Francesca Muccini has run—and won–Vol State before but her performance this year at the Lazarus Lake event has been called one of the greatest multi day performances of all time.

Chart showing pace and distance between Francesca Muccini and 2nd place Bob Hearn. (Borrowed from Facebook)

In this interview, Francesca–originally from Italy–describes her meticulous training on the roads and the gym and how she focused for a full year on breaking four days to complete the 500km course.

Francesca fought extreme heat, a hard-charging-though-consistent Bob Hearn and ultimately extreme delirium, confusion, and hallucinations to cut nearly 24 hours off her previous best. Described as a “perfect race” by others and something resembling Dante’s Inferno with Bob as a “relentless war machine” by Francesca, this was the strongest ultra performance all year.

L-R Greg Armstrong, Francesca Muccini, Francesca’s husband Mark

Francesca Muccini Episode Notes:

Be sure to read this report from her closest competitor Bob Hearn. Bob was also on URP and his interview on pacing theory is a must listen.

Definitely read this report from Francesca’s crew chief (and course record holder) Greg Armstrong.

Here’s another interview with Francesca Muccini from Jason Friedman’s The Pain Cave podcast. Jason was on URP in 2014.

Here’s the list of ultramarathon world records for Italy. Toggle away to sort by country, age, distance, etc.

More on Italian runner Marco Olmo.

Intro music | David RosalesOutro music | AJ LeGrand

Francesca Muccini

Gear Reviews with Ben

In this episode, Ben spoke about:

Hoka Clifton Edge

Skechers Go Run Razor Plus Hyper (no public info yet)