The Keys100 (www.keys100.com) I ran this race in 2019 when we broke some heat records; up to 41C combined with a brutal 90% humidity. As you can see in the graph from my app, the peak was after 9:28 hours of running when the temperature peaked at 41C (106F). This was after 53 miles (85 KM) which is a few miles passing the halfway point and that is when you’re just going on 7-Miles bridge, a you-guess-it bridge which is 7 miles long and where you don’t have any shade nor help from your crew, since cars can’t stop on the bridge. In other words, you pass the halfway point, running in 106F, 90% humidity, thinking ‘what the heck am I doing’, getting looks from the seabirds thinking you’re completely wack, which I don’t really deny The race, although completely over roads, is one of the greatest runs I’ve done; the Floridian atmosphere, weather and scenery are really great. Not to forget the immense rain showers we experienced after 10 miles where we got so drenched that this resulted in the born of my watermelon size blisters.. than going into Hell’s Tunnel, another stretch of the course which has no shade and therefor becomes brutally hot.

The course

The race start in Key Largo at mile mark 100 and finishes on the beach in Key West when you just passed mile mark 0. Throughout the race you pass several towns on the keys, but those are so small that it takes minutes to pass them. You spend most of the time on the bridges which makes it such a cool course; here are some photos from the bridges which lead from Key Largo to Key West.

With only three days left, I’m getting nervous but that’s normal for me. At the end of the day, i am running a 100-miler with a fractured toe – will see how it goes…..

the route from the Keys100:

Update:

Update: I arrived in Key Largo, the place where it all starts in a few days; the KEYS100, a 100-mile run from Key Largo to Key West. Did a training run this afternoon just to get a feel of the humidity; the temperature is 29C (85F) and 90% humidity.

Update: well folks, the race is over. This was without any doubt the most challenging race I’ve ever run. With a fractured toe and excruciating temperatures reaching 41C (105F), this race turned out too heavy for a lot of runners. Never before was the dropout so big: 97 runners out of 260 dropped out and I was actually surprised we didn’t have more runners quitting. The morning started of great. My group started at 6:10 am and by then the temperature was 27C (80F). After a few hours, it started raining for about half an hour which was actually great since it dropped the temperature a bit. Around 2 pm, when we entered Hell’s Tunnel, a stretch of 3 miles between trees where there is zero wind, the temperature reached a grueling 40C (105F). Imagine running there with a fractured toe like I did….Two days before the race I dropped a huge tree stomp on my toes which resulted in a broken toe. Man, that hurt so bad. I was close to cancelling the race but than decided to take a lot of painkillers and attack it that way.

Like myself, a lot of runners had to take frequent stops to pour ice cold water over our head. This was really the only option to stay in a safe environment. At Mile Mark 50 we hit 7-miles bridge, another rather difficult obstacle. Not because of the distance but because of the fact that there is no protecting on this bridge and in addition, crew is not allowed to stop on this bridge. In other words, without race crew and without sun protection, this was one of the more difficult stretches. Around Mile Nark 75, I suffered a breakdown, sort of….got tired, was thirsty, blisters on my feet from all the water we head been pouring over ourselves. I was still hoping for a significant time improvement compared to my previous 100 miler and at least I was able to reach that goal. I finished in 20 hours and 22 minutes, which is 3 1/2 hours faster then my previous race. Glad I did this one, I worked hard for it but at least it paid off coming in at 11th position.

After I finished, I wasn’t able to eat anything as I was pretty tired and nausea. I sat down on the beach and when I removed my shoes and pulled off my socks, I actually had 3 lose nails in my sock – they just fell of my toes