Hello, Rome!

We arrived in Rome around noon, dropped our bags at the hotel, and headed straight to packet pickup.  For some odd reason, the race expo was located all the way on the outskirts of town, in the EUR area. It took about a half hour on the metro and a ten minute walk, and we were there.

We're not in the habit of carrying our passports with us on vacation, but I'm sure glad we did on this occasion. We needed to produce our race entry letters, plus passport, to get our bib packet. Then, with coupon in hand, we received our race backpacks, goody bags, and shirts. A bit of an aside...the race shirts that come with entry are cotton. I ha a coupon for one and John didn't. He had the coupon for the tech shirts we paid extra for. So I got the backpack and cotton shirt, then John got two backpacks and both of our tech shirts. Kinda confusing. Anyway...

We went to the expo, which is fun but a bit less understandable in a foreign language. We had yogurt and Gatorade samples, then looked at booths and got fliers for other foreign races before leaving. When we finally got back to the hotel, we discovered that both of our tech shirts (which we paid extra for) are too small. They are Asics shirts, and we ordered the sizes we wear in the US. I'm not even sure if the next size up would fit! We don't want to waste time going back to the expo, so we're just going to take the loss and not have race shirts, I guess. Very disappointing.

On a more positive note, we did but race coffee mugs from the expo store. They are white, have an outline of the Rome skyline, and the words "Vini. Vidi. Vici. Maratona di Roma." on them. Very nice.  We are excited about the race, and in super eating and relaxing mode. Tomorrow, we will visit the ruins- Colosseum, Palatine Hill, etcetera- and then have some Guinness with lunch to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day (and my birthday).  I think I've convinced John to sleep in a bit tomorrow, even! Only one day left!