Pisa Marathon, 13th May 2006
IT was a Pisa cake for Stubbington's Nick Davies who took to the streets of the Italian city to compete in the Pisa Marathon.
Nick, who celebrates his 40th birthday this year (it's always a gimme when the race results carry your date of birth!) finished in a time of 3hrs 52min 28sec for 333rd overall, and 67th in the Vet40 category. This was Nick's second marathon in a month, having competed at the Paris Marathon in April where he ran 3:43. Nick has now run in four marathons in one year!
Afterwards, Nick said: "Piece of cake? Well not quite. I was the first Brit home, but then I was the only one. "I limped home in 3.52 after suffering a calf strain early on and I was struggling a bit in the heat.
"This was an interesting point to point course, which started in Pontedera to the east of Pisa and ran through the Tuscan countryside via four or five villages, including taking in two markets and a wedding on route!
"It was a low key marathon, though, with only 586 finishers - something different on the marathon circuit if you can stand the heat!"
Kenyan Joshua Kipchumba, victorious in Pisa 12 months ago, won the race again in a time of 2:18.13, with the leading woman being Ilaria Bianchi, from Team Suma Pisa, who completed the course in 2:45.09. More than 700 marathon runners took part in the race.