Maratona di Reggio Emilia: Course, Route Profile & Map

Course & Elevation

Start and finish are on Corso Garibaldi in the middle of Reggio Emilia. The opening kilometres loop through the old town past Piazza della Vittoria and Piazza Martiri 7 Luglio - the city calls itself the Città del Tricolore because the Italian flag was adopted here in 1797, and the race carries that byname in its official title.

The course then leaves town to the south-west, follows the Crostolo and the Via Fratelli Rosselli out past Villa Levi to Montecavolo in the neighbouring comune of Quattro Castella - and that, at kilometre 21.7 and 148 metres, is the high point of the route. From a start at 59 metres that is about ninety metres of gain spread over twenty-one kilometres, a gradient of roughly four parts in a thousand that never registers as a climb. The way back retraces the same axis and falls accordingly. In total 151 metres of ascent, three quarters of the course flat, and not one metre of steep ground.

2026 is the thirtieth edition. The race is put on by Tricolore Sport Marathon with the comuni of Reggio Emilia and Quattro Castella and runs in the FIDAL calendar at Silver level under the name Trofeo Parmigiano Reggiano. It is a race for people chasing a time: a 09:00 start on a December Sunday, a six-hour limit with a gate at three hours halfway, and a field small enough to run freely in from the first minute.

Pacing Strategy

The most important thing about this course is that it cannot be run symmetrically even though it looks symmetrical. Hold constant splits on the way out and you are running the uphill faster than the downhill - four parts in a thousand is invisible, but it is there, and over twenty-one kilometres it adds up to real extra work. Plan the first half five to eight seconds per kilometre slower than the second, and run it to effort.

The trap is the lack of stimulus. After the opening kilometres through the old town the route heads out into the plain, and from there neither terrain nor crowds give the effort any structure. With a field of two thousand it gets lonely quickly on the way to Montecavolo, and the turn there is the only real landmark on the course.

The race is decided between kilometres 25 and 35, on the gently falling return. That is exactly where the course gives back what it took on the way out - but only if you did not spend it there. Run the first half with discipline and you can lift steadily here and finish on a negative split; run it to the watch instead of to feel and you will not notice the gradient at all.

Training plan for Maratona di Reggio Emilia: 12-week build

For age-group runners the Maratona di Reggio Emilia is a three to just under six hour effort; the limit is six hours, with a gate at three hours halfway. The demand is a purely aerobic one with no anaerobic component - no climb that forces anything, no descent that hands back recovery, and a course that is three quarters flat.

The training emphasis is accordingly race-pace endurance: long runs with forty to sixty minutes at marathon pace in the final third, and threshold runs of twenty to forty minutes. Hill training buys essentially nothing here. What does pay directly is a session shaped like the course - a long run whose first half rises slightly and whose second half falls, run at constant effort rather than constant pace. That ability is what decides the finishing time.

The mental side of a thin field belongs with it. Two thousand runners over forty-two kilometres means long stretches alone on the plain; if you are used to sitting in a group, run some of your tempo work deliberately alone and without landmarks.

Conditions are a December Sunday on the Po plain: cold, often foggy, with ground frost possible in the morning, a 09:00 start and a 07:00 meeting time. That is good marathon weather, but it asks for thought-out start-line clothing and a longer warm-up than autumn racing needs - and the fog on the plain takes away what little visual reference the course had.