Stramilano

The Stramilano is an annual athletics event which takes place in Milan, Italy in spring.

The event comprises three parts: the Stramilano International Half Marathon (a professional road running competition over 21.0975 km), the La Stramilano dei 50.000 (English: Stramilano of the 50,000; a 10 km non-competitive run/walk open to the general public) and the Stramilanina – a 5 km event for younger people.

The idea took shape after the unexpected success of the Milan-Proserpio walk, a 43-km, "non-competitive" walk which Cepparo organized at the beginning with a handful of friends and then in an "open" format for anyone who wanted to take part starting from 18 September 1971.

The first Stramilano took place on 14 March 1972, as a nocturnal walk which ran along the entire outer ring road (about 22 km) and saw over 4,000 participants.

Subsequently organisation was taken up by the sports group Fior di Roccia, and participation rose steadily until it settled at an average of 50,000 participants: for this reason the non-competitive race is called "Stramilano of the 50,000".

The 1981 winner Robert de Castella (right) won the inaugural World Championships marathon two years later.
Kenyan Paul Tergat won an unrivalled six times consecutively from 1994–1999.
Anikó Kálovics of Hungary won three times in a row.