Lo Sport (The Florence Marathon)

While Trey and Olivia continue to spend time on tennis and swimming, the subject of sport has been reduced to virtually nil for yours truly. No golf, no college hoops on the tube, not a clue as to who is number one in college pig skin (Then again, neither are any of you with the ridiculousness that is the College Bowl Series!) only an occasional Steeler game broadcast via the web on nfl.com. So out of a bit of desperation, we decided to attend the 26th annual Florence Marathon! The main reason that we attended on a drizzly Sunday morning was that the owner and two waiters from one of our favorite local Trattoria’s were running in the race and we wanted to show our support. In total, 7500 people from various parts of Italy, Africa and the US ran the race (Rita actually met one of the runners from America on her flight over to Italy!). The race started at 9:00 am at Piazza Michaelangelo and finished 26 miles later at the Church of Santa Croce (The church where Michaelangelo is buried!) Anna, Rita, the kids and I showed up at the finish line at around 11:15 shortly after the first few dozen runners crossed the tape. For the next two hours, our sole responsibility was to breath whatever energy we had into those whose tank was running low and had only a quarter mile to the tape. One by one, man and woman passed us, some in pain, others in ecstasy as their goal was about to be fulfilled. In a former life (Some 23 years ago) I ran in two half marathons (13 miles) while a cross country runner in high school. I swore that I would never EVER do something so crazy again, much less run twice that far. No, the three miles I run every day on the treadmill is plenty. But something happened that day, as I watched those runners celebrate their accomplishment in the shroud of Trey’s and Rita’s cheers of “Bravo”, an appreciation for the amazing sacrifice that a runner has to make of both their body and mind to finish a race of that distance. I’m not referring to the professional runners of course. I’m referencing the folks that crossed the tape that are just like all of us, the housewives, the waiters, the grandfathers who sucked it up and made it for 26 miles. Heck, I was so inspired, that I made a deal with Trey that in ten years (When he is 19 and I am 50) that if he runs a marathon, I will run it with him!

For us, it was surprisingly one of the more enjoyable days that we have had since coming to Italy. Rita had a blast as well. Why was it so fun to stand for two hours and cheer for total strangers? I think that the answer is human nature. Its fun to help others I guess. These were people in dire need of energy and we had it to give. It was fun to see their reaction when we shouted out our encouragement, when we turned their grimace to a smile.