Most marathons always require a weekend. A weekend that becomes an opportunity not only to run, but also to discover new cities wrapped in the patina of excitement for the race in which you will participate. In short, it’s like putting your heart, eyes and brain inside a planetary mixer, kneading everything together.
Venice is a city that, as a Venetian, I know quite well but that-despite all the elementary school field trips-is still able to thrill me, so I apologize in advance if everything I tell you will be a little less filtered by the brain and a little more from the heart.
Treviso, Verona, Padua, Venice, the marathons in Veneto are many and all well attended, all well received and fast. Because that matters a lot, too: how fast you can run them (and Rotich Julius Chepkwony’s 2:11:08, the winner, is not bad at all for a race that has 14 bridges to cross – find all the results here ). But it’s not speed we’re talking about today, it’s how much excitement a marathon can give you and-specifically-how much excitement the one in Venice gave me.
Meetings with so many friends, with members of the RunLovers Club and with Stefano Baldini and Alessandro Zanardi (we will publish their interviews in the coming days). The embrace of Venice, which welcomes you as a tourist and even more so as a runner. And all the smiles of the more than 8,000 Venice Marathon participants who, from Villa Pisani in Strà, ran all the way to Venice. The fatigue that disappeared from their faces as they approached the finish line. The jubilant audience that supported each and every participant and the beauty that accompanied them every step of the way.
It is all so difficult to tell that when I make the list of all the things that should be said, I am already thinking of your expression in front of a 584930284748392-line article and the unflattering adjectives you would reserve for me for telling you in words what you could simply see in the video above.
So I’ll stop now and let you watch the video story and photos in peace. ;)
