Results at the 11th edition of the 2011 Milan City Marathon

More than 10,000 runners have participated to the 11th edition of the Milan City Marathon.


At this link you can find the results at the 11th edition of the Milan Marathon: 2011 Milan City Marathon Ranking.

5 reasons to run the 2011 Milan City Marathon

This has been posted by the Milan City Marathon more than twelve months ago, but we believe it is still representing great reasons to participate to this event. 
Below you can find 5 compelling arguments to enroll to the 11th edition of the Milan City Marathon on April 10th 2011:



1. Because it has the fastest race course in Italy (the race record’s improves every year, in 2008 Duncan Kibet has stopped the clock at chronometer on the time of 2:07’53’’). From this year it will be at the beginning of the race season.



2. It is the chance to discover a city that is always on the run, at a different pace: you will be able to combine sport and tourism, seeing the monuments and the beauties of this unique city.


3. You will cross in the center of Milan and get the opportunity to shop in the world´s most fashionable city. You will be able to run side by side with people from the world of the fashion, politics and show business. Milan will host the Expo 2015.


4. Because everyone can run Milan: if you cannot complete enough training to run the full 42,195 Km you will be able to run the half marathon, or run with your friends in the relay marathon! There is one finish line for all the race distances: the iconic Piazza Castello 
in the heart of Milan.


5. Milan is the most well connected city in the world, besides the low cost flights there are hotel package deals that will allow you to spend a weekend in Milan for a reasonable price. 

2010 Milan City Marathon: a live experience

This post describes a live experience for the April 2010 Milan City Marathon and gives you insight of what it is really look like. Below you can find a translation from the original 2010 Milano City Marathon live experience. Milan City Marathon is in the top 5 of the Italian ranking from the number of participants.

April 11, 2010 Milano City Marathon.
There should have been a great event, but for sure we found a lot of wind. All the numbers that have been indicated at Milan Marathon press conference, blown away later completely. Should we consider a great marathon with 3400 people at the finish line?
With over 5 thousand starters already counting those which took half marathon? With 7 thousand members counting the relays? Just by adding the the audience, I believe that Milan could possibly compete with  Rome in term of attendance....


Compared to the past, we have seen some interesting news, some successful attempt to change things, but the relationship between Milan and the marathon is still very complicated.
Among the news it was the departure, which could be called "Venetian" (just by thinking about Stra departure for Venice, Vedelago for Padua, Vittorio Veneto for Treviso), rather than American, that is offset from the city. In my opinion this is a very acceptable choice, with support for Metro (free, other welcome news), but not parking (fares were incredibly high): better leave the car a few stops earlier.
The location is pretty bleak, perhaps with the aid of a gray and windy day, but the trucks to deliver runners bags are well positioned and easily accessible (remember the attacks to the military trucks in the Central Station in Milan). Around the desert, however, few toilets, three small tents as dressing . A pretty limited area for a great event! With all the cubature around us, not even a pavilion available for a couple of hours?
The starting area looks strange. We got melancholy of the Colosseum (Rome), Piazza Michelangelo (Florence), Parco del Valentino (Turin), without quoting the Champs Elisées in Paris or the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. We are like in a Fellini film, "The Road" and just, there is more. The starting corrals are well positioned, with controlled access, from where we are (deep down, unfortunately) you still can hear well the speakers.
After the first kilometers traveled in absolute tranquility outside Milan at San Siro we are the first contact with traffic. Very close encounter, athletes run having cars on the side but drivers are quiet, perhaps sleepy. Beautiful step-stage racetrack on avenues that seemed made to run for thousands people. The calm did not last long: in the Montagnetta area, the half-track slows the flow of people going to the lakes, traveling alongside cars aligned, it begins the Milan Marathon pollution.
I will not describe everything I have encountered, I can only say that in some places it was possible to do a good job of prevention, preventing cars to get close to the course. In some places this has not happened, there was the usual confusion, but without excesses that have made this famous race. But it was a crescendo from door to door, from the calm of Porta Nuova and Porta Volta (armored) to total chaos Porta Romana and Porta Genova.


Gold Medal to all firefighters and volunteers who have dedicated themselves to our protection. Runners have also appreciated volunteers, that offered many encouragements, the public was even "hottest" in the coldest wind zones of the city such as Piazza Duomo.
One of the positive note was the increase in bands, runners always appreciated everything they play. In term of music, it was also appreciated half a kilometer of music by Radio Deejay in Corso Sempione.
It was announced that inside the bags we found a sponge to be used in the race to avoid an "environmental catastrophe." However, the old system prevailed instead: "take the towel, throw in the towel." So in some places, since the sky was gray, at least the roads were blue....
The Milan Marathon was announced "the world's fastest route." The wind and the lack of star players (was it really a great event?) have failed to test this prediction, I personally doubt it, the path on the old ring was much more streamlined for people running at 20 km per hour.


The arrival at the Castle is a good solution, worthy of a great event, what it is behind a bit less. Cramped conditions, without shelter, showers distant to reach on foot. Plus yesterday I had to find the medal and I got the bag Enervit, I have not figured out how and where it was delivered, but it is my fault I was pretty dazed.


So I participated to a normal marathon, not to a big event, there was less intolerance, but Milan does not like the marathon and, despite the adjustment of the course, the marathon is not (yet) suitable for its citizens.
In conclusion, I think that the relay has been most successful event: it has mobilized athletes, celebrities, solidarity, imagination. At the relay we breathed fresh air in certain areas, enthusiasm was felt, it seemed that relay was the main event! So why not cultivate a different event, with a short course and less invasive, with more public boundary, with mixed teams of celebrities and mere mortals, and Sunday runners, politicians, with space for solidarity and creativity?

Milan City Marathon: the tenth or the first edition?

March 30th 2010. Already more than 5000 runners have enrolled to the Milan Fashion Marathon, which will take place on April 11th 2010. This is its tenth edition, but everything is different from the other nine.
The date has changed, the course has been completely modified, logo and site as well have been completely redesigned. The new honorary president is Linus, the entertainer and deejay marathon runner, which brought enthusiasm but also has given significant broadcasting and advertising with his radio. 
First, instead of a winter marathon which was reserved to  few thousand fans, and which had limited global expansion, the organizers had in mind an event that in April can attract runners and tourists as it happens in London, Berlin, New York, Barcelona and many other cities around the world.The new marathon, beyond all expectations, has already exceeded the five thousand members with athletes coming from over 44 countries. Other marathons in Italy like Rome and Florence have been recently over 15 and 12 thousand runners, respectively, but with this move the organizers expect to create an event that could in a few years become a flagship for Milan in view of the 2015 Expo.
Second, also the course has been modified. The runners will not start from Milan downtown, but from the outskirts of the town, in the halls of Fiera Rho-Pero and it will finish at the Castello Sforzesco through, among other streets, San Siro district, Corso Sempione, Cathedral Square, the Civic Arena, Corso Venezia and Piazza San Babila and also along the canals. Third, the Milano City Marathon has a new medal for the runners crossing the finish line. The design has been selected in an official competition among different Italian arts students, coming from Monza's Liceo Artistico Villa Reale, Milan's Liceo Artistico Boccioni and Milan's Professional institute Caterina da Siena. Moreover, the logo has been redesigned and the color has changed: from blue to green, to indicate that the marathon course is ecological, and that the organizers will offset the CO2 emission produced during the marathon with trees plantation (in 2008, across a 90,000 sqm area between Milan and Pavia, 18,000 trees have been installed). Finally, the sponsor has also changed, from Asics to Mizuno.

In the marketing campaign on the web and on the press, the new edition of the marathon has been advertised as the fastest marathon in the world. This has been indicated as one of the five reason to come to Milan. If true, in the long run, this will bring additional runners, in search for their personal best. The Milan organizers have indicated other four good reasons: first, the ability to combine sport and tourist (pretty much true for other marathons in big cities); second, the opportunity to shop in the world's most fashionable city (pretty unique, indeed!); third, the option to run only half marathon or the relay; finally, the low cost opportunities/deals that can be found in Milan, ranging from low cost flights to hotels.

Therefore, compared to previous editions, the Milanocity marathon is really quite different than the past, except for one thing. Contrary to what has been indicated to the site, there will not be a complete traffic block during the day of the race.  

Will the runners love the event for the next nine editions of the marathon, as they did not in the previous nine? Only time will tell this, but it is most likely that the Milan Fashion Marathon will become an unforgettable event just in few years from now, with more than 10 thousand runners.

2007 Milan City Marathon: a live experience

This post describes a live experience for the November 2007 Milan City Marathon and gives you insight of what it is really look like. Below you can find a translation from the original posting describing the Milan City Marathon live experience in Italian. Please note that the 2010 Milan City Marathon has swapped its schedule with Turin from November to April 11th 2010.

Cold but not freezing. Damb but not wet. It was seven am, departing from home. At eight am we arrived in Milan, Piazza Castello. To share with me the cold-but-not-cold, the damp but not wet, I have invited my friend D. The presence of a companion-friend has been crucial. The alternative course of action would have been to deliver the bag to the store by 8.30. Until the hour of departure, at 9.15am, I would have to be covered with makeshift equipment.

The first very important choice: the race clothes. At home I had initially decided for an undershirt as well as my athletics t-shirt. Moreover, I have selected shorts against leggings. In Piazza Castello I confirmed the choice of the piece below, but I changed the upper one: via the T-shirt, undershirt only.
To keep myself warm, I sprinkled with camphor oil, improper weapon to keep competitors away from me...

The departure area was very crowded. Ready, GO! The first kilometer was inevitably slow due to the high number of participants. Finding the rhythm was the first obstacle.

It took me a lot to enter the atmosphere, the race and the weather. I covered the first five, ten, fifteen kilometers in a certain sense of fatigue, discomfort, almost boredom. I felt strange sensations. The hints of fatigue usually appearing from the twenty-fifth kilometers here came early. In front of me I saw the specter of a crisis.

Statistics say that I made the first ten kilometers averaging 4'02 "/ km. Given that I ran the first kilometer - because traffic - at 4'25", I am better off not thinking about it. Those are unthinkable things during training.

From km 11 to km 21 and ninety-seven meters – until the half marathon – I have taken more logical pace: 4'07"/km. I finished the midway in 1h26'14", more than a minute slower than at Maranello - Carpi.

It followed the usual slowdown for me. I decided to lower the pace and to focus on the ease of travel. I noticed the regularity of breathing and movements’ fluidity.

I got to the thirtieth - where it says the race starts - with a sense of resignation. I knew that soon my legs would have been heavy as usual.

Yet I was not terrible. Until that point I was able to eat well. Even the supply of the thirtieth km was positive, complete with a snack having banana taste. I had done the same thing ten miles before.

The kilometers passed: less than 12, then eleven and ten. I have always remained quiet, at my pace, without forcing.
Arrived at kilometer thirty I have enjoyed doing some little sum: find the average per kilometer that would have allowed me to get to the finish in less than three hours. Less than three hours, yes. I did not think to beat my personal best.
I challenge anyone to do three-hour-minus-two-hour-and-twelve-divided-ten. Calculating and converting minutes in seconds is the most critical part.
Well, with difficulty I had understood that if I had continued at 4'30" /km, I could make it.

Here are my timing henceforth: km 33, 4'24", km 34 4'19", km 35 4'24", km 36 4'25", km 37 4'16", km 38 4'24", km 39 4'20".

I started to record the lap per kilometer without looking at the total time. No more small computation, just to finish in the shortest possible time. Three kilometers before marathon end, I found myself in good shape. Here is the crazy thing happened: I ran the last three kilometers to 4'10"/km, 4'09" /km and 4'08 "/km, a fast and growing finish. I managed to get this as I want, as it should always be. I decided for the first time ever to skip the last replenishment, at km40. To run the last km I no longer need anything.

I crossed the line with deep feeling of joy, mixed with disbelief.

When I entered the narrow finishing road, between two wings of crowd cheering, I looked to the big clock set above the arch of the finish line. I launched the final sprint, attracted by the music of the powerful speaker amplification. Thirty meters from the finish, I broke down my race gesture to raise my left hand fist. Time to stretch my arm and then I got of cramp through my right leg. I resisted. Few steps: the chip set in the bonds of the left shoe has started playing. Under my feet there was the arrival red carpet, over my head the inflatable structure beyond which you can stop running. We should stop running! I have made it!

I continued to celebrate, even if I am alone. Somebody from the organization has slipped the medal around my neck. Another person has covered me with a thermal towel. Thereafter, I have tried the complicated operation of removing the chip from my shoe. I had to return it as soon as possible; there is a 15 euro penalty to lose it. At that time, I got big cramps.
My friend D. joined me and the party continues with the race story.

A heartfelt round of applause to the volunteers that were completely to our service. Bravo also to the Milan Marathon's management. I particularly liked the final refreshment, the large dressing room, the big tent with the "risotto party", and other services of which I have not asked for (storage bags, massages, showers).