Transnamibia

Posted on March 28th, 2018

Filippo Canetta interviews Stefano Gregoretti

Photos: Jon Golden & Ryan Michael Richardson

1) Ever since we met at the Adventure Awards a few years back, I've always found your project with Ray Zahab, Impossible to Possible, really interesting, can you tell us more about it?

The I2P project actually came out of our experience traveling the world.

Being able to do what we do obviously changes how you perceive fatigue, challenge, and limits. It leaves you with a deeply rooted belief that each of us is capable of achieving something extraordinary, if we truly want to. If that idea holds true for us, it can hold even truer for a 16, 17, 18-year-old kid.

That's why every year we bring 5 kids along, free of charge, to run with us and study and learn from the places and people we encounter, so they can later share their experience with schools and go home carrying that same awareness we have: anyone can do something extraordinary with their life, if they put in the work.

In Italy especially, there's still this myth of "talent," as if not having it excuses someone from putting in effort! For us, "talent is not required," all that matters is rolling up your sleeves and getting to work, in math, in Latin, in sports, at school, in relationships with others, and in life. Running teaches you that if you commit, you improve.

2) How did the idea for the Namibia crossing come about? Did you spin a globe and just stop it with your finger, more or less at random?

The Transnamibia project came together after more than a year of logistics planning and targeted training. The Namib Desert is the oldest in the world, and the biodiversity across that vast, boundless landscape is genuinely impressive. What better way to experience it than by crossing it end to end?

The body adapts pretty quickly, but you were coming from a winter climate! How long did it take you to acclimate to Namibia's very different conditions?

At the start, it wasn't easy. Especially the first day, when communication issues with our support crew left us without water for a few hours, in the middle of the desert, at 45 degrees. On average, we were drinking 12-15 liters of water and electrolytes per person, initially, just during the running itself, before dropping down to 3-4 liters for the same distance and temperature after only a week.

The body is an amazing machine.

4) Running every single day, back to back, isn't easy, how did you structure your day? How many hours running, how many resting?

Long-distance running, especially in a very demanding environment, and especially when stretched out over days or months, calls for an extremely humble approach. What matters is being able to give your body the calories it needs to function well. Pushing a stage like it's the Marathon des Sables and then having no time to recover can make sense, but only if you're not going beyond 7 days of running.

To be able to run every day, the best strategy is to split the day's run into two, and stop at midday to eat and sleep. That's the only way to manage fatigue over more than a month.

We weren't tracking kilometers covered, but hours. At some point in the afternoon, you have to stop, to start the recovery phase. If the terrain is brutal, you're on rocks in 50-degree heat, and that day you're only covering 3 km/h, there's no point trying to hold a kilometer average, you have to stop around 5 pm no matter what. Even if you've only covered 30 km instead of 65, you'll have time to make it up in the following weeks, once the terrain allows for it.

Running until midnight over rough terrain sets you back for the following 2-3 days... not to mention the fact that lions hunt at night.

5) I imagine buying food in some spots along the way wasn't easy. Did you manage to eat properly? What kind of diet did you follow?

The classic desert diet, which we stuck to throughout: rice, potatoes, beans and chickpeas, along with plenty of fats, like olive oil, brought over from Italy in 5-liter jugs, coconut oil, and supplements, vitamins, glucosamine, calcium-magnesium. Salt like there was no tomorrow. Whenever we managed to buy something at local markets, we'd add a bit of meat, and above all look for butter and oil to bump up our daily calorie intake. It's actually hard to hit 5,000-6,000 calories a day on potatoes alone, unless you load up on fat. A lot of fat.

6) What was the hardest moment of the crossing?

Definitely on the Skeleton Coast. The monotony of the landscape certainly didn't help. On top of that, the fog typical of that area, especially in the mornings, played nasty tricks on the mood of already exhausted runners.

You and Ray are close friends and have shared other expeditions together before, was there ever a moment you just couldn't stand each other? Any fights?

There's always a lot of mutual respect, and often we don't even talk much, each lost in our own thoughts. We move almost like a single person, helped along by our matching running cadence. It's hard for us to actually argue. Better not to bring problems to each other, though, or things get tense once we reach camp in the evening! AHAH!

Of course, since we're both a couple of jokers, everything's always seasoned with pranks and jokes that push right up to the line.

8) What did you miss most over those 45 days? There must have been at least one thing?

No doubt about it: spaghetti allo scoglio and Prosecco. The one thing I always crave, no matter what, in any situation. If they served that at aid stations, in races like TOR or UTMB, it'd make a real difference for morale. Enough with raisins and dry biscuits already. Let's rise up! AHAHA!

9) What did you find that you didn't expect? Encounters with wild animals?

Interactions with the animals like nothing I'd ever experienced before. In the canyons, we followed the historic trails carved by mountain zebras. If they'd passed through, it meant you could get out of the canyon, and that the place was safe. We were just animals among animals.

10) What are your next projects?

For now I'll enjoy myself here in Italy for a bit, then the next project will be up north, in the cold. We've been working on the logistics for 5 months now, but nothing's fully mapped out yet. Stay tuned, because, as Ray says: "It will be epic!"

Some numbers from Stefano and Ray's crossing:

• 1,910 km covered
• 31 days of running
• 250,000 calories consumed
• 9.6 kg lost (though wisely gained back in the months before departure)
• first crossing of the northern Fish River Canyon in summer, fully self-supported
• highest temperature reached: 55 degrees
• highest single-day water and electrolyte intake: 13 liters
• beers: just 5