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On Foot in the Park, the Healthy Break of Bocconi Runners

, by Fabio Todesco
Twenty female employees and professors have begun to run a couple of times per week at Parco Ravizza. They are enthusiastic about their activity and prompt men to also get involved

A recent survey conducted in Italy highlights that running in a group a couple of hours per week cheers the office up and raises employees' productivity, strengthens a team's bond and stimulates dialogue. If that is true, Bocconi must have become a better place.

At the end of last summer Elisabetta Genovese, a runner with years of experience and a few half-marathons under her belt, and an administrative assistant at Bocconi University, involved some friends in active lunch-breaks including short runs through Parco Ravizza, the green area in front of the University. Today the group, thanks to the power of example and to the bland weather of the last months, is twenty strong and counting. A couple of times per week you can see Coach Elisabetta (as written on one of her running jerseys) lead employees, professors and friends who live in the neighborhood, set their pace and suggest some strengthening and stretching exercises.

None of the runners, when they started, knew of the recent study, but now all of them grasp the benefits of their activity.

"With a joke that's not a complete joke, when lunch-break comes we don't say we are going to run, we say we're going to do some teambuilding", Michelangela Verardi, head of Bocconi Legal office, says.

"I used to watch them running while I was lazily smoking a cigarette", Francesca Lenoci, Logistics office, says, "and I asked myself: why not try? Now I follow the group any time I can and I feel better".

The athletes communicate through a WhatsApp group, run twice a week, even if seldom the full team, and have been encouraged and helped by colleagues. ISU (the Student Assistance and Financial Aid Center) director, Salvatore Grillo, negotiated with Unifit, the University gym, a special price for the use of the locker rooms, and the group grows every day.

The lunch-break athletes are Rosella Cusenza, Cinzia Fiorellini, Silvia Genovese, Franca Ghizzi, Francesca Lenoci, Greta Nasi, Marinella Nicita, Paola Pasinetti, Emanuela Peritore, Chiara Peverelli, Paola Simoncini, Elena Tieghi, Chiara Torrisi, Elisabetta Trinchero, Federica Trioschi, Michelangela Verardi, Elisabetta Xodo and Mariagrazia Zangari.

"But we don't want to be a womens' club", Coach Elisabetta says and appeals to men: "You too can get the good habit to practice some sport during lunch-break".

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