After about an hour and a half of running, we had the "fine corso" van right next to us taking the course down. I didn't think they'd do that til at least 3 hours into the race. First, it pissed me off, then depressed me severely and those damned vans were with me until at least 16 miles or so. I wanted to quit about every 20 minutes even though physically I felt really great the mind can really play tricks on you, finally I started to call the guy driving the van my bf. He was cheering for me the entire time after all and just doing his job. After I reached the halfway mark I stopped looking at my watch and stopped worrying if I was going to make it in the 6 hours or not and just told myself over and over to keep going. At about mile 16 I joined a group of girls from SF Aids marathon - thank god for them the company kept me going, I had been alone for while at that point. One of the girls asked me why I do this, I didn't have an answer. It was her first marathon and my fourth, she hated it and at that moment I did too. At mile 25, the watch beeped and the girl I was with said hmmm that's 6 hours...I was amazed, I couldn't believe we were almost there and in 6 hours no less! WOO HOO - overjoyed is an understatement. I checked the watch after crossing the finish - 6:14:20!! I left that on the watch for a whole month. Hot damn. This race was the most mentally challenging - I wrote to Yanti the day after and told her in an email I've never had such a mind f**k as I did this day in beautiful Italy.

Walked back to the hotel on cloud 9. 6:14!!! Before this, my fastest time was 7:08 in March at the LA Marathon. My 4th marathon this year.