Neapolis Marathon: 8,000 entries, half from abroad

On Sunday 18 October, in front of Piazza del Plebiscito, the sixth Neapolis Marathon gets going. The bibs ran out back in September: the race website talks about more than 8,000 entries across the marathon, the half and the non-competitive run by the sea, and the press in Campania reports a rise of about 50% on 2025 and a good half of the field coming from abroad. A southern Italian marathon selling out in mid-October is news, and we wondered why.

What you actually run

The marathon is 42.195 kilometres made of two identical laps of 21.097, so the half marathon is, literally, half the course. Start and finish are in Piazza del Plebiscito, and you run along the seafront with the Gulf and Vesuvius behind you and Castel dell'Ovo on the way. According to the race website the climb is about 38 metres per lap: an almost flat course, right in the city centre, on closed roads. The double lap has an advantage first-time marathoners appreciate: by the end of the first lap you already know where every corner is and how you feel at that point.

Why it filled up

There are no official data on the why, so these are our impressions. First: autumn. A mid-October marathon by the sea, with temperatures usually easier than summer and spring, is a comfortable window for anyone who wants to close the year running. Second: the format of three races and three days of events (the Village in Piazza del Plebiscito is open on Friday and Saturday with free entry, and there is a 6 km walk and a run for kids) turns the commitment into a weekend. Third: the city does the rest. People who travel far do not come only to run, but to eat, walk and stay two nights. If the foreign figure is right (one source says more than half, another 47%) it is a sign of a race becoming known beyond the border.

Last Sunday, 11 October, in Chicago Amos Kipruto won in 2:01:09 and Hawi Feysa took the women's race in 2:13:33: in both cases the second-fastest time ever on that course. Those times have nothing to do with a four-hour runner, but they remind us of something: a flat marathon is not an easy marathon. Flat means there is no point where your body changes rhythm without you choosing it, and start mistakes get paid for entirely in the final kilometres. If in Naples you see your friends go out at half-marathon pace, do not follow them.

If you are running on Sunday: three practical things

No medical advice, just café common sense. One: in the days before, try nothing new, no shoes, no breakfast, no socks. Two: on a double lap keep something in reserve for the second, when it will look identical to the first but feel twice as heavy. Three: choose your pace by checking your 5 km splits, not the feelings of the first minutes, as Milan did today in Shanghai on his track (we talk about it in today's other article). If the race is not for you this year there is always the half, or the 2027 Calendar, where you can already mark the spring marathons and halves. And if you want to discover the seafront your own way, our page on Naples shows where to run and ride.

Where do you stand: a flat, fast marathon like this one, or a course with climbs where everyone runs their own race? Tell us in the comments which was your favourite marathon, and why.