It’s marathon fever. Maybe because it is the toughest race, the one that has the most charm, which is at the origin of everything, because Athens is the myth and New York the promised land. Maybe it’s because in the imagination of those who do long-distance races, reaching the finish line after those 42 kilometers and 195 meters is the culmination of a dream, proof that anything can be done as long as you believe in it, for many a redemption. Or it may also be because, with the excuse of a marathon, many people travel and reach cities around the world to treat themselves to a holiday. The fact is that last year was a record year for all (almost all) marathons. It’s not a sensation, the numbers speak for themselves, just think that the 42 km in London dwarfed that of New York with over 800 thousand requests to participate even if the one in the Big Apple confirmed itself as the challenge with the highest number of runners at the finish line: 55,646. Boston, Tokyo, Berlin, Chicago and Paris were all sold out and in Europe the records for runners reaching the finish line are held in Berlin (54,280 finishers) and Paris (54,175). Then on the launching pad there is the Valencia Marathon which has been breaking records for five years and which last year saw over 37 thousand participants at the start, a thousand less than Athens which recorded 38 thousand participants and which, despite everything, remains the history. In Italy the Rome Marathon shines which, overall with the other scheduled distances and the relays, brought more than 40 thousand runners to the start. And then Asia which has great philosophy and culture when it comes to long distance running. From the Tokyo Marathon which was held in March there were 38 thousand marathon runners competing in another iconic 42km, the Beijing marathon which saw 30 thousand athletes at the start but which recorded the “monster” figure of 182,949 rejected registration requests for obvious organizational and public order reasons. But beyond the numbers there is a movement for marathons that is growing and is especially intriguing a generation of younger runners who are starting to replace the older “tapascioni”. Interest is growing in a form of sport linked to travel and tourism and which the tom-tom of social media spreads and amplifies. And then the marathon becomes a little less a competitive challenge where time and performance are sought but more an opportunity to live an experience to bring back home perhaps to the Great North of the world by running in Tromso, Norway, with the Midnight Sun or in the Entabeni Game Reserve, in Africa in Limpopo, among elephants and rhinos on a route monitored by rangers and helicopters…