Many people ask me what is the marathon and if it’s a pleasure in travelingto run all those kilometers. This thought by Mauro Covacich, Italian writer and runner, is one of the possible explanations.
“The marathon is a kind of permanent faith: just to have finish it only once to feel marathoners for a life. It’s like psychoanalysis. Yes, I consider it a form of martial art, an inner discipline. It’s intrinsically. For workouts that it requires, for the way that leads you to perceive the environment, for the effort that demands on your body. The marathoner is a samurai with shoes instead of the sword: he’s extremely severe with himself, not never forgives, he is constantly struggling against the limits … it’s a mistake to think at the marathon as a sport, it’s a discipline maximally aesthetic. It’s a vision of the world: not only those forty-two kilometers from running in the shortest possible time, it’s the idea to resist, to go further … “
