After becoming the first woman to run across the United States unsupported (she pushed her gear in a running stroller), Zoe Romano began writing a memoir about her 2011 odyssey. But her body didn’t take to the down time, so the 26-year-old set a new goal: become the first person to run the Tour de France route.

“I wanted to see if it was possible,” Romano told Runner’s World Newswire by phone from the airport Tuesday as she set off for France. Romano initially considered tackling the perimeter of Iceland, but the mileage was half of the 2,800 she covered crossing the United States and the terrain was flat. It felt ho-hum.

“I knew I could do that, so the goal became finding something more challenging,” she says.

Enter cycling’s most renowned—and arguably toughest—race. The 2013 Tour, which happens to be the 100th edition, has elevation changes equivalent to three Mount Everest climbs, including a double summit of the Alpe-d’Huez, this year’s most significant course change. It includes six days in the mountains, five hilly stretches and seven flat stages.

Romano will tackle all 21 stages at about a 9-minute-per-mile pace—no time trials for her—covering the 2,000-plus miles over 65 days with every ninth day off. She estimates each Tour stage will take her three days to complete.

The first three stages of the Tour are on the island of Corsica. Logistics, however, dictated that Romano begin in Nice. (She’ll run the Corsica section after finishing the mainland route). She starts on Saturday, and if all goes as planned, Romano will be barrelling down the Champs-Elysées in Paris on July 20, a day before the cyclists reach the finish.

The mountain stages are often the Tour's most dramatic, and the Alps no doubt will present Romano with her most daunting days.

“I’ve been running in the mountains every week [near her home in Richmond, Virginia], but they are nothing compared to the Alpe-d’Huez,” she says. “I think it’s like a 20-K climb at an 8 percent grade.”

The Alpe-d’Huez is the Tour’s 18th stage, scheduled for July 18. Romano will battle the long climbs and descents on July 6 to 9.

Romano, who tutors kids in Spanish, began training in January, starting with five miles a day, six days week. Every week, she increased her mileage by 10 percent and extended her long run until she was logging 120 miles a week. Every fourth week, she dropped her volume to avoid injury.

Romano did weekly speedwork until her daily run got to 19 miles. After that, she swapped out repeats for strides at the end of a few runs a week. Last week, she ran 25 miles a day mid-week, with her long run topping out at 28 miles.

Throughout her four months of training, evenings were spent with a foam roller and multiple ice packs, a practice she’ll continue during the Tour run.

More than the miles, Romano says she’s anxious to discover France. “What surprised me on the U.S. run was just meeting people, hearing their stories. When you share your stories, people want to share theirs,” she says.

Her boyfriend, Alex Kreher, who is making a documentary of the journey, will drive the route in an SUV, and the pair has arranged to stay with residents along the route through the online bicycle touring site, Warm Showers.

Romano’s 2011 cross-country run was a fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Currently, she’s raising money for the World Pediatric Project, a Richmond, Virginia nonprofit that provides surgical and diagnostic care to Central American and Caribbean children.

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