Rome Marathon 17th edition on internet

At 9:00 am this Sunday March 20th, the most important Italian marathon will depart. If you are not one of the 16000 runners that will participate to the competition, you still have a chance at least to see what you missed. The Rome Marathon can be watched on Internet through the Broadcasting from the Italian Television, at the Rome Marathon Live Internet link.

Sixteen thousand marathoners at the 17th edition of the 2011 Rome Marathon

This article is freely adapted from several press releases of the Rome Marathon.


After a significant effort to promote the event and with the Road Race IAAF Gold label, the Rome Marathon will depart on Sunday March 20th 2011, 
in via Fori Imperiali.


16,188 runners enrolled from 84 different countries, of which 9,147 are Italian, while 7,041 are international runners. Sixteen thousand runners represents a new high record for the Rome marathon, 5% higher than the previous edition.
This figure also represents the highest number of participants ever for an Italian marathon. 

On the international enrollment side, France confirms its first place with 1335 runners 
(+6% more against 2010), ahead of Germany, England, Spain and the United States. 
In the top ten foreign countries, Canada entered at the sixth place, while Denmark (tenth).
Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland are completing the ranking.



This year’s edition is labeled “Road Race IAAF Gold Label” for the first time. The IAAF Gold label is the most prestigious label awarded by the International Association of Athletics 
Federation. With this award, the Rome Marathon entered the top 16 marathon list, while last year it was the 17th largest competition in the world.


Both participants and the international media have always defined the route of 
the Rome Marathon “the most scenic in the world”.  The 2011 course is he 
traditional one, turning in via Ostiense after the first kilometers and back into the 
city centre at the end. The start line is in  via dei Fori Imperiali;  the route 
continues on to piazza Venezia, turns into via del Teatro Marcello, via dei Cerchi, 
via Ostiense, St. Paul’s Basilica, viale Marconi, Porta Portese, then stretches on 
all along the Lungotevere towards the Synagogue, the Ara Pacis, piazza Cavour, 
St. Peter’s Square near the Vatican; then back to the Lungotevere and to Foro 
Italico, one of the legendary places of the 1960’s  Rome Olympics. The route 
continues toward the  Mosque,  via Ripetta,  piazza Navona,  largo di Torre 
Argentina,  via del Corso, Piazza del Popolo, Piazza di Spagna, the Trevi 
Fountain, piazza Venezia, via di San Gregorio, (where the finish line of the 1960’s Olympic marathon was), the Colosseo, and, finally, the finish line in via dei Fori 
Imperiali. The route stretches along more than  500 places of high historical, 
archeological, religious and architectural significance.  


The Rome Marathon has probably organized the best world pasta party,
in cooperation with "Gragnano in Corsa", a superb pasta-brand from Gragnano (Naples), the world's capital of pasta. The pasta party will take place at the Marathon Village on Friday 18 and Saturday 19, from 11am to 7pm.

Results at the 37th Roma Ostia Half Marathon and at 11th Verdi Marathon

This sunday eleven thousand runners has  participated at the 37th edition of the most popular half marathon in Italy, Roma-Ostia, and the second largest running event in the country.

At the same time, a much smaller and cozy competition, the Verdi Marathon, has seen more than 1000 runners at the starting line.
Below you can find the results for the 2 competitions:
Roma Ostia 2011 results
Verdi marathon 2011 results

Results at the 11th edition of the Verona Marathon

More than 2,000 runners have started this morning from Verona at the 11th edition of the Marathon. At this time (2pm) already 1,529 have completed the race, still representing the top   The first runner completing the marathon was the Kenian Albert Kiplagat, with the excellent timing of 2h09:16, improving his personal best by 20 seconds. At the half marathon, 3,303 runners arrived at the finish line, representing still one of the top 3 half marathon in Italy.


Below you can find the link to the 2011 Verona marathon results. The same link indicates also the results for the Romeo and Giulietta Half Marathon.

15 days to the Lago Maggiore Half Marathon (*)

With the ending of the second phase of the enrollment for the 4th edition of the Lago Maggiore Half Marathon ("LMHM"), we can finally provide statistics about participation to this fascinating competition that will be held on March 6 2011. It looks like that this "brand new" race will be competing to the top league of half Marathon in Italy: the number of enrollment at the end of January were already 1,570 which represents as an increase of about 13% compared to last year. If the trend continues, the LMHM will become in the top 7 of the Italian league for Half Marathon.
This year the LMHM course starts from Stresa and goes to Verbania, and it will be all along the Lake Maggiore, providing to the runners one of the most beautiful and evocative of the world. This explains the success of the competition. Finally, LMHM is also very fast. On the same course in 2009 (each year there will be swap from departure and arrival), all three best timing in Italy have been performed on the lake: the Tanzanian Ezekiel Jafari Ngimba completed the 2009 competition with the best  time of 1h00'41", followed by the Kenyans Jacob Kiplagat Yator (1h00'43") and David Kemboi Kiyeng (1h00'44 ").


"Registration continues quite well - said Paul Otto, Chairman of Sport PRO-MOTION - and we are comforted by the comparison, far more positive, with last year. There are all premises that we can break the 2010 record of runners."
The number of subscriptions is also function of the increase of international runners. Runners from 25 countries have already enrolled: from Australia, France, Great Britain, Greece, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, Hungary and the USA, to Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Ethiopia, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.
Obviously the Italian athletes are the most numerous, followed by Swiss runners: there are 44 members so far in fact the Swiss athletes. Moreover, in Italy, there are only 4 regions that are not yet been represented: Umbria, Abruzzo, Molise, Calabria.

It is worthwhile to notice that on the 16th of October there will also be the first edition of the Lago Maggiore Marathon (stay tuned for the details...)

(*) adapted and enriched from the original Italian document on the Podisti.net site. 

1 week before the 10th edition of the Verona Marathon (and half marathon)

From the website of the Verona Marathon, you can find an interesting article describing why it is interesting to run the Verona Marathon next week, Sunday February 20th. This is one of the first important running event and more than 7,000 runners will participate, either to the marathon (expected 2,000 runners at the finish line) or to the Half Marathon (expected 4,000 runners). Both events are in the top 10 in Italy, with the half marathon in the podium (the website indicates in 2010 the Giulietta & Romeo half Marathon was second after the Rome-Ostia, but they were closer with StraMilano). If you are competing in Verona next week, you can take a look at the Verona marathon course or at the Verona Half marathon course. Due to the number of runners, there will be corrals at the starting line, with 4 different colors (yellow for top runners, orange for the first grid, green for the second and light-blue for the last one). The organization has foreseen refreshements every 5km, starting at km 15th, with 6 different tables, the first for the top runners, in the second one runners can find still waters, in the third one Gatorade, in the fourth one hot tea, in the fifth one bananas, in the last one biscuits. There will be pacemakers from 2h45, every 15 minutes till 5h, plus the 6h pacemakers. The Marathon will start at 9am, while the half marathon at 10:15am.
If you are interested to understand how the marathon looks like, you can read the Verona Marathon live experience.

‘O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’ is undoubtedly one of the most renowned Shakespearean lines. Thanks to the major British poet, the city of Verona has become the city of love and passion, where the most famous love affair of all time was set. However, since 2001 Verona is also the place every runner loves. In the last ten years, in fact, Verona has been hosting the Verona Marathon, an amazing and exciting international running event across the old city centre and the city’s suburbs. The 10th edition of the 42,195 km running race is taking place on 20th February, 2011 and it will kick off and close beside the Verona Arena, the Roman amphitheatre worldwide known for the large-scale opera, music and theatre performances hosted there since ancient times. The 2011 Verona Marathon event comprises also the Romeo and Juliet Half Marathon, along a stunning course that touches some of the most beautiful corners in the heart of Verona. Both races are IAAF (International Association Athletics Federation), AIMS (Association of International Marathons and Distance Races) and FIDAL (Italian Federation of Athletics) officially recognised races. Last year’s Romeo and Juliet Half Marathon ranked third among Italy’s most popular half marathons with almost 4.000 participants.For those who aim to take part in the 2011 Verona Marathon event in a funnier and more relaxed way, the Family Run non competitive race brings together youngsters and families on a 13, 7 or 4 km course, exploring the beauty of Verona.Registrations to the 2011 Verona Marathon and the Romeo and Juliet Half Marathon are already closed. Entries for the Family Run event will be open until Sunday 20 February (fees: €5,00 – free children under 10 years of age).In 2000 Verona was listed as a World Heritage site by the UNESCO Committee and for the tenth time next February it’ll be invaded by runners of every level and nationality. Last year, over 6.500 people took part in the event. One of the targets for this year’s competition is to break this record, and the organizing committee led by Verona Marathon GAAC 2007 ASD along with the Verona Municipal Sports Bureau, is confident to welcome to their city a huge number of competitors and running lovers next month. Because Verona has always been the perfect place for every kind of …lovers.

2010 ranking for Italian Marathons preferred by International Runners

The objective of this website is to provide useful information for international runners, who would like to participate to Italian Marathons. In the last 2 years, we have provided several rankings, with the goal to give a sizing on the Italian marathons and half-marathons. 
The interesting ranking below provides information on how many international runners participate to Italian Marathons. The key idea is to indicate how prepared is the organizer of the different races to take care of international requests. No surprise: there is a strict correlation between the complete ranking and this one. Around 10,000 international runners decided to compete in Italy in 2010, this represents 22% on the total number of runners participating to Italian Marathons (the february edition of the monthly magazine "Correre" indicated that 34,100 were the number of Italian runners participating at least to 1 marathon). The top 3 marathons, Rome, Florence, and Venice captured more than 80% of the total international runners in Italy. However, it is worthwhile to notice that at least 2 marathons have higher ranking for international runners. First, the Trieste marathon has more than 28% of international runners: only Rome, Florence and Venice have better percentages. Second, Palermo marathon at the end of November, with incredible weather above 15 degrees, is able to attract an high number of international runners and has a ratio of 27%. 

Below you can find the ranking for the top Italian marathons, based on numbers of international runners. Please note that the ranking refers only to the most recent marathon, while former edition might have got higher participations. 24 Marathons had more than 10 international participants.

TOP TEN:

1. Rome Marathon: international runners 4550
(Mar 21 2010, Ranking Rome Marathon 2010)

2. Florence Marathon: international runners 2118
(Nov 28 2010, Ranking Florence Marathon 2010)

3. Venice Marathon: international runners 1350
(Oct 25 2010, Ranking Venice Marathon 2010)

4: Lake Garda Marathon: international runners 404
(Oct 10 2010, Ranking Lake Garda Marathon 2010)

5. Milan City Marathon: international runners 402
(Apr 11 2010, Ranking Milan Marathon 2010)

6. Trieste Marathon: international runners 175

(May 2 2010, Ranking Trieste Marathon 2010)

7. Turin Marathon: international runners 153
(Nov 11 2010, Ranking Turin Marathon 2010)

8. Padua Marathon: international runners 127
(Apr 25 2010, Ranking Padua Marathon 2010)

9. Verona Marathon: international runners 123
(Feb 21 2010, Ranking Verona Marathon 2010)

10. Carpi Ferrari Italian Marathon: international runners 114
(Oct 10 2010, Ranking Ferrari Marathon 2010)

TOP 20:

11. South Tirol Marathon: international runners 103
(Oct 3 2010, ST Marathon 2010)


12. Treviso Marathon: international runners 77

(Mar 27 2010, Ranking Treviso Marathon 2010)

13. Palermo Marathon: international runners 52
(Nov 21 2010, Ranking Brianza Marathon 2010)

14. Reggio Emilia: international runners 39
(Dec 12 2010, Ranking Reggio Emilia Marathon 2010)

15. Piceno Marathon: international runners 34
(May 16 2010, Ranking Piceno Marathon 2010)

16. Mugello Marathon, international runners 33

(Oct 30 2010, Mugello Marathon 2010) 

17. Lucca Marathon: international runners 28

(Oct 25 2010, Ranking Lucca Marathon 2010)

18. Messina Marathon: international runners 27

(Apr 25 2010, Messina Marathon 2010 Ranking)

19. Custoza Marathon: international runners 19

(May 10 2010, Ranking Custoza Marathon 2010)

20. Livorno Marathon: international runners 19

(Nov 14 2010, Livorno Marathon 2010 Ranking)

TOP 30:

21. Naples Marathon: international runners 16
(Apr 18 2010, Naples Marathon 2010)

22. Trasimeno Lake Marathon: international runners 13

(Mar 7 2010, Trasimeno 2010)

23. Colle Marathon, from Barchi to Fano: international runners 11

(May 2 2010, Collemar Marathon ranking)

24. Placentia Marathon: international runners 11 

(Mar 7 2010, Placentia Marathon 2010)