“A smile will save the world,” this is what the Dalai Lama told me when I met him in Trento last year. He was saying it while telling me about the situation in Tibet which was worsening. “Your Holiness,” I replied, “you are telling me about such painful things and yet you find the strength to smile?” “Look,” he answered, “I want to tell you three things: every situation has to be accepted for what it is because it cannot be otherwise; second, everything passes by; and third, it will be a smile to save the world.”
This is also why we of the Maratona – at grips with situations far less important than those His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso is fighting for – still want to smile. Although the last edition, with thousands of sweet instants, also left a bitter taste in our mouth: the taste of deceit and fraud of those who cheated as they raced, the taste of professionals exhibiting false medical certificates. Though we will not let them win; we will become even stricter.

Therefore, as His Holiness the Dalai Lama teaches us, let’s smile! We can smile because for the next edition we have beaten the record of applications to enter our race.

Let’s smile, because we know that many people have signed for and will still sign for the increased entrance fees, which will help our friends of Assisport Alto Adige and the groups association “Insieme si può”, to support their education and training projects in Third World countries.

Let’s smile, because next year again we will be able to count on dozens of sponsors who are close to us and the extraordinary visibility that an event like the Maratona guarantees them. But above all, let’s smile because those people recognize the intrinsic value of our race, which we have been able to build up over these years, an intrinsic value capable of increasing their GDP but also capable of increasing our IWP, inner well-being perceive. This is an indicator on which the inhabitants of the Ladin valleys around the Dolomites, pay great attention. Giulan, our friends.

We smile, because next year as well we will have extraordinary champions as our travel companions. It is impossible not to be impressed by the extraordinary feats of Alex Zanardi on his handbike, his words, his intense and exhilarating gaze: this is the sportsmanship that we like.

Though the greatest reason for us to smile, is the spectacular natural backdrop which will again be at the centre of the 26th edition. The Maratona belongs to the Dolomites, the Maratona is the Dolomites, their beauty, their effort and their respect.

Have you seen how many reasons we still have to smile?

michil costa