IT was an exciting weekend away for five lady ORCs who travelled to Italy to run the Pisa Marathon and Half Marathon.

Once a maritime power to rival Genoa and Venice, Pisa now draws its fame from an architectural project gone terribly wrong!

It has a fast, flat course that starts at Miracles Square at the centre of Pisa and finishes next to the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa, following a beautiful route largely through the Tuscan countryside with the final few kilometres within the city walls.

Two ORCs, Jackie Dawes and Deborah Cunningham, ran the marathon, while Ruth Bushell, Kerry Morashti and Janet White opted for the half.

On an uncharacteristically cold day they all ran well with Jackie Dawes having a superb race to come home first for the club in 3 hours 54 minutes 29 seconds, an incredible 25 minute personal best and a new club age category record.

Deborah enjoyed this marathon much more than her previous one in the spring, finishing her 10th marathon in 4.52.09.

In the half marathon all three ladies had good runs with Kerry Morashti finding some of her old form to finish in 2.05.03 to be the first ORC home.

Ruth Bushell was just relieved that her achilles tendon problems did not spoil her enjoyment of the race, finishing in 2.30.02 with Janet White not far behind in 2.32.49.