Running and the marathon

Halfway down the list sits il blocco di partenza, and its own example sentence gives the trap away: il blocco di partenza si sceglie con il tempo previsto. Nothing is chosen by predicted time in English except the group you are penned into before a mass start, and that group is never a block. « Starting blocks » in English are the two adjustable footrests bolted to the track, used up to four hundred metres and by nobody at all in a marathon; « to come out of the blocks » is a sprinter’s phrase and, said of anything else, a fast beginning. What this entry names is a « start pen », a « starting corral » or simply a « wave », the last of the three because the field is let go in waves several minutes apart. Italian covers both with one word: i blocchi di partenza on a track are the sprinter’s, and il blocco di partenza at a road race is the pen. Read it as « block » and you will spend the last minute looking for something to brace your feet against.