Summary:
- Nike ACG and Mental Athletic host a three-day indoor ultra-trail event at Spazio Maiocchi in Milan from February 11-13
- Twenty-six international runners will complete 666 laps on a 150-meter off-road loop over three distances: 15km, 50km, and 100km
- The event precedes the launch of the ACG Ultrafly Trail SP campaign and will be livestreamed on Mental Athletic's website
Nike ACG and Mental Athletic are staging a three-day indoor ultra-trail event at Spazio Maiocchi in Milan. The event takes place from February 11 to 13 and features 26 international trail runners completing a total of 666 laps on a 150-meter off-road circuit built inside the Slam Jam cultural space.
The format inverts typical trail running conventions. Instead of covering varied terrain across mountains and changing conditions, runners will repeat the same loop hundreds of times. The setup brings the outdoor trail environment into an urban gallery setting, allowing spectators to watch a 100km trail run unfold at close range.
The event is structured across three days with increasing distances. On February 11, runners complete 15 kilometers. The second day extends to 50 kilometers. The final day pushes the distance to 100 kilometers. Each race will be livestreamed on the Mental Athletic website, with five cameras capturing the action.
Exhibition of S.P.E.E.D. serves as a live testing ground for sustained endurance and maintained speed under fatigue. Running the same 150 meters hundreds of times requires mental stamina beyond physical capability. The repetition strips away the exploration element typically associated with trail running and replaces it with obsessive focus on performance metrics.
The 26 participants come from Mental Athletic's network and the ACG Racing Department. Public access is structured around the progression of the athletes across the three days. On the first day, doors open at 6pm for the 15km race and awards. The 50km race on day two opens to the public at 2pm, with final laps and awards from 6pm to 10pm. The 100km race follows the same schedule on the final day.
The event happens days before Nike ACG presents the Ultrafly Trail SP campaign, developed in collaboration with Mental Athletic. The campaign builds on the themes explored during the exhibition.
Mental Athletic positions the event as part of a trail running culture that pursues extreme distances and output. The closed-loop format forces performance rather than allowing adaptation. Progress gets measured by persistence rather than distance covered. The breaking points become part of the process.
The space at Via Achille Maiocchi 7 transforms into what organizers describe as a wild landscape within a closed circuit. Spectators get to observe sweat, pain, endurance, euphoria and discovery at close proximity. The setup collapses the usual distance between bodies, performance and observation.
The event format raises questions about how far runners will push themselves when stripped of natural variation and scenery. Twenty-six athletes start. The question of how many will finish remains open until the final lap.
Doors open at 6pm on February 11 for the first race. The 50km and 100km races begin earlier in the day, with public access starting at 2pm. Final laps and awards take place between 6pm and 10pm on all three days.
The exhibition functions as both athletic test and public spectacle. It offers a rare chance to witness ultra-distance trail running in an urban context where such events typically never occur. The repetition, confinement and observed proximity create conditions that challenge both runners and the traditional understanding of what trail running requires.