The half marathon organized by FollowYourPassion will be held in Milan on Sunday and it is worth reminding the Milanese who don’t run that the athletes should be applauded. Looking at the numbers it will be (or rather it is) a great sporting celebration because over 15 thousand runners at the start are a great sight and there are not many races that can boast a grid like this. A sign that this is a successful event among the growing crowd given that, compared to last year, there are more or less 4,000 more athletes at the start. A great satisfaction for those who organize but also for a city like Milan which will see thousands of athletes with families in tow arriving for a long weekend in its hotels, its B&Bs, its restaurants, its shops, its bars and its pizzerias if we consider that more than seven thousand participants are foreigners. So a great business for everyone. And this (also this) is the added value of events like this and it would be a good idea to always remember it.
Especially in Milan who has never had a great relationship with runners, marathons and great athletes in general. There are cities where you get less angry, others more. Milan is historically one of the most “angry” with marathon runners but in general with all athletes, and not just athletes, who every now and then take possession of the city’s streets for a morning. It’s an old story that drags on from the first editions of the Stramilano which then unfortunately “infected” the Milan Marathon and the other challenges that came without sparing the Giro d’Italia. An ancient history made up of insults, arguments at intersections, eggs thrown from balconies, people even coming to blows. A little sad for a city with an international scope that is wrapped up in the ritual of buying pastries on Sunday morning obviously without the hassle of having to go around a barrier. But that’s it.
Milan, Rome, Florence, Tokyo, New York, Boston, London, Paris, every major city has its own participatory marathon, its own half marathon, its own cycling marathon. A pride and an opportunity because sporting events have always brought with them the idea of travel, of holidays often taken with the family and therefore induced and money. Which for those who have a house on the finish line is a small consolation that does not soothe the anger, but for those who administer the cities it should be the right reason for reflection and collaboration with those who organize. Not only that. Major events attract famous athletes who are a stimulus to emulation, especially for the involvement of children in grassroots sports. Today it goes like this with Yannick Sinner for tennis, for the Olympics that are about to arrive but it also goes like this for the big marathons that invade the cities. The New York marathon, just to give an example, not only brings many spectators to applaud on the streets but has attracted millions of people who previously remained permanently on sofas to run all these years.
Therefore a run, a marathon, a ten kilometer race are also an investment that allows us to save a lot of money in healthcare for adults and allows us to raise a generation of sporty kids who, in addition to feeling well physically and psychologically, learn from sport the most important values to share on the field and not just on social media. One above all is that of defeat which is part of things, of life, which is always a point of restart and not of revenge. And it also applies in relationships with people, with a wife, with a girlfriend. Knowing how to accept losing something or someone is worth more than many red benches, many red marks on the face, too much rhetoric… This is also why the city must applaud the marathon runners on Sunday…