Entry Paperwork · Ian
No Medical Certificate? Here's How 5 Italian Marathons Handle Foreign Runners
Pisa, Bologna, Rome, Milan, Padua. The five Italian marathons open for entry right now all ask foreign runners the same thing: do you have the paperwork to get your name on the results? Here's how each race handles it, from where you buy the RunCard to where you upload the medical certificate to how to run without any of it.
Signing up for the 2026 Milan Marathon, the runner behind the YouTube channel Qba Enjoys Life stopped at one box on the registration screen. It asked whether the runner was a member of the Italian Athletics Federation (FIDAL) or an affiliated World Athletics body.
If not, the only option was the non-competitive category. "In practice, this meant your name wouldn't appear in the official results," the runner said in a video after the race.
Most Italian road marathons follow the same rule. To be ranked, you need a membership card from your own national federation, or a FIDAL RunCard plus a medical certificate that meets Italian standards.
For foreign runners living abroad, a RunCard costs €15 a year. You buy it at runcard.
com or in the official app, and the site is in Italian only. It's valid for 365 days from the date of issue.
The certificate is the hard part. It has to include an examination, a urine test, a resting ECG, an exercise ECG and spirometry (a lung function test).
A clinic outside Italy can issue it, but if a single item is missing, it won't be accepted. You submit the certificate once when you buy the RunCard, and again for each race.
No paperwork doesn't mean no race. All five races offer a non-competitive category.
The first door closes November 30, when Pisa's €69 rate ends. Dates and fees are as of November 10, 2026, per each race's official regulations.
· Pisa Marathon — December 20, 2026 · €69 (until November 30) · 6:30 cutoff · Certificate: submit to organizers · Bologna Marathon — March 7, 2027 · €75 (until January 10, 2027) · 6:00 cutoff · Certificate: 10 days before the race · Rome Marathon — March 14, 2027 · €129 · 7:00 cutoff · Certificate: 10 days before the race · Milan Marathon — April 4, 2027 · €109 plus €5 registration fee (until December 31) · 6:30 cutoff · Certificate: by bib pickup · Padua Marathon — April 18, 2027 · €55 (until December 20) · 6:30 road closure · Certificate: can be added after registering
1Pisa Marathon: In December, Late Paperwork Costs You a Ranking, Not the Race
Start and finish both sit near Piazza del Duomo, under the Leaning Tower. Leaving the city, the course runs through the woods of San Rossore nature park to the sea, then follows the Arno River back to the tower. The organizers call it a fast, flowing course.
But they haven't published an elevation profile. December temperatures in Pisa average around 8°C (about 46°F). A runner from the RunMolliti channel, who posted video from the 2025 race, admitted mid-race: "I can't do it.
I'm frozen." Running behind on paperwork? If you can't get a certificate with an exercise ECG within a month, there's a non-competitive category.
It's the route Qba took in Milan. The only difference Pisa's regulations name is that you're excluded from prizes and prize money. Bibs are handed out only at the expo on Viale Duomo on December 18 and 19.
The organizers say they won't be distributed on race day under any circumstances. You can pick yours up until 10 p.m.
Saturday, but if you're arriving Sunday morning, you won't make the start line.
Maratona di PisaSun, December 20, 2026 · D-36 · Pisa, ItalySee race details
2Bologna Marathon: Miss the Certificate Deadline 10 Days Out and You Don't Start
Bologna and Rome both require you to upload the certificate to the ENDU registration site 10 days before the race. In Bologna, if you're late, you get the swag bag but no bib. Runners living abroad submit the RunCard along with a certificate meeting Italian standards.
The regulations specify English and French forms that the doctor signs and stamps, so take that form with you to the clinic. If you hold a non-EU passport, you'll also need to send a copy of your residence permit or visa, even when you enter on your own federation's card. Choose the non-competitive category, where you sign a waiver instead of providing paperwork, and your time still shows up in the results.
You just don't get a place. The 2027 start time hasn't been announced yet. The start line is on Via Irnerio, and the city-center course runs under the covered porticoes.
The half marathon starts with you, on the same street. A runner on Daniele Vecchioni's channel remembered the start of the 2026 race this way: "Everyone shot off like rockets. Now I get it—the half is running too."
A runner on the SEMPREdiCORSA channel, who ran the half that year, nearly turned onto the marathon course at the fork at 4K. Running the full? Don't get pulled along by the half-marathon pack early on.
Bologna MarathonSun, March 7, 2027 · D-113 · Bologna, ItalySee race details
3Rome Marathon: Write "Marathon" on Your Certificate and It's Void
The thing to watch in Rome's regulations is a single word on the certificate. The sport field must read "ATLETICA LEGGERA," meaning athletics, and they won't accept "podismo" (running) or "maratona" (marathon). RunCard holders living abroad can use the Italian federation's English or French form, or submit their own country's certificate covering the Italian-standard tests.
Either way, you upload it to the ENDU documents section at registration, with the same deadline as Bologna: 10 days before the race. Choose the non-competitive category and only your time is recorded; the ranking and age-group categories disappear. Italian nationals living abroad can't use this category.
The course starts at the Fori Imperiali and finishes inside the Circo Massimo. By the official elevation profile, it stays between 8.1 and 31 meters (about 27 to 102 feet) above sea level. You get seven hours, and the pace groups from 5:30 to 6:30 include fitwalking pacers, who walk it briskly.
Getting to the start line is farther than you'd think. A runner on Josh Davies's channel, who ran the 2026 race, drove to the Colosseum and said, "It was a really long walk to the actual start line." A runner on Shanebow's channel warns, "The bag drop-off has to be by 7:30 in the morning, so it's going to be cold."
Bibs are handed out only at the expo from March 11 to 13, with no race-day distribution. Bring a throwaway layer and get into Circo Massimo station on Metro Line B early.
Run Rome The MarathonSun, March 14, 2027 · D-120 · Rome, ItalySee race details
4Milan Marathon: Run Without Paperwork and You Get a Different Bib and a Separate List
In Milan, you can see who's non-competitive. Runners in the tourist-sport (turistico-sportiva) category wear a separately marked bib and appear on a separate alphabetical list, not the official ranking. That category pays a €5 insurance fee on top of the registration fee.
In return, the paperwork schedule is generous. You can upload your RunCard number and certificate any time after registering, up to bib pickup. The organizers recommend their own form, and if you already have a certificate, they suggest asking the race by email whether it will be accepted.
Add the €10 cancellation insurance and you get a full refund until January 31, and 75 percent from February 1 to March 23. The course is a point-to-point from Corso Sempione to Piazza del Duomo. The organizers bill it as one of the fastest courses in Europe.
Is it really? A runner on Luca Fornaro's channel, who posted video from 2026, said, "The Milan streets are pretty narrow, and even with wave starts there was serious congestion." The runner added that once you leave CityLife and head toward San Siro, the crowd thins and all you hear is shoes on asphalt.
Qba said, "We had to watch out for cobblestones and tram rails." If you're chasing a time, build the start-corral jam into your plan. Slower runners, meanwhile, should remember one number: the halfway cutoff, 3:15.
Milano City MarathonSun, April 4, 2027 · D-141 · Milan, ItalySee race details
5Padua Marathon: The Lowest Entry Fee of the Five, in April
Like Milan, it's an April race, but the entry fee is half. After December 20 it's €65, and from February 20 it goes up to €75. Women stay at €65 right through the deadline, and anyone who has finished all 26 previous editions runs free.
The paperwork only has to be valid on race day. You can submit your national federation card with a self-declaration form, or a RunCard plus either a medical certificate or the organizer's health form. Unlike Bologna and Rome, you can hand it in after you've registered.
The start is at 8:30 a.m. at Stadio Euganeo, on the edge of Padua.
The course runs through the Colli Euganei hills and the spa town of Abano Terme before finishing in the old city's Prato della Valle square. Free shuttles run from Padua station to the start between 6:45 and 7:15 a.m.
, and checked bags are carried to the finish. Book a hotel close to the station. The runner behind the Poletti Anna channel, who ran the 2026 half as a guest of the organizers, said it was already noon when she reached Prato della Valle and the sun was beating down: "at least 25, I'd say" (degrees Celsius, about 77°F).
The half starts at 10 a.m. The marathon leaves 90 minutes earlier.
Even so, if you're out there longer than four hours, you'll hit the last 4K of cobbled city streets, as another runner in the same video described them, under the noon sun.
Maratona di Sant'AntonioSun, April 18, 2027 · D-155 · Padua, ItalySee race details
Editor's pick
Which one should you pick? If you're fine running without your name on the results, as Qba did, all five are open to you. If you want your name on the board, the deciding factor is when you'll have the certificate in hand.
If you're set on running Italy this winter and your testing schedule is tight, choose Pisa. Line up at the start as a non-competitive runner and take home a finish under the Leaning Tower instead of a prize. If getting on the results list is the goal, look at Milan or Padua.
Milan only needs your documents by bib pickup, and the cancellation insurance refunds in full until January 31, so try to get the certificate before then and you'll know where you stand. Padua is €55 until December 20, with a shuttle and baggage transport included. For a first marathon, Rome is the better fit.
You get seven hours, and there are even fitwalking pacers. But you'll have to get one word in the certificate's sport field right, and meet the same 10-days-out deadline as Bologna. Bologna is for the runner who already has a certificate.
The paperwork deadline is tight, but you can still get in at €75 until January 10.
November 30 for Pisa, December 20 for Padua, December 31 for Milan. That's the order in which entry fees go up.
Each race's detail page links the course, how to register and where to stay.
Entry period · Accommodation
| Races | Itinerary | Entry period | INFO. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maratona di Pisa | Sun, December 20, 2026 | — ~ Mon, December 14, 2026 | Accommodation · See race details |
| Bologna Marathon | Sun, March 7, 2027 | Fri, May 15, 2026 ~ Sun, February 21, 2027 | Accommodation · See race details |
| Run Rome The Marathon | Sun, March 14, 2027 | — ~ Sun, March 7, 2027 | Accommodation · See race details |
| Milano City Marathon | Sun, April 4, 2027 | — ~ Wed, March 31, 2027 | Accommodation · See race details |
| Maratona di Sant'Antonio | Sun, April 18, 2027 | Fri, July 3, 2026 ~ Sun, April 4, 2027 | Accommodation · See race details |
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