Interview to the ultrarunner Roberto Isolda

To most people, this niche discipline that is ultrarunning may seem absurd, incomprehensible and a little bit crazy. Long distance running, especially if we talk about distances beyond the marathon, are already considered extravagant, and in fact we are talking about a niche of runners, even if the number of participants over the years has increased exponentially. However, if for some reason it now seems acceptable to run many hours on trails, very long distances on road instead represent a niche in the niche of ultrarunners. Yet there are runners who push the concept of running to bring it back even more to its essence, eliminating the landscape component: they not only run on road, but often even on tracks of one or a few kilometers, to the extreme limit of running often around the athletics track for hours and hours. In short, by now you have understood it, we are talking about those runners who run fifty, one hundred, two hundred or three hundred kilometers around the 400-meter tartan athletics ring. The more classic distance gives way to time trials, that means six, twelve or twenty-four hour-run on track. Let’s think about it, why swimming in a 25-meter chlorinated pool back and forth, without seeing any views, without listening to music or talking to anyone is somehow acceptable, while running on track seems somehow absurd? I believe it is a mental limitation that for many people seems insurmountable or inconceivable, yet there is a mystical and magical component in a twenty-four hour-run on track. In my experience I have never (yet) tried anything like this, so I decided to ask a few questions to Roberto Isolda, a rider from Varese, who is a great athlete of this discipline, to understand something more. Two word about Rob: he is a runner who has explored the discipline of ultrarunning far and wide, he has a very beautiful attitude towards running, a contagious joy for this sport and his passion is precisely this type of races. Rob loves running to the point of not disdaining running 50 or 100km on the treadmill, he is top 5 at the 100km del Passatore (a very famous road race) and was the only Italian invited to a 24 hour-run in the UK, organized by Centurion Running.

Rob, let’s start from the beginning: what is your favorite aspect of running? How did you come to race your first 24 hour-run?
Running empties and fills you with new thoughts and priorities, for me it represents a simple activity that I like to do at the end of the day to free myself from accumulated stress. I started running long distances on track out of laziness: having water every 400 meters without carrying the weight, interrupting training at the first hint of crisis and not looking at the trail without the anxiety of getting lost are aspects that make the athletic gesture much simpler.

Why does a long distance runner who starts running on trails then move to the road and finally to the track?
Usually it is the opposite in fact, but for work needs I started to maximize the time available. In the Varese area there are some beautiful trails, but that hour to get there could already become a good part of the training.

What are your 3 dream races or the 3 goals you would like to achieve as an athlete?
I would like to run an American 100 miles, one of those run on dusty dirt roads, just as I would like to run the Spartathlon or run again the 100 del Passatore: the nice thing about alienating yourself on track or on a treadmill is that whatever the competition context will be, everything becomes super cool.

How do you feel before starting a 24 hour-run? How do you feel during the run and at the end of it? What emotions do you feel?
Track races look like those movies with huge plot holes, you don’t understand where the director is taking you and you wonder if there really is a way to explain what you are experiencing. Then sometimes you discover it and other times you don’t. The beginning is always euphoric but after ten hours you realize it looks like a Romero’s movie with all those zombies.

Are there any boring moments that make you hate running sometimes?
The worst part is the central one, even in a six hours race. In fact, usually the playlist starts playing in the headphones and you think about something else or if the people around you are nice you get to know each other and share some laughs. In fact, the beauty of ultra races, unlike 10 to 50km road races, is the sharing and the human aspect that represent for me the most important part of the race.

How do you train for these kind of competitions?
I usually train on track, two hours counterclockwise and two hours clockwise, alternating the work of the physiotherapist. If I can’t go on the track, I take my water bottle and I run on the ring of the so-called Ethiopian Prealpine Plateau that is close to my home: it is a 6km dirt trail between corn plantations and horse farms inside the Ticino Park, a very monotonous trail, as I like it.

Is there any runner you are inspired by?
I like the genuineness and simplicity of those who don’t get too paranoid and don’t find excuses for their defeats. One of the person that encompasses these qualities is Giorgio Calcaterra, although he’s gradually losing competitiveness, he emotionally moves a large audience, both for the legacy of his palmares, and for the positive messages he shares.

Tell us an anecdote that happened to you in one of these races.
Before we talked about 24 hour races but you know what the funny thing is? I’ve never finished one! Years ago, around the fifteenth hour, I decided to lie down to rest for a few minutes on the camp bags that the organization made available in a room close to the track. I woke up the next morning when there was less than an hour to go.

Is there anything you would like to say to the riders who will read this interview?
The charm of running is its essentiality, we rediscovered it with the lockdown. You don’t need to have races planned, you don’t need breathtaking mountain trails, a pair of shoes is enough.

What would you like to say to the non-runners who will read this interview?
Get a pair of shoes, sooner or later will come that bad day or that strange sense of restlessness generated by various problems. I anticipate only that running has solved mine.