Between May 24 and 25, 2003, I ran the 100 kilometers (62 miles) between Florence and Faenza as part of a race (100 km del Passatore). The route is below. My overall time was 12:37.

We left Florence at 3 pm. The pace was slow and steady for 5k leaving Florence and then we began to climb steeply for about 3 km as we left the city and kept climbing for a total of about 15k (9 miles). Then there were 12k downhill, some of it pretty fast. Early on in the downhill, I got a cramp and felt like dropping out but gave it some space and it went away. I hit 35k (Borgo san Lorenzo) at 3:20 running with someone I had met. (This is about my best marathon time, a distance that is 5 miles shorter - so about 20% slower than marathon pace).

After Borgo, you climb a mountain for 15k. This is where the race really starts. I did some alternating of 5 minutes running and 1 minute walking. Some people went by me early in the climb. Then I started to catch people later in the climb. At one point, I was running and was almost overtaken by someone walking. A key issue was to push the pace of the walk when you were walking. The climb took 2:30. It was hard work. I arrived in Colla (the halfway point and summit at 5:48 and left 20 minutes later. I changed from a light singlet to a cycling jersey. It was now 9 pm and cool but I shouldn’t have changed as I ended up taking off the jersey. The only thing I really needed (which I had) was a reflective vest.

The next 15k to Marradi took 2 hours (subtracting out my time changing and drinking at the summit) so 40 minutes for 5k on a downhill, longer than it felt like. It felt like pretty reasonable, reasonably quick downhilling. The next 25k took 3 hours so 36 minutes for 5k. The next 10k took 1:20, so back to the 40 minute per 5k pace (here it also became flat). I fought the last 5ks pretty hard trying to stay in front of or pass when possible.

Support was very good with fruit juice and tea and crackers being supplemented by hot broth and coffee at about the half way point and lots of more substantial things including hard boiled eggs and wine. Lightly sugared coffee from the halfway point on definitely helped a lot. I had also brought MetRx meal replacement bars and probably ate about 5 of those during the race and several before. They worked well.

The distance we had traveled at any particular point was not very clear for the first half of the race. And the mood of participants was that the particular kilometer we happened to be at was not terribly important – like trying to get 100 meter splits in a 10k. after the half, you knew exactly where you were. The psychology was moving through from one 5k checkpoint to the next.

In running up to the halfway summit, I felt daunted with the feeling that I would have more than a marathon to go once I finally arrived. Coming down, I found (what felt like) a steady pace. There were actually no walls although at the end I could tell I was really running from the calories at one rest stop to the next. I often feel this at the end of marathons as well.

All in all, it went better than I could have imagined.

Some official splits. Borgo: 3:20, colla: 5:48, marracdi 8:04, brisighella 11:04