Giacomo Tagliaferri

Class 1962
He is a Borgo San Lorenzo resident
His personal time achieved in marathon is 2h 13’ 44’’ (Carpi Marathon in 1991)
He is holder of the second Tuscan all-time performance (always relative to the marathon)
He was Italian Marathon Champion in Venice in 1992

When Franco Sargenti (one of the founder member of Mugello Marathon) phoned me to explain the project they had in mind, I have not hesitated to accept, for many reasons: fist of all, I felt very gratified because they had contacted myself, and then because the Mugello Marathon is the oldest marathon in Italy and deserves a greater notoriety than that it has today. Moreover, it is an opportunity for me to give a contribution to make known and appreciated our beautiful Mugello territory. For these reasons I would like to thank with all my heart those people who have contacted me. The project to which I refer concerns the possibility to make known this race and the territory on which it takes place, to an international level, using a variety of diffusion channels, but specially through internet and the network.

I began to love running when I was still very young, I was 8-10 years old, and I watched on television the cross-country races and the meetings at the running track. I remember the great champions who was protagonists to the Olympic Games in Monaco and Montreal and those who ran the legendary “5 Mulini”: Kipkoge Keino, Alberto Juantorena, Dave Bedford, Steve Ovett, Franco Fava and Venazio Ortis, to name a few.

I always wanted to run and I’ve never been afraid of physical labor. I have ran the first races when I go to the middle school. I remember with nostalgia a race of 2000 meters that I ran in the Sorgane Stadium (suburbs of Florence). I reached the 5th place with a time of 7’ 08’’ and with 2 cream donuts that I had eaten just before the start. So much for the food knowledge!

I began to practice athletics seriously in early 1980. I was 17 years old and I have continued for many years, starting with youth competitions and finishing my career with the queen race of the Olympic Games: the Marathon. The dream, I think, of all runners.

The promoters of the Mugello Marathon have asked me to state some brief notes to explain some of the knowledge and experiences that I have gained during my agonistic path. We hope to do something pleasant to those who will want to read them, without the claim to want to teach anything to anyone.

I think that the worldwide success of the marathon is due to many reasons, not least the man’s desire to know his own limits, the desire to know as he can go further these limits and to defy what are considered the “normal human limits”. We can add to this the possibility to see new places, often far away from home, and the need to share a desire, namely the desire to finish a so extreme proof, along with thousands of other runners who have in common with you also the desire to confront.

I would like to underline that there must be a distinction between those who face the marathon as amateur or beginner and those who face the marathon as agonistic athlete and/or professional athlete. However, there is one thing that unites these groups of participants: the importance of doing so in full health and hence the absolute necessity (I would say the obligation) to undergo a prior medical examination carried out at the local offices of sports medicine in order to exclude uniquely the possibility of having more or less serious accidents both of organic and articular type.

That said, you just need to wear your shoes and...run!

Here you can download a small document, hopefully useful, to better prepare yourself to participate to this wonderful adventure. Good reading and good racing.
Giacomo Tagliaferri
 Mugello Marathon