DOWN THE HAT

I am my “brotherly” friend, we had a dream … a 100km long dream ..
Well sometimes dreams come true, not a “virtual” reality made of computers, play stations or anything else, but a reality made of sacrifices, trainings, moments of exaltation mixed with moments of frustration, not just podistically speaking.

Our dream, or rather the mirage of my friend, which I made slowly, he had the merit of believing it immediately.
It’s called PASSATORE !!
We started training immediately after last summer, with a single date in the lead May 25, 2013.
We ran a marathon a month from November to May with good results, we have improved a lot both physically and psychologically, the ultra marathons as an “old” marpion told me that in our environment we call “dynamite” they do 50% head 50% legs .
We ran, struggled, sweated, with wind, rain, sun, snow, but even if we were always together along the way, the emotions we felt and shared could never be forgotten and are ours to the depths of the soul.
We left on the morning of May 25 at 7 by train from Naples and at 10:30 we were in Florence.
The weather did not promise anything beautiful, in fact as soon as I got off at the station it was already raining and this rain accompanied us to Faenza.
During the journey to Florence we met other “colleagues” who immediately recognized us and so did they with us.
We chatted about our adventure, they had already tried it last year, for us it was the first time.
We went to collect our bib under a pouring and cold rain .. and already we were starting to feel the tension before the race.
We had lunch with pasta in white and ham, under the arcades of Florence, together with other people, while the weather showed no sign of improving, on the contrary it was starting to get colder too.
Finally at 15 o’clock the Departure.
Without even speaking, harnessed like astronauts from head to toe, we looked at each other and said: “Faenza we are coming !!!”
In any condition and in any weather.
Starting with an incessant rain, but with the awareness of being there and enjoying that moment, we faced the first few kilometers with the tranquility and serenity of knowing to replace this mood with a less peaceful one towards the second part of the race.
At 31 km towards Borgo San Lorenzo, the positive feelings had not changed.
Now the climb began, 18 km towards the famous and feared Passo della Colla, the weather conditions were always the same: rain ..
Arrived on the Colla wet and cold, we had foreseen the change of shoes and clothes, we went to retrieve our backpack in a tent where there was mud and dark, we were cold..to change we asked a gentleman if we could do it in a bus, those of the retired, and so we did ..
A detail that I will never forget is that of the cold, in fact I was unable to drink tea because my hands were trembling.
We lost some time, more than 40 minutes to get dressed and start again.
Down the descent, still cold and rain, dark and flashlight in hand, we headed to Marradi, the legs were hard but we were harder, determined and concentrated to arrive.
The ultra-marathon runner is known to challenge himself and is a race against his own limits and boundaries.
Arrived in Marradi, as he said “dynamite”
by phone now it’s over manage your efforts and go to the end.
The head was there, the legs were not, in fact we wanted to accelerate but our speed did not improve, so we decided to take turns, 2km went ahead and Fulvio followed and vice versa.
At the 76th km, San Cassiano, there were few people in front of us.
Some of them collected the participation diploma, we stopped at the refreshment point, I took some salts and hot tea, but I didn’t drink almost anything, my body didn’t want anything anymore, my mind instead wanted to get to Faenza and in the meantime it continued to rain.
After 12 km “alternate” race, here is the sign: Brisighella, therefore making two calculations more or less 12 km were missing in Faenza.
Twelve km, our “small” training lap, I said with Fulvio, come on! and at every km we found a point of reference for running with motivation, but it was 12 km after 88 running in pouring rain and black darkness ..
Finally at the Brisighella roundabout, the organizers had placed the statue of the Passatore Fulvio and I took off our hats and greeted (made) our Dream.
After a while we reached the finish line of the 100 km exhausted, happy but above all satisfied with the feat.
For the record, we closed the race in 13:32 bib number 1125 and 1226.
But these are just numbers.

Alfonso Persico