We start a new project – in collaboration with.
ASICS
, technical sponsor of the Milano Marathon – to tell how running helps us improve; not only physically but also mentally.
And we begin with the story that Charles Mark sent us. If you would also like to share your story with us, please send it to info@runlovers.it!
Let’s put on our shoes and get going!
My “journey” begins 3 years ago
After yet another disappointment-perhaps the most searing of all those encountered so far-I find myself searching for new stimulation, new ways to channel that anger within me, a new way to keep my head busy!
Talking with Alessia, a constant and “special” presence on this journey, I find myself signing up for my first race: the 2018 Deejay Ten.
I have always played sports of all kinds, but I had never before tried my hand at a running competition, albeit an amateur one!
I download a thousand apps to try to throw down a preparation and, in the blink of an eye, I find myself in the Cathedral Square for this 10K!
These few months of training make me light, clear my mind of toxins, become a cure.
As they say, appetite comes with eating, and having filed the 10K, my desire to challenge myself, to always find new stimuli that make me feel alive, leads me to the next step.
Again after a confrontation with Ale-who by now was becoming my guide-during a cold winter evening I signed up for my first half-marathon: the Stramilano.
Three intense months of training and, in March 2019, I also complete my first 21,097-meter experience!
In October of that year, with Roberto, another figurehead in this journey of mine, I flew to Valencia for one of the most meaningful and intense experiences I have ever had.
I run the Medio Maraton finishing it 10 minutes shorter than the Stramilano a few months earlier. I cannot even describe to you the beauty of touching this improvement, of this personal evolution of mine.
A result as desired as it was unexpected: the Valencian experience further regenerates me and I begin to fantasize about the most beautiful half-courses around Europe and the world enough to start planning my own very personal tour.
Tour that-as has happened to all of us-but gets nipped in the bud because of that monster called Covid-19.
Everything gets sucked into this tornado. From friendships, to distant affections, to passions.
All my rebuilt securities are undermined by an uncertainty I have never felt before: very heavy, painful months.
When everything returns to a plausible normalcy, I realize that I have lost that verve, that willingness to challenge myself that I had fought so hard to rebuild!
January 2021: the second rebirth
Here, too, Alessia plays a key role. After so much apathy, she was the first to whom I said, “What if I challenged myself again? What if I raised the bar to get going again?” and a few hours later I had purchased a bib for the Stockholm Marathon!
The date is set for June 6, preparation begins, but the world situation does not improve and the race is postponed to October 9.
A mixture of discouragement and anger pervades me, the ghosts of a few months earlier return to hover.
To avoid blowing it, I rely on a coach: Mimmo Ricatti, Italian running champion (and ASICS Frontrunner, ed.), a sublime person.
We talk to each other by phone and immediately click the feeling necessary to carry on and hopefully to the end this challenge. We talked constantly every week from March 15 onward for 7 months. It is not a preparation, it is literally a tailoring suit that Mimmo sews on me.
Wake-ups at dawn, downpours, night workouts for the strangest of times at work, a thousand obstacles along an already difficult path, but nevertheless, October 9 arrives.
At 11:00 a.m., flanking the Olympic Stadium in the Swedish capital, the shot is fired that decrees the start of the race: chills, tension, fear, excitement. I live the first kilometers in a cocktail of sensations. First hour passes, second hour passes.
Through Strava my closest friends are able to monitor my pace and Alessia updates my parents in Barletta.
I get to the 35th kilometer and do not collapse; in fact, I increase the pace because I feel the finish line is getting closer.
The stadium appears on the horizon, I enter it, and the crowd greets me and so many others with shouts and cheers. It is about 3:45 p.m.: after 4 hours, 44 minutes and 45 seconds to be exact.
I sit on the athletic track at the Stockholm Olympic Stadium.
I smile as I stare at my medal dangling around my neck and repeat to myself:
“You did it! You are a marathon runner!”
ASICS really means Anima Sana In Corpore Sano, indicating how much mind and body are connected and how much the brand makes this its banner. The complete vision of man composed of ‘soul’ and ‘body’ are told by ASICS in its recent campaigns to inspire people to experience sports positively to achieve mental and physical well-being.
Editor’s note: The person on the cover of the post is not related to the author of the post