The trip

A bit of context is needed for this one:
1. This is by far the world’s smallest ‘country’ and the perimeter (which is mainly a wall) is only about 2 miles long (just a little less than a marathon)
2. A lot of the internal area is covered by buildings
3. The only real outside areas explorable are the Vatican gardens (that require a ticket) and St Peter’s square (which doesn’t)
4. To my knowledge, at January 2026, Nick butter was the only person to have done a marathon completely within the borders
5. He did so by running about 80 laps and was very nearly kicked out after 8 miles, but luckily was allowed to stay and was more being cheered on by the guards by the end
6. Knowing this from his book, I previously found ‘connecting’ Wizz air flights flights from London to Skopje that would give me about 12 hours in Rome from 1am to 1pm and I thought that the best approach to the Vatican would be to begin running very early to avoid being a safety hazard to the other thousands of tourists tha flock in once the sun rises
7. However, I had not looked at the Vatican schedule and was unaware that the Pope would be holding a mass at 10am that Saturday morning.
8. Therefore, when my taxi dropped me off at about 4am (thanks to a delayed flight that ended up being a blessing) the gates that my research had suggested should be open all night, were not. I was greeted by one police car in the square at the far end and one behind me, both with their lights on and I assume noticing me as there was no one else around. As well as this, the square was full of barriers and chairs which looked like cut off and sort of loop I would be able to make.
9. I stood there for a few minutes trying to figure out a solution but was stumped. I then found the Vatican schedule on my phone and realised the situation as was left to just walk around Rome for hours
10. Therefore, when planning a return to Rome, I had to approach it from a different angle

This time, I got the same Wizz air flight (although it had changed from Gatwick to Luton) with Ciara on Friday 16th for another no annual leave required trip. We had a rebooked taxi to take us to the cheapest 24-hour reception hotel near the Vatican. The taxi driver didn’t show up though so after a while of not being able to get through to any of the listed phone lines, we had to pay for another taxi. Luckily this is at a fix fee from Rome airport, €55 at the time.

We checked in and just as I was getting in to bed the original driver called apologising saying that he only just learnt that he had the job in his schedule and asking me not to tell his boss. He was quick to PayPal me €55 to cover the mistake and I could not be bothered to grill him or complain because it was 3am and my alarm was set for 6:45.

I was originally intending to get started slightly earlier, but the delay from the airport and fact that the hotel breakfast didn’t start until 7:30 made 6:45 the optimal time. After a mediocre meal, Ciara and I began the 10 minute walk to the Vatican.

When we got there, I was over the moon to be able to walk straight into St Peter’s square at 0900 on the dot and to see less in the way of barricades. I started my watches and I was off in one way or another. At the time of writing this, I think this should be the only marathon that I deliberately have to walk, rather than run, excluding any future potential annoyingly timed injuries. Fingers crossed. I also think it will be the only marathon I ever do in jeans.

Ciara and I started walking around to scope it out a little bit. My plan was to walk laps for a few hours, with Ciara for a bit then on my own, then head into the basilica around half way to use the toilet, then finish off with some more laps. This had to be adjusted slightly because in the first 15 minutes that we were there, the queue to go into the basilica (because you had to go through security checks) had already backed up from say 20 people to 100 as tourists began arriving in greater numbers. We both wanted to go in and actually explore it a bit so had to jump in the queue after 0.9 miles to avoid having to wait for what would have been much much longer around midday. The queue ended up being probably about 1,000 long from 11 to 5, not dropping back to the 100ish region until I was finished with the marathon. We walked around for a bit but I was getting quite anxious because my first mile took 37 minutes and my pit stop was now to be just a little after a mile rather than half way.

I generally drink a lot of water so the concept of not using the toilet for an estimated 7-8 hours whilst walking around was worrying. For the simple objective of not wetting myself (something I end up thinking about a lot more than the average person with no bladder issues with all this running in unknown areas and dodgy travel schedules), I had three options:
1. Consider ‘cheating’ by pausing the watch, leaving the Vatican to the McDonalds round the corner or back to the hotel for a minute
2. Join the Basilica queue again at some point and add likely over an hour to the total duration just to relieve myself respectfully
3. Tactically dehydrate and try to make it the full time. This is something I discovered when I was working for RSM and several times happened to go to the toilet at 4:59pm on a busy afternoon when I hadn’t drunk much water before going for after work drinks at the pub next door. Often I would go 5-7 pints before having to spend a penny.

Option 3 was the one I had to go for and would then reluctantly go for 1 or 2 if I had to a few hours later. Luckily after those few hours, the guards moved a few barriers around and opened up another section up the left side of the basilica where there were other toilets I could use queue-free. Such a minor point but a massive win for someone trying to do exactly what I was doing!

That’s a lot of writing for no running. There’s not really all that much to say about the marathon itself, as you can see from the Strava map. Once we came out of the Basilica, Ciara walked in circles with me up to 4 miles before going to get some souvenirs and explore elsewhere before going to the hotel for a bit of extra sleep. Then began my 20 mile march until she returned.

There was no way to sugar coat it, I had to just walk and walk and walk and not stop walking. I started out walking at about 16-17 minutes per mile, which was about as fast as I could go. Because I knew the guards would have a word if they thought you were a danger to others, I thought they’d also probably have a word if they thought you were up to something. I was therefore trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible and walking much faster than that could have started to attract attention.

I just had to make sure none of the police noticed me, and then saw me again either 5 minutes later and 10 minutes later and 20 minutes later thought why is he walking around like that. Or that none of them noticed me 4 hours later and realised that I’d been in there all day. To avoid either situation, I simply had to never be noticed. Turns out that St Peter’s square is one of the easiest places to not be noticed if you are being careful. Endless people walking through throughout the day and way too many faces for the guards to remember every one that blends in to the background. And as for the other tourists, I needed to avoid anyone thinking that I was following them. This was a simple as walking in very ‘random’ loops and directions around the different barriers, fountains, post office and obelisk whilst avoiding eye contact. Other people (and there’s a life lesson in here) simply don’t care about you, especially when they are too busy taking photos and videos of themself.

Up to this marathon, I hadn’t filmed any properly for a while, most of 2025. I wanted to start up again so brought my camera with me. It was a great decision because it helped me blend in taking videos of the place like a proper tourist. It was also far less awkward talking to the camera than it is at say, the waiting area at the start line of a race, or on a quiet path with another runner in front of you. It also gave me a sense of extra purpose in my long trek of no actual progress. Each mile, I’d get my camera out and talk for a minute or so with an update on the walk or whatever I wanted to talk about. This really helped keep my mind occupied.

As I ticked through the miles slowly my legs became very very painful, I think simply from having to hold my body weight for so long. On the whole walk, I probably only sat down for a total of 5 minutes to eat a line of my footlong milka bar from Prague and have a small sip of water. I was in a lot more pain than I would usually be from a slow run of the same distance. This meant that the pace slowly dropped mile by mile from 16-17 minute to closer to 20 minutes.

Ciara came back just after I’d crossed the 24th milestone and provided some much needed the company. The sun had set by this point so the last two miles were rather nice, just walking around having a chat and reflecting on the day. Similar to Prague, I was so massively relieved to hit stop on my watch at 26.abitmorethanineed and tick off my 30th country. I could finally leave the city limits by my own decision and no longer had to worry about getting so close but getting kicked out by the guards. In the grand scheme of things, they probably didn’t notice me and probably wouldn’t have minded once I explained what I was doing. Anyway, a long 9 hours after starting, I was done.

Evidence