Freedom, sang Giorgio Gaber, is not standing on a tree, nor is it the flight of a fly… Freedom is not a free space, freedom is participation. But freedom is also running. On foot, by bike, in the mountains, everyone does the ride they want. There are those who run to win (the champions), those to post a photo of their Garmin on Facebook with times and kilometers, those to feel good, those to enjoy it and have fun.

Running or cycling are the most democratic of exercises so much so that everyone eventually finds their dimension. But I think we can say that today the most popular races are becoming those of those who think little about the time trial and more about the joy of spending a few hours doing sport with friends. Memory then plays tricks on you. And over time, memories always seem more beautiful than they really are. It’s a classic but it’s also “a bad sign”, proof that you’re getting old.

So great nostalgia always leaves me a little perplexed. Better football and films of the past? Better than foam at the oratory bar, motorbikes without electronics and old books on the iPad? And are the races of the past even better? Often on specialized sites there is controversy between “hard and pure” people who miss the old sweaty and not very glossy marathons where only the tough ones ran, where the maximum time was four hours and where there was no space for actors, VIPs, DJs and jocks or the full-on granfondos which in the end (done like that) are all the same because one doesn’t realize if one has cycled in Tuscany, in the Dolomites, by the sea or on a ring road. Maybe.

The fact remains that the race is a great exercise in democracy where everyone runs as they like, at his own pace and style. Where everyone participates with the t-shirt they prefer, with the shoes they have, with the belly to throw down or with the butt to firm up. The marathon is the only sport where you start alongside the champions and, even if it arrives three hours later, you carve out your own piece of glory. There are those who run, feel good and have fun without the worry of the stopwatch, without the torment of repetitions, without the fixation of the “personal”. This applies to foot races, but it applies to everything, including bike races where the “tough” ones who are ahead of professional averages are increasingly fewer and give way to those who pedal to enjoy it and have fun.