“Desert or frost, living in nature leads you to an extraordinary connection with yourself. And with the effort I… dance with it”
He wants to run around the world. Sanremo-Lisbon, plane, New York-Los Angeles, plane, Beijing-Sanremo. “To my knowledge, no one has ever done it.” A never banal existence that of Michele Graglia, from western Liguria, 40 years old in August and victories in inhuman races such as the Yukon Arctic Ultra and the Badwater135: for the extreme athlete of the La Sportiva Team, four years in the United States as an international model (“Con all the excesses of the case”, he once said), then the enlightenment towards the ultra trail reading the book by Dean Karnazes and, simultaneously with the running feats (“The 400 km of the Moab240 are my record, for now” ), 15 years also working in a mindfulness retreat.” VIPs arrived, from Oprah Winfrey to NBA players. It was a holistic retreat, not a rehab, but many came to detach themselves from addictions. You can have fame and success, but difficulties kill whoever”.
Not her: she’s back from a serious Achilles tendon injury during the Lavaredo Ultra Trail 2022 and plans to go around the world…
“The races have been a means to get to experience the world and myself. But in recent months I have understood that there is no need for a competition to test yourself. With an adventure you are freer: on expeditions in the deserts of Atacama and Gobi I experienced a dimension that I had never tasted before”.
Racing is performance, adventure is freedom. Living for weeks lost in the wildest nature, eating in front of the fire, almost brings you back to a primordial state. The race is black or white, life is a rainbow.”
Are Michele the extreme sportsman and Michele the man the same person?
“Running is great meditation, it helps me create a better me, to bring out the most beautiful part. In addition to the physiological release of adrenaline and more, I think it’s almost a meditative matter, it makes me less anxious and depressed. The more I run, the more I am fine”.
And then what is it like to return to everyday life?
“It’s the hardest part of all, it’s harder to stop than run. Real life is out there, social or religious indoctrination are addictions or limits we impose on ourselves. Living in nature brings you back to an amazing connection with yourself” .
He ran in the desert and in the cold. Despite being opposite environments, is it the same thing?
“If we exclude the management strategy of the two climates, psychologically I would almost say yes. The extreme is extreme, it leads to a mental transcendence that allows you not to be influenced too much by external factors”.
How does the mind train it?
“I have been practicing yoga for 10 years (the one in Rishikesh, of which I am an instructor, I went to learn in India) but what has helped me a lot, in life as in running, has been meditation”.
“I achieve a detachment from physicality to almost enter another dimension where you hardly feel the pain anymore. If you go over 30 or 40 hours of running it truly becomes a meditative practice, you are in a psychological state where you almost feel like flying . A whirlwind of ecstasy and pain”.
“It is a necessary part of the journey. If instead you compare it for what it is, it becomes something to live with. With the effort you ‘dance’ together, as I say”.
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED