Despite the intense heat and a slump between the 38° and 42° kilometer marks, Carmine Buccilli managed to finish second in the Pistoia–Abetone, a classic 50k uphill ultramarathon.

At the 41st edition of the Pistoia – Abetone race, Carmine Buccilli, the strong athlete from Team Oxyburn who had already won numerous 42k, 21k, and 10k races in 2016, returned to the podium with an excellent second-place finish on a day marked by intense heat and numerous dropouts.

Finishing 3′ behind the winner—Matteo Lucchese, who had already won the 2015 edition and is an Italian ultramarathon national team member— Carmine led the race for many kilometers before feeling the effects of fatigue and the intense heat: “After last year’s withdrawal,” the athlete from Lazio said at the end of the race, “I decided to run without support so I wouldn’t feel guilty toward anyone if things went wrong, but perhaps today, the solitude and the lack of timing data made the difference. I hit a wall at the 38th kilometer and started walking in stretches, but from the 42nd kilometer on, I didn’t stop again, though I was still running at a pace far from my best times. I thought I’d fall much further behind the leader, but the mere 3-minute gap at the end made me realize that he, too, had hit a wall. I still finished in second place in 3h38’, 14 minutes off my personal best from 2013.”

During the race, due to the intense heat and high humidity, many athletes dropped out; despite the difficulties, Carmine managed to overcome this setback, thanks in part to his Oxyburn technical apparel. Oxyburn garments, in fact, feature a unique and innovative technology that promotes optimal body breathability, preventing the body from overheating and facilitating the evaporation of sweat—thus keeping the garment from becoming soaked and, as a result, the athlete to continue running comfortably.