The Milan, Salomon, Running ‘Allianz Top Cup’ trophy, Milan’s trail race Par Excellence, took place on Sunday the17th of September, 2017
The routes; 25km, 15km, and 9.9km all started from the historical, Arena Civica, passed over the top of Mont Estella Park and then return to the starting point, after a magnificent trail winding across the city of Milan, giving all the participants the possibility to explore wonderful views of the city, the Duomo, the roads in the centre of town, and the Sforzesco castle. Of course, I went for the fantastic 25km race!
The “Arena Civica”, starting point of the competition, is a multipurpose stadium opened in 1807 as an Amphitheatre and later on was transformed into the “Arena Civica” after having been handed over to Milan Municipality. In 1895 the Arena opened its doors to modern sports, including Italian Cycling Championships. In 1910, it was the debut place for the Italian-French football match, where the Azzurri beat there rivals by an amazing 6-2! In the first half of the nineteenth century, between 1930 and 1947, the Arena hosted Inter-domestic football matches. For a short period, from October 1941 up to June 1945, the place was the stadium of the Milan team, which is the second football team in the city.
The Arena was also the race finish point. The central part of the trail was “La Montagnetta” or Mont Estella park, a 50 meters high artificial little mountain in the North-West part of Milan, in QT8 urban area, which is also known as “Monte Stella” or “Montagnetta di San Siro”. It is a little hill initially built with the rubble caused by the bombing of the Anglo-American forces during World War II, and with other materials coming from the partial demolition of the last city walls which took place after 1945. The project was designed by the architect Piero Bottoni, who dedicated it to his wife Elsa Stella, after whom the hill is named. With the exception of the little wood, with its wild flora, the hill has greenery similar to that of the other city parks, represented by tall trees in between wide lawns and rest areas.
It is not an unusual thing to see VIP’s, whether natives in Milan or living there, training in the place. Among those VIP’s I may mention Giovanni Storti (from the comic trio Aldo, Giovanni and Giacomo) who is a committed ultra-marathoner.
The way to “Montagnetta” was a muddy and slippery trail caused by the heavy rain of the night before. This made it difficult for all the athletes to reach the Milan City Fair and City life area where we faced the toughest challenge, that of climbing the Allianz Tower (the tallest skyscraper in Italy 202 meters high, rising to 207 meters if measured from the city floor), up to the 23rd floor. This year there was also a new absolute record, thanks to Stefano Contardi who has covered the vertical drop of 100 meters (644 steps) with a time of 3.02 minutes. While the overall winner was Luigi Zullo who completed the whole path in 1h 29 minutes.
“My race” was a triumph of affections and emotions, starting from the entrance of the Arena where I met two friends I hadn’t seen for many years: Antonio Capasso, “Andò” the photographer of the event and Antonio Calò, a dear friend of mine who, when I called his name, he turned round shouting: “Noo a ghost from Dubai!” Shortly afterwards, I met two more friends: Giovanni Milazzo from GM Comunicazioni, who takes care of the Salomon press office and who had invited me to participate to this event, and Luca Tavian and Augusto Prati from Salomon.
Thriving emotions filled my race, starting from the front-line and passing by the trail to City life just outside the Allianz Tower. Both moments were immortalized with pictures taken by photographer Cristina Risciglione.
It was my first run to “Montagnetta.” Before that day, I had just heard of that name which is famous for being the place where Alberto Cova (former middle distance runner and Olympic Champion of 100 thousand metres in Los Angeles 1984) had achieved lots of his winnings. But, hold on, of course, I am not comparing myself to this champion, and would not ever intend to!
I was overwhelmed with strange feelings and with reactions to the trail and to the evolution of the race as a whole, which was easy at the beginning where the ground was flat. However, later on I suffered from a discomfort in my left knee and then also in my back. I believe this was caused by a period full of races and hard trainings. These pains started to diminish and then fully disappeared half-way when the race became harder.
The only thing I was worried about was the” big challenge”: the 23 floors skyscraper climb, which turned out to be the part I managed the best! Maybe this happened because of my habit of climbing stairs and of having participated in other Vertical Marathons, or due to the several trainings I had in the mountainous areas and the good management of my energies. I guess all these factors helped me to easily climb the 23 floors and to outdo some competitors both uphill and downhill!
Finally, I returned to the Arena, to enjoy the well-deserved walk under the inflatable finish line. “My legs have run another 25km that nobody can ever deprive me of.” (Quote: Max Calderan)!
Now time for a well-deserved rest, at least today, with an eye on my next challenge… ■
Keep On Running!
Words by: Nico de Corato
Photos by: Press Office, “Salomon Running” Milano – Cristina Risciglione
