Giorgio Calcaterra of Italy defended his IAU 100k World Championship by winning the 2012 race in his home country of Italy in 6:23:20. Hear what he has to say about his performance.
Ps. Thanks to Maurizio Crispi of www.
[Due to the poor audio quality of the video we’re posting the transcript first. Sometimes there aren’t better options on location and we’re forced to take what we can get.]
Giorgio Calcaterra: 2012 IAU 100 World Champ Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Good afternoon, I’m with the 2012 IAU World 100k Championship Champion, Giorgio Calcaterra, of Italy. He’s a native of Italy so he just had the win in his own country. It’s just a short time after the race now, how are you feeling?
Giorgio Calcaterra: I’m feeling very well but just after the race I felt a little bit tired. After having some drink and a little bit of food, I’m feeling much better.
iRF: So just a “little bit tired” after having run 100k?
Calcaterra: Quite so.
iRF: You had a great day out there. You ran a personal best by about 2 minutes. How do you feel about your personal best?
Calcaterra: I am very happy and I know that this one is my personal best in the 100k. But I have already run a personal best at a very difficult race and since that one was so hard, I knew I could run better here.
iRF: This course in particular you found to be a challenging course to set your personal best?
Calcaterra: It was quite comfortable here because it was very flat, very few bridges to run up, and the temperature was quite ideal especially in the first part of the race.
iRF: Let’s talk about your race. As the day went on, were you competing with your watch, against time, or were you keeping your competitors in your mind?
Calcaterra: I was careful of who was behind me but as time went on, I competed against time. (Significant background noise.)
iRF: So running mostly by other people and then later with your watch?
Calcaterra: No, this special race, I was careful of other runers. Other races, I look more frequently at time. This race, I was careful with time/kilometers because I was afraid of running too strongly. (Significant background noise.)
iRF: So the last 20k, by yourself, running through town, what was going through your mind?
Calcaterra: During the last lap, I was quite afraid of being passed by others behind. I had no information about their position. So since my pace was slower than the first laps, so I was careful…
iRF: Well, obviously you saved enough for that last lap, enough to achieve the winning position, and also achieve a personal best. He saved enough that he wasn’t overtaken and won by several minutes and had a personal best.
Calcaterra: I was confident I could reach the finish line with a personal best. I was very tired at the end and I was afraid of not managing it.
iRF: Congratulations on working through those challenges. Congratulations also on your championship for the second year in a row. On behalf of us at irunFar as well as all the folks watching this, we say, “Congratulations!”
I would also like to take a moment to thank our translator, Maurizio and to acknowledge your website. You are a journalist and a photographer for a running website here in Italy. Please tell us your about your website and your name.
Maurizio Crispi (Translator): My name is Maurizio Crispi, and my website is www.ultramaratonemaratonedintorni.com.
iRF: Thank you and thanks again for the translating today.
