100KM OF EMOTIONS
Hi my name is Massimo, this year for the first time and convinced by a friend Cristian COLOMBO (14th place 2010, 10th place 2009) in January I started training a bit seriously.
The more time passed, the closer the race day approached and the more I felt growing in Cristian and in other people who have already made it the desire to leave Florence to reach Faenza. During training I heard stories from past years and the phrases like “I thought I was 80. I said to myself: you still grit your teeth! It’s over!” “Or” come on, only one marathon is missing “or” if I think about the arrival I still get goosebumps “!!!! all this made me want to participate more and more and start a race without knowing what I was up against.
We are now there, I have signed up and it is May 29th, arrived in Florence on the day of the race around 10.30, already around the center you could see people concentrated on the race who mix with the tourists, but who started to collect bibs etc. … half a day, pasta and then with the approach of 15 the preparation is now imminent and complete.
It is 3 pm and the Runners, those with the big R leave for the most spectacular race in the world !!!
Not knowing the way, I am amazed that after a few kilometers under the intense heat began the climb to the summit Fiesole towards the Croci.Alcuni walked to save breath, some do like me find the rhythm and slowly climbed running.
The landscape is beautiful and people still make jokes ex. : come on, little is missing etc .., I head towards the top of the Colla and I’m fine, the heat persists but the hours pass and stopping at every refreshment I always recover a bit of energy.
When I get to the top I feel good, but the problems are always around the corner because the Passatore is a race in itself (as those who had already participated in it always said). And during the descent towards Barberry I start to feel a pain in the calf, if I increase my rhythm I begin to feel an annoyance at the beginning of cramps, at a certain point I slow down but I keep running and I start to grit my teeth I don’t have to increase the rhythm but I don’t have to walk, these are the words that I keep repeating !!!
Past Marradi the pain fades but he begins to feel tired, the sun is now falling and the darkness begins to show up, but the people you meet along the way are nothing short of FANTASTIC, I think you are the first, you are the one the last they know that you are doing a business and even an inciting sentence is a charge that keeps you going.
Slowly step Cassiano, then Casale meanwhile I meet some runners who walk and every time passing by side I told him to hold on and not to give up because they were grown-ups, this obviously was also an incitement that I did for myself, in addition to repeating myself: walk, don’t walk !!! the dark, the fireflies, the flavor that you breathe, the desire to get to the next refreshment point and then search for the next one and so on + always on….
The kms pass and I realize that the arrival is getting closer +, I see Casale and now I repeat that I just have to get there, I pass Fognano and I tell myself it is done now but don’t increase because now you are really tired and everything can happen. At the sign of Brisighella the excitement and the adrenaline starts to take over, then Errano and 95km, now my head was on arrival when about 3km from the arrival I see the sign FAENZA !! inside me repeat myself: Massimo, it’s done! the sensations are unique, at 99km two boys in front of me with a steady step stop and start walking, one of the two was exhausted, I stand beside him and I yelled at him not to give up that he was a great man and that he was now finished and his answer it was NOT GIVE UP NOW, WAIT FOR ME ON ARRIVAL THAT I ARRIVE ALSO !! And here it is, I see all my friends who, they incite me, I see the arrival, the emotion has taken over and I pass the arrival in 9 hours and 52 minutes. with clenched fists, tears in the eyes and a lot, a great desire to tell the world I made it HAPPEN THE PASSENGER!
I thank all the people who organize and allow the excellent assistance for this race (refreshments, ambulances, doctors, those who take the time etc …), and I say that even after spending a few days with pain in the legs, the emotions are still strong and I feel that inside me there is now an added value !! thanks passatore I WAS !!!
Massimo Sirtori
