COLLINGWOOD – With a coterie of running mates – including his son, Tom – around him, Nick Brindisi rounded the corner beside the Collingwood grain terminals and found the strength to do that final couple of hundred metres.

When he reached his car sitting in the cul-de-sac at the north end of Millennium Park, the 50-year-old Brindisi had run more than 100 km in just under 12 hours.

On Saturday, Brindisi started his journey behind the terminals at 5 a.m., taking a route that criss-crossed Clearview, Wasaga Beach and Collingwood in his bid to raise money for the General & Marine Hospital Foundation.

By the time he hit the finish line, a little before 5 p.m., with the wind and rain picking up, nearly $3,000 had come in for the hospital.

“It wasn’t the goal I had setting out... I guess I had an aggressive goal,” he said following the race, noting he wanted to raise $10,000 for the hospital.

However, he’s not entirely disappointed with the outcome, noting the donation page will stay up for awhile longer so people can make a contribution.

As to the distance, Brindisi joked that it was “way worse” than the 75-kilometre run he did last fall as a G&M Hospital Foundation fundraiser with local Ironman athlete Claudia Johnston.

And, he may have gone past the 100-km mark, noting the online map he used to determine a route didn’t take hills into account.

“My GPS died at the 102-km mark (right before the finish)... I outlasted the GPS batteries,” he said. “I’m super-pleased (with the distance) – that was the longest run I’d ever done.

“I’m a marathoner – I’m used to 42.2 km.”

He’s also proud of his son, Tom, who ran alongside for 55 km – including the final stretch. Other members of the Georgian Triangle Running Club also ran alongside, for varying distances of 10 km, up to 30-plus km.

“It was kind of emotional at the end, when I think about all the people who ran... every couple of kilometres there would be somebody else,” he said. “That was heartwarming.”

And it helped Brindisi push through to the end.

“There were many times when I felt like I made a deal with the devil, and I felt like everything was going to hell,” he said. “I just had to push through it.”

Next year, Brindisi intends to organize a half-marathon event to raise money for the hospital foundation.