Hello everyone!

First of all, thank you to everyone for supporting me these last days. It was an incredible support. Of course, my family was also of a great support and I thank them. I can’t forget to thank my sponsors which trusted me and believed in me. Thank you.

The 100k race started at 10 AM (21/01/2016). The weather was great with a temperature of -10 degrees. The ground was frozen and it had snowed. I was able to confirm that my shoes were perfectly fine for the race.

From the beginning 3 runners (2 Americans and 1 Ecuadorian) were quite in front of the rest of the runners (we were 8 running the 100k). Thanks to my humble experience, I knew that at least 2 of the 3 would not be able to continue the entire race at the same pace as the first runner, one who had participated in the famous 200k race taking place in the Death Valley, Badwater in the USA. After 10k I was third. My intuition was right. Between the 10th and 20th kilometer I got ahead of first of all, the second American and then the Ecuadorian. They had pushed too hard, a huge mistake! From the 20th kilometer I did not leave the second place with a 7,5 kilometer per hour pace. The biggest challenge for me was to stay in second place between the 20th kilometer and 100th, knowing two offensives were behind me going extremely fast. Despite some difficulties to hold the pace for the last 15k I was able to keep the second place to everyone’s surprise!

-William Gargiullo

Note from the press secretary, Mélissa Gargiullo: William is the first Swiss to participate in the South Pole 100k.