre, must book it though! Did you get your medical?

Hot to trot, you can fly in and out of bologna on the Friday - Monday and take the train.

dermCu

altercor wrote: »

Any idea what kind of energy drinks if any are en-route??

Is that not what girlfriends and wives are for? - To stand shivering at a remote spot exactly 8.725954 miles from the start of a marathon furiously waving a bottle of Lucozade sport with two gels stuck to it???? I joke but that is what I do. Sometimes its not easy to get to the correct spot on the course but she always does the business. It takes a weight of your mind to know exactly what you'll take on board and when.

Apart from the hotel I'm all booked. Looking forward to it.

altercor

3 stars (average)

Nope..No medical yet. Still havent officially entered! Must go about doing that I reckon!:o

Did a tough 17mile yesterday using the method of accellerating to race pace for the final 5-7 miles. Great idea...Sore today though! Step back week this week... mmmm...

asimonov

3 stars (average)

altercor wrote: »

Nope..No medical yet. Still havent officially entered! Must go about doing that I reckon!:o

Did a tough 17mile yesterday using the method of accellerating to race pace for the final 5-7 miles. Great idea...Sore today though! Step back week this week... mmmm...

yes, an entry would be good.

I did a very similar run yesterday - 2hr's with 30' warm up, 60' steady-fast and 30' at threshold. it hurtses. I'm on a step back week this week as well, but pacing 90' at the cliffs of moher half marathon on saturday which should be fun.

asimonov

3 stars (average)

dermCu wrote: »

Is that not what girlfriends and wives are for? - To stand shivering at a remote spot exactly 8.725954 miles from the start of a marathon furiously waving a bottle of Lucozade sport with two gels stuck to it???? I joke but that is what I do. Sometimes its not easy to get to the correct spot on the course but she always does the business. It takes a weight of your mind to know exactly what you'll take on board and when.

Apart from the hotel I'm all booked. Looking forward to it.

I did that last year, but we forgot to agree which side of the road. By the time I saw her it was too late - i didn't want to lose momentum by stopping and crossing the road - it was one of a number of gel fails in that race.

altercor

3 stars (average)

asimonov wrote: »

I did that last year, but we forgot to agree which side of the road. By the time I saw her it was too late - i didn't want to lose momentum by stopping and crossing the road - it was one of a number of gel fails in that race.

I'm flying solo for the marathon! First time ever doing it solo without my girlfriend to stuff me with jelly beans and sympathetic looks! Hence my enquiries about the race energy supplements..

Threshold is the fancy word for this marathon.. Been focusing on heart rates and zones a lot and it's really reaping rewards. My cruising pace is getting a whole lot faster. It's nice to feel some progression, no?

Best of luck with The Cliffs race. I'd be very interested in hearing about that one. I'd say it'd be epic! MUst pencil it in to next years plans.

altercor

3 stars (average)

Entered! Im race number 2639! Now I gotta find a doctor crooked enough to call me healthy!

asimonov

3 stars (average)

Accommodation booked at last - we're staying in the same guest house as last year - its called ill villino. We only have to do the doctor thing and then that's all the red tape taken care of.

How's training going altecor? 8 weeks from this Sunday....

I'm on the search for a 10mile / Half Marathon in November but there appears to be very little on after the DCM.

hot to trot

4 stars (good)

HOw LATE do you need. NOt sure when the Kinnnity Castle half marathon is on , but I think its November

asimonov

3 stars (average)

hot to trot wrote: »

HOw LATE do you need. NOt sure when the Kinnnity Castle half marathon is on , but I think its November

Thanks HTT - ideally 4 weeks out from the marathon - so around the first week of november. i'll check that out now. Are you still contemplating florence or is it off the list?

hot to trot

4 stars (good)

Still thinking about it. I want to attend a headache course and if I get on it , I doubt I will get away for an extra weekend. Still keeping an eye on flights etc. I think It would be a lovely one to do and as I have decided to go to Venice with my mate, I would definitley need another one before December as there is no guarantee I will make it past 25 miles there, and I need a decent finishing time .

asimonov

3 stars (average)

asimonov wrote: »

Thanks HTT - ideally 4 weeks out from the marathon - so around the first week of november. i'll check that out now. Are you still contemplating florence or is it off the list?

mmm. that's on the 27th of november so a tad too close - but thanks anyway!...funnily on the kinnity half marathon website here - its says that timing is going to be "chip and pin"

asimonov

3 stars (average)

hot to trot wrote: »

Still thinking about it. I want to attend a headache course and if I get on it , I doubt I will get away for an extra weekend. Still keeping an eye on flights etc. I think It would be a lovely one to do and as I have decided to go to Venice with my mate, I would definitley need another one before December as there is no guarantee I will make it past 25 miles there, and I need a decent finishing time .

Is it the bridge that's the problem in venice? The big bridge that connects it to the mainland or the pontoon they use especially for the marathon?

hot to trot

4 stars (good)

The pontoon thingy. I am about 70% better than years ago and I am pretty sure I will get across the big one from the mainland, probably crying and snivelling but I feel sick in my stomach and feel like chucking, not to mention galloping heart rate every time I even think of the other thing.
Are there any significant bridges in Florence? Havent checked the route yet. Its usually the deciding factor

asimonov

3 stars (average)

hot to trot wrote: »

The pontoon thingy. I am about 70% better than years ago and I am pretty sure I will get across the big one from the mainland, probably crying and snivelling but I feel sick in my stomach and feel like chucking, not to mention galloping heart rate every time I even think of the other thing.
Are there any significant bridges in Florence? Havent checked the route yet. Its usually the deciding factor

There are two small bridges..nothing to be concerned about, they looked solid enough

hot to trot

4 stars (good)

Run the Gauntlet is definitley on November 21st. Is that too close also? Its basically a hilly half marathon in Kerry. Irishfit run it.

asimonov

3 stars (average)

hot to trot wrote: »

Run the Gauntlet is definitley on November 21st. Is that too close also? Its basically a hilly half marathon in Kerry. Irishfit run it.

yeah, I think its a bit close - ideally it would 4 or even 5 weeks out (same weekend as dublin / venice). Its the price you pay for doing a late november marathon. I hope you get to enjoy venice (or florence) - they'd both be good events.

hot to trot

4 stars (good)

Ah I see. I thought you were doing Dublin and were looking for a half in between.

hot to trot

4 stars (good)

Decision made:D. Im definitley going to tackle this one.

Going to get flights and bookings in the morning. I reckon about 7 weeks of training left and if I make a real effort and keep at the recent excursion in to hills and speedwork I might be able to knock out a faster time than the usual.
Question is now... what way to approach Athlone 3/4 on Sunday? Do I give it a lash for the sub 4 group and see how I manage it and also to see how long I can hang on or just do it as a slow run and go hard at the training next week instead. Or maybe both .
Just have to organise 2.5 days off work. Bummer .

altercor

3 stars (average)

Hey Asimonov! Thats great to hear that you are sorted except for the doc. Must get on to booking accomodation soon. training is going well, until yesterday afternoon. I did my first 20 (of 3) yesterday morning with a tad bit of a sore throat. I told myself to stop making excuses and get out and do it. So, I did it and really enjoyed it. However a few hours later I was totally zonked with fluey symptoms. Freaking out that i'll miss crucial days at this important stage. I have a lot of mileage done but I really wanted to target the next three-four weeks to get my speed up.

All I can do is rest! Bugger...

We'll also have to post what singlet/tshirt we'll be running in on the day so we can shout some encouragement should we come across one of the posters here..

hot to trot

4 stars (good)

You having a wardrobe moment already?

I was going to wear my little irish tricolour singlet but the tops we got in the athlone 3/4 today are so nice I might wear that.
Must book accommodation myself this week. I presume anywhere central is ok?