Originally planned to tackle this 1014km run in 14 days, averaging 75km a day. This, as I would find out, is a hell lot of optimism.
It was the hardest thing I had to do mentally. It was truly a mental ultramarathon. I never knew I had the strength it took to wake up every morning inadequately rested, hurting in all the places, feeling shitty for burdening my crew, questioning life and existence, and deciding to run 60km again, and not get even close to my final destination. It was a true test of my why, and how bad I want to achieve what I set my mind to do.
It was also difficult because Italy is so damn interesting! I constantly struggle with passing interesting places by, or interesting people to interact with, or interesting food to try, and getting more mileage in. Thus is the challenge of doing runs outside of race: you really have to create your own motivation to say no to the 3rd gelato shop you pass by. It's likely I set an unofficial record for numbers of gelato eaten while running an ultramarathon, which I counted 65.
I ended up giving in and stopping by a few places and taking a couple detours. Adding in the delays caused by the support van and a few meals in sit down restaurants, this was almost a luxury ultramarathon FKT.
These little time luxuries were essential because they were really why I decided to undertake this endeavor: not just to push my physical limit, but also explore and learn about our world while doing it. I'm glad to say that at the end of this trip, I felt a deeper understanding of Italy, it's people, its culture, and its history, more than just pizza, pasta, and beautifully dramatic people. This was undoubtedly aided by patient explanation of my partner and the 2 audiobooks on Italy I listened to while running, as well as physically moving through the country.
I completed this run with the support of my partner who is Italian and a support van, which ended up needing plenty of support of its own during this journey, including a replaced tire, a new starter engine, and a fireman squad to rescue the keys. My partner cooked 3 meals a day, sometimes more, sometimes bought local delicacy and sometimes heated up grocery store soup. He also filled water, did laundry, cleaned the van, and countless other chore I'm forgetting now, all while working online. He's my hero.
Since this was only the second time I've done a supported long distance run, doubling the distance of my last one, it was a lot of trial and error with the logistics, planning, and managing expectations. The only reference for planning this kind of trip was reading Scott Jurek's book North, which was immensely helpful as a benchmark.
The trail itself was absolutely epic, from the drastic landscape change from the Alps to the Apennines, the sleepy coastal towns, the dreamlike Tuscany hills, to running through wild flowers, narrow cobble streets in tiny Italian villages, big cities, and off the beaten path ancient structures, this trail truly takes you through the heart of this fascinating country. The only thing I wish is to run the entire length of Italy, which I found out you can on a continuation of this trail, all the way to the South end of Italy. Next time!
For folks who'd like to run the trail
The logistics for the run is manageable, with plenty of water fountains on the way except for a few dry sections, and constantly going in and out of towns and villages for resupply stops. For the van, we never had too much trouble finding parking or place to sleep overnight.
The trail was very well maintained and managed, however there are a few challenges in terms of trail condition:
1. Snow-covered start: I was naive in assuming that we can just drive up to the start at the Great San Bernard pass. In fact the snow wouldn't be clear probably till late June, and it was almost whiteout when I made my way up there. I had to scramble to find a mountain guide to take me up there by snowshoe, worried about avalanche risks and navigation. It was not easy to follow the original Via Francigena path when everything is covered in snow.
2. Fallen trees: lots of fallen tress in Aosta Valley. It was fun and negligible in the beginning, just having to crawl under or over the branches, but soon it was getting obnoxious. I must have climbed through over a hundred of piled up branches on the trail.
3. Water on trail: sometimes puddles, sometimes nasty mud pits for road, sometimes wading through rivers. Some are harmless, some threaten to suck away shoes, wet my socks and make blisters. Moreover they just slow down the forward progress and forced me to slow down.
4. Traffic: I'd say about 10-15% of the trail is walking on two lane highways with little or no shoulder, sometimes with blind curves or hills, sometimes having to go through with heavy traffic on both side. Definitely the most realistic danger of all the challenges.
5. Animals: boars are common around the Apennines and Tuscany area. I saw big groups at least 3 times. They generally ran away and went to hide in the bushes but these sudden encounters were quite unnerving. Also the area in the farmland section has notice up for wolves. Not sure what I saw one night but thought I could have saw them in the dark.
6. Closed trail/detours/mistaken signs: there were quite a few spots where the trail was closed off due to road construction or other hazards, sometimes there will be signs for the detour to take, sometimes there isn't any, and you'd have to find your own way back to the trail. Luckily mostly the detours aren't very long. There were also a handful of spots where the signs didn't correspond to the GPX that took me on longer or different path. I always ended up following the GPX and never had any issue.
Other than these nuisance, there were many lovely volunteers that support the pilgrims along the way, smiling people who are taking these steps for similar reason as you at their own pace, Etruscan and Roman era history that you can walk on and touch, and above all the kaleidoscope of gastronomy indulgence that is Italian food along the way: gelato, all kinds of pasta, pizza, game meat, etc. etc.