Bologna Marathon: Course, Route Profile & Map

Course & Elevation

The start is on Via Irnerio at the edge of the old town. Within the first kilometres the course reaches Via Saragozza, the street whose continuous colonnade is part of the 62 kilometres of porticoes that earned Bologna its UNESCO World Heritage listing in 2021. The portico that climbs from here to the sanctuary of San Luca is the longest in the world, and this course deliberately does not go up it.

After that the route leaves the centre to the north: through the Zona Fiera with Kenzo Tange's trade-fair towers, past the Unipol headquarters at Porta d'Europa and on into the Quartiere Navile and Corticella, the northern residential and industrial districts. The furthest point is to the east, on a loop out through San Lazzaro and Via dell'Industria.

The way back runs through the Ernesto Maserati underpass, Via Marconi and Via Riva di Reno to Piazza dei Martiri 1943-1945, then Via Barberia, Via de' Carbonesi and Via Farini to the finish in Piazza Maggiore. The profile stays flat throughout: 216 metres of ascent over the measured 42.3 kilometres, no categorised climb, and the Colli Bolognesi rising directly behind the city are left alone. 2027 is the sixth edition of the marathon; more than 10,000 runners started across all distances in 2026.

Pacing Strategy

With no climbs the plan is even splits or a slightly negative one, and the difficulty is that nothing in the terrain corrects you. The opening kilometres under the porticoes are narrow and the field is dense, and because all three competitive distances start together, the people around you may have only half or two thirds of your race ahead of them. Run your own pace, not the group's.

The race is decided on the long loop north and east. Between the Fiera, Navile, Corticella and San Lazzaro the course runs wide approach and industrial roads with few spectators and no variation underfoot; that is where a fast start shows and where nothing external tells you to ease. Stay even here and you pass people on the way back.

The trap is the closing kilometres. From Via Marconi the course turns urban again: corners, underpasses and the narrow lanes of Barberia, de' Carbonesi and Farini, partly under porticoes with columns and steps. On tired legs that costs more rhythm than the flat profile suggests. Shorten your stride there, watch the surface and save the kick for Piazza Maggiore.

Training plan for Bologna Marathon: 12-week build

For age-group runners the Bologna Marathon means roughly three and a half to six hours on the road. The demand is continuously aerobic and unbroken: 216 metres of ascent over 42 kilometres, no categorised climb, and no section where the terrain forces a break on you or hands you one. What you train is pace tolerance rather than climbing strength.

Build long runs to 30-35 km and place 10-15 km at marathon race pace deliberately at the end rather than the start. Add threshold runs of 12 to 16 kilometres, because on flat terrain your threshold performance translates almost directly into finishing time.

What decides the race is tolerance for monotony on the northern and eastern loop. Put some of your long runs on straight, open roads with no variety and no shelter rather than on a scenic home circuit; that is exactly where most runners lose their rhythm in Bologna. For the finish, add a few sessions with tight corners and changes of pace, because the closing kilometres through the old town run technically.

On conditions and surface: early March on the Po plain is cool to cold and often damp, with fog a realistic prospect, and the 09:00 start means a long wait, so plan throwaway layers. The course runs on hard city asphalt throughout, broken by the stone underfoot beneath the porticoes. Move your key sessions onto asphalt too and run some of them deliberately on paving, so arches and calves are used to the change.