The course
The Saint Anthony Marathon was run over three courses in its seventeen editions, but the shape of the thing never changed: a flat, fast run across the Veneto plain, finishing in Padua among the porticoes. This page gathers the course descriptions the race published in English, the technical conditions runners were given, and the shorter routes that filled the city on the same morning.
The marathon: 42.195 km
The original English course page is worth restoring almost as it stood:
The starting point is in Vedelago (Treviso) and the race concludes in Padua (Basilica di Sant'Antonio) after passing through nine towns — Vedelago, Castelfranco Veneto, Resana, Loreggia, Camposampiero, San Giorgio delle Pertiche, Campodarsego, Cadoneghe and Padua — and covering the final journey of Saint Anthony, from Camposampiero to Padua. This itinerary is flat, slightly downhill and winds through the two most beautiful provinces of the Venetian region.
That was the layout from 2000 to 2010, and it is the course most people mean when they talk about the Sant'Antonio. The fall from Vedelago to Padua is small — a few dozen metres over 42 km — but continuous, and with late-April temperatures and closed roads it made the race one of the quickest in Italy. The men's course record, 2:09:02, was set on the last of these editions.
Town by town
From Vedelago the road runs to the medieval citadel of Castelfranco Veneto, where Giorgione was born and where the walls and the moat still enclose the old town. Then it crosses into the province of Padua and reaches Camposampiero — the place where Saint Anthony spent the last weeks of his life, at the Franciscan settlement beside the castle of a local feudal lord, and where tradition places his vision of the Christ Child.
From Camposampiero to the finish the marathon follows the Via del Santo, the road named in commemoration of the journey made when the dying Saint was carried by cart to Padua in 1231. It is roughly 18 km, the last third of the race, and it passes the sanctuaries described on our page about Saint Anthony's Road. San Giorgio delle Pertiche, Campodarsego and Cadoneghe follow one after another, the plain fills up with houses and workshops, and then the city arrives.
Technical conditions
The conditions published for the early editions were straightforward, and they picture the race fairly across the Sant'Antonio years:
- Time limit: 8 hours.
- Roads completely closed to traffic for the duration of the race.
- Coach transport from Padua out to the start.
- A drop-out service back to Padua for athletes who did not finish.
- Refreshment points and sponging along the route.
- Transponder chip timing.
- A medical certificate required from athletes not registered with a club — a standard Italian requirement, then and now.
- Entries closed roughly two weeks before race day; runners who entered early had their bibs posted to them at home.
Two figures give the scale. In 2003 there were 2,536 starters; in 2004 the race drew 3,502 participants, of whom 2,815 finished within seven hours. Entry conditions and federation rules are a matter for FIDAL and for the current official race organisation — everything here is archive material, not a live entry procedure.
The later courses
In 2011 the agreement with Vedelago came to an end and the start moved south to Campodarsego, bringing the marathon entirely within the province of Padua and finishing in Prato della Valle. The Via del Santo section survived, which mattered: the identity of the race lived in those last 18 km, not in the first twenty.
In 2016, the final edition under the Sant'Antonio name, the course was rebuilt around Padua itself. It began at the Stadio Euganeo, went out west and south through Rubano, Selvazzano Dentro, Teolo and Abano Terme — the edge of the Euganean Hills and the old thermal towns — and came back to finish in Prato della Valle — broadly the shape the event has kept since.
Walking through Padua: the city routes
On the same morning, three non-competitive routes left Prato della Valle, open to all. The original English page put the case better than we could: Padua is one of the Veneto's richest cities in art and history, and walking through its centre with no traffic for one day is the right occasion to discover some of its charming corners and to follow Saint Anthony's steps.
The 7 km ran through the heart of the city, from Prato della Valle to the Basilica of Saint Anthony. Down Corso del Popolo it passed the Giardini dell'Arena, where the Cappella degli Scrovegni stands with its fresco cycle by Giotto, and reached the Arcella sanctuary; then back into the centre, across the medieval Piazza dei Signori, past the historic eighteenth-century café under the porticoes and the old university buildings of Palazzo del Bo.
The 4.5 km was a walk together through the streets of the centre, to discover medieval Padua. The 1 km was for older people and for people with disabilities, from Santa Giustina on Prato della Valle to the Basilica. Prato della Valle is the largest square in Italy and one of the largest in Europe; the original race pages, with pardonable local pride, simply called it the largest in Europe.
The Children's Marathon
A 2 km Children's Marathon left Prato della Valle at 9.15. It was described at the time as a run to discover the most picturesque corners of the town and its art treasures, and as a moment of solidarity, friendship, joy and shared effort. In later years the programme grew further, adding a half marathon over 21 km, a 10 km and a 5 km.
The Italian pages carry the fuller course archive and the edition-by-edition changes: see il percorso and le edizioni. For winners and times, see race results.