Wizz Air Rome Half Marathon, 20th October 2024

Wizz Air Rome Half Marathon, 20th October 2024

Race report Sean Hornby

First of all, a big thank you to my wife Laura for booking and paying for a trip to Rome for us for my 50th birthday. I had no idea at all that she had planned it absolutely ages ago, and I/we didn’t know that the Wizz Air Rome Half Marathon was taking place the weekend we were there. I would probably have been oblivious it was taking place until we arrived, but one Friday morning in September, I received a Whatsapp message from Laura saying, “Did you know there’s a half marathon on in Rome on the 20th?” And it was Laura who encouraged me to enter the event……
We’d never been to Rome before, we arrived on the Friday with a decent itinerary of things to do and places to visit which I was mindful would mean we were going to be spending a lot of time on our feet. Friday involved sightseeing and pizza, and one beer…. We collected my race bib and pack on the Saturday morning, the event village was about a thirty minute walk from where we were staying and it was immediately apparent that there was some serious money invested in the event with sponsorship from Garmin and Adidas amongst others. It was also to be live streamed via Sky Sports. The events village was incredibly well organised with absolutely loads to look at and experience. The running top which was included in the entry price was an Adidas top and it’s proper lovely! We also all received a large packet for dry spaghetti.
I’d put myself down for a circa 90-minute finish and found out because of this that I’d be setting off with the runners in the Elite section, if I’d been told this two years ago I’d have thought you were mad as the only sport I’ve ever been half decent at was table football. There was a buzz on the morning building up to the start time, plenty of toilets always gets a big tick from me and the start was at the impressively named Circus Maximus. Before we knew 08:30 came around and we set off on our way. It did feel very competitive up front, lots of jostling and pushing for position from a lot of people, I was elbowed at least a couple of times, but the roads were wide so after a while it was possible to find my own space. The course was fairly flat but with a few long inclines to negotiate, and the cobbles meant keeping a serious eye on your footing. At the 10k mark I started to feel tired. We’d walked a lot over the days before hand (Friday – 21,000 steps, Saturday – 30,625 steps), in fact I was tired before we even set off to Rome… I managed a second wind of sorts but felt tired again at the 18k mark. The route passed by Papal Basilica of Saint Paul, Pyramid of Cestius, Palazzaccio, Piazza Augusto Imperatore with its Mausoleum and Ara Pacis, Via del Corso, Piazza del Popolo, Piazza di Spagna, Trinità dei Monti, Piazza Venezia and finished outside of the Colosseum. Support from the crowds was incredible and there was a lot of noise, a few times I heard “Die! Die! Die!” which if I remember rightly means “Go! Go! Go!” is some other European language, at least I hope so…..
There were 17,000+ registered runners for the event (13425 took part on the day/finished) with nearly 70% of them being from outside Italy but I saw very few competitors from the UK there. Athletes from Kenya took the first, second and third places and the first female in 9th place with 1:06:52, again from Kenya. I was very happy with my 279th placing (25 out of 650 in age category) with a finishing time of 01:28:29. First female in 9th place with 1:06:52, again from Kenya.


Results – SEAN HORNBY – Rome Half Marathon | ENDU

One thought on “Wizz Air Rome Half Marathon, 20th October 2024

  1. An excellent report from Roma by Sean H. who had a great performance as well in this crowded half , Sean crossed the finish line of this 13 miles scenic route with a quite quick 1.28 . A super birthday for Sean indeed .

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