A highlight of our trip was participating in the Rome Marathon on Sunday, April 8th.  (If you are reading e-mail notification…Go to thewalkingsmiths.com site for more photos.). Dave ran with our good friends made while living in Tokyo – Peter Frost, Maiko Lankau and Weigandt Christian.  We have previously run together in several marathons – Tokyo, Berlin and New York.  It is a great way for us to keep in touch with each other…and to reaffirm our mutual lack of common sense.

The course was beautiful, the weather was warm, the cobblestone streets were tricky…but we all successfully finished with Christian taking medalist honors with a 4:11 time.  Peter and Maiko leveraged the latest high-tech gear to post 4:30 times.  And Dave took 1st spot in the “Champions/Seniors” division by running (or what resembles “running”) a sub-5 hour time.

Sarah, Katja Lankau and Nicole Bauer came out in their traditional Christmas hats to cheer us on at the 5K, 20K, 34K and 39K marks…although they appeared to spend as much time collecting “Buon Natale” compliments as reminding us that “You got this!”  (Maiko still trying to figure out what he’s “got”.)

Next up for the group…London 2019?