FIAT Torino City Marathon: Course, Route Profile & Map

Course & Elevation

The gun goes at 08:30 on Via Pietro Micca, a few steps from the Palazzo Reale. Turin sits on the Po plain where the river leaves the Alps, and the course makes use of that: it leaves the grid of the centre heading south through Mirafiori, the industrial district that shaped the city for a century, and on through Beinasco and Nichelino.

The furthest point is the Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi, the Savoy hunting lodge, a rococo building on a star-shaped plan just outside the city. From there the route turns back through Moncalieri to the Po and follows the river and the Parco del Valentino into the centre, before threading the arcaded streets to Piazza Castello. The whole course is closed to traffic.

The profile explains the reputation: 105 metres of ascent across the measured 42.1 kilometres, 86 percent flat, no categorised climb, and the hills of the Collina Torinese on the far bank are deliberately left alone. The event is FIDAL-certified and on the AIMS calendar, 2026 is the sixth edition, and the weekend falls in the season of Luci d'Artista, the city's winter light installations.

Pacing Strategy

On a course with no climbs the plan is simple and the execution is not: even splits or a slightly negative one, and none of it given away in the opening kilometres. The start in the centre is tight and the field dense, and the temptation to work forward through the arcaded streets burns matches for nothing.

The race is decided on the long southern section between Beinasco, Nichelino and Stupinigi. There the course runs wide, straight approach roads with few spectators and no variation in terrain; that is the phase where a fast start becomes visible and where nothing external tells you to slow down. Stay even here and you pass people steadily on the way back.

The trap is the course's reputation. It is sold as one of the fastest in Italy, and because the profile never checks you, many runners start on a target their form does not cover. The season is the second factor: late November often leaves Turin under the cold, damp air of the Po plain, and the open roads in the south offer no shelter. Judge that section by effort, find a group, and save the effort for the closing kilometres along the Po, where the crowds return.

Training plan for FIAT Torino City Marathon: 12-week build

For age-group runners the FIAT Torino City Marathon means roughly three and a half to six hours on the road. The demand is continuously aerobic and effectively unbroken: 86 percent flat terrain, no categorised climb and 105 metres of ascent over the whole distance. What you train is pace tolerance and economy, not climbing strength.

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

What decides the race is tolerance for monotony in the southern half. Put some of your long runs deliberately on straight, open ground with no variety and no shelter (approach roads, farm tracks, dykes) so that holding a pace without external stimulus is something you have practised. Train only on varied loops and you lose your rhythm out there.

On conditions: late November mornings in Turin are cold, often damp and sometimes foggy, and the 08:30 start means a long wait in the corral, so plan throwaway layers. The second point is the surface: 42 kilometres of hard city and country asphalt with no soft section anywhere, so put your key sessions on asphalt too and build calf strength and foot stability into the plan.