Ciao! I had such a great first FKT experience in Italy after dropping my daughter off for her first year of college in Rome. My husband thankfully allowed me to embark on this adventure, dropping me off at the start and meeting me at the end. Unfortunately, due to the other activities we had planned on our trip, I had to start late in the morning so it ended up being very HOT! I took everything I needed for the journey - 2 liters of water with electrolytes, 2 strawberry banana gels, and 2 packs of Skratch sour cherry gummies.
The course was beautiful, with constant views of the mediterranean sea. Mile 1 was on pavement, then the road turned into chonky gravel for about 4 miles, then it was back to pavement the rest of the way. I played chicken numerous times with the crazy Italian drivers on their last days of vacation - the road was narrow and they don't give people much space when passing. I didn't see anybody else running along the way, but I did see a few mountain bikers and e-bikers going the opposite direction.
Unfortunately I didn't get the course downloaded in a way I could follow along turn-by-turn so I just kept comparing my location on my map app on my phone to the route I had saved in my Garmin app. There were quite a few intersections that were questionable so I had to stop & study the situation multiple times. I hiked up some of the steepest climbs and I was grateful that the final few miles were all downhill. I sucked down my final drops of liquid about a half mile from the finish and I laughed out loud when I took the final turn down to the beach. It was a whole stretch of steep stairs - maybe a hundred steps. I thought that was a truly cruel and comical way to end the 25k!
I was elated when I saw the finish spot, stopped my watch, and looked around to find my husband clapping for me. I went straight to the beach, bought a giant bottle of cold water and jumped in the ocean to cool off. Sweet satisfaction after several months of planning and anticipation.
Thank you to the folks at FKT for inspiring adventures like this, and the wonderful podcast too!!
Peace,
Jess