Ferrino Women Team @ UTLO

Nine girls at the start, nine at the finish. Impossible to do better.
It happened in Omegna, for the Lake Orta Ultra Trail, the race that marked the final moment - at least for 2023 - of the project developed by Ferrino in collaboration with Trailored 4 You, which brought a group of "normal" women, simple running enthusiasts, to successfully compete in a long distance race on trails.

Throughout the year, the new athletes participated in preparation and selection camps organised by Lisa Borzani, the soul of Trailored 4 You. The two-time trail running champion and winner of the Tor des Géants, with her experience and rigorous training schedules, enabled the girls to go to the start with the concrete knowledge that they could do it. And so they did. Six finished the 55-kilometre race, the others were content, so to speak, to run the shorter race, which still measured 34 kilometres.

Beyond the purely sporting aspect, the 'accidental athletes' experienced a special year, which allowed them to grow and, above all, to team up with other women in a constructive way.

‘It was a wonderful experience,’ sums up Katia Pricco Sissoldo about her months with the Ferrino Women Team. ‘Comparing myself with my teammates allowed me to overcome my limits and motivated me more and more to do my best. I met strong women who have a thousand commitments every day between work and family and still try to find space for training. Unity is strength and it leads you to dream big, and that's how it was for us!’

Sylvie Grange is on the same wavelength: 'Being part of a team was great for me, we shared training moments that allowed us to get to know each other and then we constantly compared and kept in touch. And it was such fun to run dressed all the same!!! It was there that we also appeared as a team in the eyes of everyone else'.


Francesca Ferrando's assessment is also similar, saying: 'This experience with the Ferrino Women Team has been positive in every way. Being able to run in a team of women has been great, it creates cohesion, understanding, and a lot of mutual encouragement, because the common desire is to all arrive at the same goal’.

Working as a group was not only a pleasure, but for all of them it was also an incentive to improve themselves and a motivational boost to carve out time for training.’ It was a good experience of sharing, we kept in touch with some of them and we might do something together again sometime,’ confirms Silvia Bonalumi. ‘As always, the biggest problem is finding the time to prepare properly, but being part of a team gave me motivation and I also felt a bit of responsibility to do well.’

'The hardest part for me is not the training, or the race, but the organisation needed to fit them into the daily routine and reconcile them with work. But with this additional stimulus, I have found some really interesting organisational solutions, which I would never have imagined!’ raises Paola Bottanelli, who adds: ‘Running for the Ferrino Women Team has made me feel valued as a woman and as an athlete, and this has greatly influenced my motivation and perseverance in tackling the race and training’.

 

THANK YOU ALL , GIRLS, FOR RUNNING WITH US!