22 August 2009

Day 89


Me and the Pantheon, originally uploaded by Ryan Runs Europe.

52 Kilometers.
I am in a castle, a museum or an old Roman library. It is an awesome place, like in a mystery novel...and I am wandering through on some adventure looking for a bathroom. Stepping around a corner in the dim light, I do not notice the step below. I understep and lose my balance. I collide with the ground but suddenly realize that it is not castle floor that I have hit. I have collided with the hard earth, waking up suddenly to realize that I have fallen off my high stone park bench. I am not in a romantic castle. It is 6 a.m. and I am lying on the ground in a public park in Marina di Cerveteri.
I hadn't slept much at all, but I knew that I needed to take off. Today was going to be one of the hottest days yet, and it would be good if I could make it out of town in the early morning. I gathered my things and set out on the road towards Rome. The first 6 km were pretty slow, as I had not really fully woken up and I actually desperately needed to find a bathroom. Once I had found something to eat and a bathroom though, I was ready to run and clicked off a solid two hours or more.
Two hours of running was my line today. I am pretty good about running while being sleep deprived...my years at Columbia of being an architecture student and an athlete prepared me for this part of the trip. I would sleep for two hours and then have to do a two hour progression run at the Rockies. I couldn't say "Sorry I can't go, I'm tired" then...and I definitely can't say it now. But two hours of running was my line today though. The sun wore me down, and I stopped in a grocery store to grab something to drink before walking the rest of the way into the city. The road was a bit crazy, and I definitely had to hop over some highway barriers and run along some very busy sections on occasion. I made it though, and now...now I am in Rome.
When I got into town, I called Tobias, a friend of Marco who works for Brooks. Originally I had planned on staying with him, but he was away on vacation. He tried to find some of his friends...but they were all on vacation too. Everyone was on vacation. John (who's mom I stayed with in Milan) gave me a huge list of people he knew in Rome. All of them seemed to be on vacation too. The whole city was gone. I had been sure I would find a place...but it seemed rather unlikely now.
By some miracle however, Paolo from near Orbetello was coming into town late at night for an appointment he had in the morning (he is a dentist)...and once again he hooked me up with a comfortable place to sleep for the night. Until I met him, the rest of the day was pretty uninteresting. I fell asleep in the park inside of the Castello S. Angelo and spent some time in an Internet cafe.
Around midnight I walked 5 km or so to the north side of town to meet up with Paolo at his apartment. It was pretty strange seeing someone that I had seen 4 days before. Those days in between had been pretty rough, but here I was...in Rome and with a bed. It was glorious.

16 comments:

  1. How wonderful....a bed! Im soooooo happy for you, truly..no bench tonight! truly love your blog:)

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  2. Congratulations on making it to Rome! It's an awesome city. In addition to all the good spots, if you get a chance for someone to drive you up you should check out the Knights of Malta keyhole around sunset. Probably not worth a run though :) I'm glad you got a bed tonight, you were really starting to emphasize the bum in Rybum! I forgot it's "Feriali" in Italy when basically the whole place shuts down for August and goes on vacation, so that could explain some of your troubles...

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  3. woow! i find this blog and i think you are incredible!! sorry if you dont understand me but i dont speak inglish to much XD
    so..lets go! run!

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  4. WOOHOOO! BED. AWESOME! keep going

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  5. Yeh Ryan!! You made it to Rome...and I got to talk to you.. and you sounded fine..Yeh!!! I can stop worrying so much now that you got a bed and some catch up sleep...enjoy Rome, it is an amazing place..Hope you get to relax a while there..Love you.

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  6. Yeh! you got a bed to sleep tonight and I'm so happy to see you look better than yesterday. Love you and enjoy Rome.Phula

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  7. finally a BED!

    been worried about your consecutive nights "à la belle étoile"! Hope you have better luck here on out!

    enjoy the millenial city!

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  8. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Happy Birthday! And I guess there will be times in the trip when you have to suck it up and sleep on benches, but I'm truly impressed at how you've been able to keep a positive attitude for the past couple of days. keep it up!! Weisbuch and Chamby say hi.

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  9. Finally a bed for Ryan!!! So happy for you!
    Hope your luck has returned in your favour.

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  10. Glad u made it and u had a bed!....I can see by the comments we are all rooting for u to have comfort!. LOL...

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  11. You know what Papa would say? "Stop being such a pussy!"......no, but seriously, good job dude! Since you're kinda being a bum you should come up with some unique bum stuff to do when people don't help you out. Like start shouting at trash cans or something. Love you man.

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  12. I have been reading faithfully since the beginning. It is so wonderful to hear that you have made it to Rome. I hope you will take some time to enjoy the city. I was so excited to see you were standing in front of the Pantheon...this is my absolute favorite ruin in Rome. Did you know it "rains" in the Pantheon because of the occulus in the ceiling? Stand with your back to the Pantheon and walk down the street on your right, Via della Maddalena, and there is a gelato place with over 100 flavors. You should try if you have time. Don't forget about the wonderful coffee and wine! So happy to see that you have made it to one of the world's best cities.

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  13. I love your blog! I check pretty much every night to see if you've found a place to sleep. What an amazing journey - hang in there!

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  14. you are so awesome, i was planning to run across europe for 90 days after i graduate HS (I run track/xc as well). How did you map out your route, mapmyrun doesn't work to well

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  15. I've stood there! Just this last spring! I'm sorry you've had such a hard time recently, but I really think you'll enjoy Rome. It is an awesome city- in the truest sense of the word. :)

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  16. Keep the faith and the fortitude! Most of us could not function after a night of sleeping in a train station, much less run a marathon after it.

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