This red bag: Number 4 done and dusted!

This past Sunday I met up with my dear friend Kate to run our 4th half marathon in Verona! Last year we ran a half-marathon together in Paris, and after that we decided that while we both still live in Europe (and after that I hope too!), we want to try and select a race in a different city each year to run together.

I left Lausanne on Saturday morning and had a 5 hour train ride to Verona. I met up with Kate and we checked into our hotel before heading out to collect our race numbers. We then explored Verona - it is a beautiful city with a lot of Italian charm. I am not sure I will ever get tired of narrow cobble stone streets lined with coloured buildings. Due to it being Valentine's weekend, and Verona's history as a city of love (think Romeo and Juliet!) there was a love festival taking place - so the city was bustling with activities and people and was all decorated. We had a yummy dinner of pasta and pizza before heading to bed early before the race!

Our race started at 10am on Sunday morning, and there were about 7 000 runners I think. We had fun running through some nice and not so nice parts of Verona. And I can guarantee that races are best shared with a good friend - we chatted along the way and kept each other going. We were happy to finish in 2h06 - a good time for us considering our serious lack of preparation! The race ended in the old arena, which was kind of cool. Kate's husband came to meet us at the end, and we enjoyed a drink before enjoying some lunch together.

Lunch took longer than it should have, and Kate and I ended up running back to our hotel (because we needed to do some more running!) and showered and packed up in 10minutes as I was rushing to catch my train. We sadly parted ways, but at least we had shared a super fun couple of hours together! Hopefully we will have another occasion to see each other again soon :)