When you choose a race, you choose first of all to trust the organisation. And, especially over long distances, you entrust something huge to us: your safety. It is a responsibility we take very seriously. Even on short distances, to varying degrees, the same relationship arises: mutual trust and mutual respect.
This is why we want to pause for a moment on a point that often goes unnoticed.
At La Corsa della Bora you are not “customers”.
You are not buying a product, like a 100 grams of ham from the delicatessen. Even the delicatessen seller, in order to sell that ham, is subject to a very long list of obligations, rules, controls and health safeguards. But in that kind of relationship the deal is simple: the buyer pays, the seller delivers a compliant product. The charcuter may tell you to “put it in the fridge”, but once it leaves the shop, the responsibility is no longer his.
This is not the case in a competition. For us, responsibility remains, and the regulations exist first and foremost to protect your safety. It is not a “formal” document: it is a concrete part of risk management, prevention and assistance. And it protects everyone, even in the opposite sense: it protects the organisation, the staff and the volunteers, because without clear rules there is no safety, no respect and no sport.
Here there is no “customer” who demands, but a competitor who accepts a deal. You always declare this during registration, fully and without reservation. Often you sign it and then never think about it again, but it is precisely that step that makes the competition possible: you trust us, and we must be able to trust you.
This is why certain figures and responsibilities related to a sports event can, and must, intervene when a person does not qualify or does not behave in a manner compatible with an event. Just as a doctor can do so (unless life-threatening), a lawyer, a mountain guide, or an organisation that has an obligation to protect people and the environment in which they operate.
Every year we turn a small percentage of people away from the competition, about 0.5%. Not because “we don't like them”, but because they behave like “unreasonable customers”. These are the ones who come in with phrases or attitudes such as “the customer is always right”, “you don't know who I am”, “I pay and I want”, or challenge the rules after signing them, or disrespect the staff and volunteers.
Some might think: “They paid, collect and shut up”. But the point is that the rulebook is not a courtesy of the organisation: it is the first safeguard of your safety. And we will never accept that the stupidity of ignoring a rule, of not listening to an instruction, of acting out of arrogance or impulsiveness, will end up harming you, or put those who have to assist you in trouble.
We are an ASD and the goal is not profit. This means one very simple thing: we are not here to “sell” a service for the least possible effort. We are here to do sport, discover the area and be together according to healthy values. Accepting any behaviour “because it has paid” is not pragmatism: it is a quick way to ruin the event, the atmosphere, and above all safety.
And there is one point that needs to be said without mincing words: those who behave as “customers who are always right” are often also those who, then, on the ground and on the route, do not cooperate. He disrespects volunteers, ignores controls, cuts, dirties, disputes operational decisions, and when he makes a wrong turn or makes mistakes, he shifts the blame onto the organisation. He pursues the idea of “medal, race pack and result” as if they were a guaranteed purchase.
This is not sport. And it can be dangerous, for those who do it and for those who have to watch it.
La Corsa della Bora is not like that.
To you, who participate in the right spirit, we say thank you: for your trust, for the time you devote to us, for your hard work on the trails, for your commitment to preparation. Thank you also for your financial contribution, which covers only part of the costs: the rest is work donated by people who choose to be there out of passion.
But remember the essential thing: you are not a customer, you are a competitor. And a competitor respects the rules and respects the competition staff. Greet the volunteers, smile at those who are outdoors for hours to make your day.
Before registering for a competition, read the regulations and mandatory gear thoroughly, and ask questions if anything is unclear to you. You must set off serenely, with confidence and joy. In the same way, the organisation must be able to trust you: it must know that you will not ignore the rules, that you will not behave disrespectfully, and that you will not endanger yourself or those who might need to help you.
If, during the competition, you treat a volunteer badly, if you insult, if you behave aggressively or disrespectfully, or if you refuse to respect directions and rules, your trial ends at that moment. This is not harshness: it is protection. Of you, of the other competitors, and of those who work to make the event possible.
This is the pact that makes true, beautiful and safe competition possible.
Tommaso de Mottoni - Race Director