Venice is, indeed, a wonderful city, no matter how many times you happen to visit it, it’s always an estonishing experience, but running through it? by night? oh boy, that’s a completely different story.

On April 6th the 8^ edition of the Venice Night Trail took place in, guess where.., Venice, and me, and a group of friends from the local running community in Brescia decided to take part in it for the second time.

The Venice Night Trail is an urban trail running competition that, in my humble opinion, is a one of its kind race: its route, spanning 16km, touches upon the most significant places of the wonderful city, connecting them by leading participants across 51 bridges; a series of ups and downs of steps, alternated with narrow alleys (the famous Calli of Venice), revealing a hidden aspect of the Maritime Republic often unknown and overlooked by the world of mass tourism.

Needless to say, the scene one witnesses is absolutely unconventional; It’s not every day you see 5000 runners, equipped with headlamps, racing wildly through the narrowest passageways of Venice. And although this might seem strange and unusual to some locals, as soon as the main points of interest were reached, the runners were greeted by a crowd of people who, with a great sense of involvement, cheered them on, giving even the most weary runners the strength and power of will required to not give up and reach the finish line.

If you really have to find a downside of an event like this (and yet I don’t think it’s a downside), is that, unless you are at the very front of the starting wave, it’s nearly impossible to run fast and try to make your “personal best”, but if we have to be honest, I don’t think this is even the main goal of a race like this: if you are forced to slow down, and you cant keep up with your pace, that means you can shift your focus away from your cadence and chrono, to take a good look around you, and admire the scenario that is there to estonish you every time you turn a tight corner, and at the same time, you also have a chance to give an high five to a random person swinging his hand in Piazza San Marco.

Just a couple more words have to be said about the organization and the logistics, like every event organized by the Venice Marathon group, every aspect of the race was absolutely flawless: from the logistics to the village, and the volunteers scattered all over the course in order to prevent any potential accident.. everything was organized in a very professional way.

And of course, at the end of the race, each participant was given the opportunity to refuel and replenish their energy at the highly popular ‘Pasta Party,’ which was also included in the registration fee.

In the end, I really enjoyed runnin this urban trail, but most of all, the thing I enjoyed the most was running it with my group of friends, who, as always, made everything even more special.

For sure I’ll be looking forward for the next edition that will take place, most likely, in april next year, unless it’s going to overlap with another big one i’ve already planned in advance; but that’s something that deserves a post on its own.

Bye for now! and see you on the next race!