A popular event in Monaco takes place every year in November, the Monaco Marathon. And when I say popular, I mean it literally - the event is open to whoever wants to participate.

The territory of Monaco being very restrained, the 42 km Marathon is the only one that takes place along the coast of three countries, on the territory of France and Italy.

This year, the the 8th Riviera Marathon program was as follows:

• November 12th - from 14.00 to 19.00: inauguration of the Marathon Expo
• November 13th - from 10,00 to 22.30:
• Opening of the Marathon Expo;
• Presentation of the course and athletes;
• Pasta Party near by the Marathon Expo.
• November 14th - from 7.00 to 14.30:
• Distribution of finals bibs;
• Group Warm-up towards the Start Line
• 9.30 - Start of the 8th "Marathon de Monaco et des Riviera"
• 10.15 - Start of the 2nd "10 Km of Monte-Carlo"
• 14.00 - Prize Giving

At 9,30 the race was started by HSH Crown Prince Albert of Monaco outside the IAAF's Headquarters. The course was open for 5.5 hours.

On November 14th, on a sunny, warm but windy weather, the starting line-up counted 3000 competitors from over 40 countries. Taking place for the second time this year, the 10 km course was run by 958 contestants.

This year, the participants fundraised and ran on behalf of Challenge Aspen, a non-profit organization in Colorado that offers assistance for persons with mental or physical disabilities.

The full marathon was won by Russian contestants:

• Men: Andrey Chernychov with a time of 2h 22min 12sec.
• Women: (11th overall) Maria Fedosseva with a time of 2h 41min 17sec.

The 10km race was won by:

• Men: Emanuele Manzi from Italy, with a time of 31min 42sec.
• Women: Vitkoria Nagy from Hungary, with a time of 37min 37sec.

Laura Ciocan writes for http://www.ilovemontecarlo.com/ where you can find all you want to know about visiting Monaco Please feel free to use this article in your Newsletter or on your website. If you use this article, please include the resource box and send a brief message to let me know where it appeared: mailto:lauracio@gmail.com