Venice Marathon

Venice Marathon

Venice Marathon

( 4 reviews )
25% of reviewers recommend this race
  • Venice,
    Italy
  • October
  • 26.2 miles/Marathon
  • Road Race
  • Event Website

Kati

Chicago, Illinois, United States
27 25
2016
"Beautiful course! I loved the Venice Marathon!"
Overall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management
Kati 's thoughts:

I loved the Venice Marathon! It’s a beautiful and unique course. If you’re in the Venice area when the race is taking place, I highly recommend it!

Pros:
•It’s Italy. Do I really need to say more?
•The bib number has your name, your country and your country’s flag. It was cool too look around at the pre-race and in the corrals to see where people were from. It was definitely dominated by Italians. However, this did lead to spectators calling me "Americano" on a couple of occasions. :)
•The race shirt was long sleeved and had a picture of a gondola and a bridge with a runner crossing the bridge. It was pretty cool and represented the city well.
•The pre-race area was on the grounds of a historic mansion. They had giant tents set-up with benches for everyone to sit until the race started. They had plenty of porta potties. The gear-check and the starting corrals were very easy to navigate.
•It’s a point-to-point course that follows the Brenta River and through smaller towns outside of Venice. It’s absolutely beautiful and cool to see parts of ‘Venice’ I otherwise would not have seen. The last 1.5 miles is in Venice along the waterfront, including a short lap around St. Mark’s Square. You run up/down over a dozen bridges in the last 1.5 miles (Legs, be prepared!)
•There were plenty of spectators as you ran through the different towns. They cheered loudly!
•The aid stations were well stocked with water, a sports drink equivalent to Gatorade, fruit and cookies(!).
•The post-race area was along the waterfront. It was very easy to get your gear checked-bag and they provided gender specific tents so you could change clothes as needed. They also gave you plenty of snacks and drinks afterwards.
•There’s also a 10k on the same day if the marathon isn’t your preferred distance.

Cons:
•The registration website is very difficult to figure out, even in English. I gave up the first time I tried to register and the second time I just started filling stuff out with what I thought it was asking and clicked on buttons until I reached the end. Don’t give up on registering… it’s worth the minor headache!
•You must provide a completed and signed health form from a doctor advising you are healthy enough to participate. You can bring it to packet pick-up or fax a copy in advance.
•Getting to the race expo was a long journey from St. Mark’s Square. Being unfamiliar with Venice, it was nearly impossible to walk the 1.5km from the Square to the Tram station without getting lost a million times, even when using a map and GPS. I finally gave up and paid for the public water taxi which would take me to the Tram. (Disclaimer: I did this on the same day I arrived in Venice and my jet-lagged mind was likely exaggerating things and how long and far things were.)
•They did not have gender specific shirts. They did have extra smalls which was nice.
•This was a very very male dominated race and many of them had no shame in dropping their shorts in the pre-race tent to very slowly apply what I assume to be Vaseline/Body Glide. It was definitely awkward.
•They gave you bottled water at the aid stations. I’m not well practiced in opening bottles of water nor drinking from a bottle while running. I would’ve preferred paper cups like the sports drink was served in.

Despite the handful of ‘Cons’ I noted, I would still recommend this race. The Venice Marathon definitely attracts people from all over the world but it’s predominately Italian. It’s a unique opportunity to experience racing in another culture.

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