Santiago Marathon 2027

The Maratón de Santiago 🇨🇱 is the biggest sporting event in Chile. Not just in Chilean running—in Chilean sport, all disciplines included. Every year, in April or May depending on the edition, the Andean capital transforms itself for tens of thousands of runners, with the snow-capped peaks of the Andes ⛰️ in the background. There are nice race settings, and then there’s this one, which is simply exceptional 😍.

Before talking about the marathon as we know it today, we have to go back to a time when running 42 kilometers in the city was still considered a paranormal activity 👽. It all begins on May 2, 1909 at the Hippodrome du Chili 🐎, where a group of runners gathers for the very first marathon event organized in the country. The winner, the Spaniard Antonio Creuz, covers the 42 kilometers in 3h01'07. His prize money? A pocket watch ⌚. Times change, huh. In October of the same year, a second edition is organized over 38 kilometers. Then silence 🤫. Chilean marathoning starts over from scratch decades later, cobbled together between 1985 and 1989 by a German company and a journalist named Patricio Amigo.

It’s in 1990 that the race really takes shape, with the creation of the Maratón Internacional de Santiago, officially organized and structured. That same year, for the first time in the event’s history, a visually impaired athlete takes the start: the lawyer Miguel Ulloa, accompanied by his guide Rodrigo Salas, crosses the line in around 4h30 🙌. The race isn’t even a year old and it’s already laying the foundations of what it wants to be: a popular, inclusive event, rooted in the city. In 1992, it joins AIMS (Association of International Marathons and Distance Races) and becomes officially recognized on the international stage. That same year, a certain Mónica Regonessi breaks the Chilean women’s record and leaves with... a Citroën AX car 🚗. The organizer took three years to finish paying off the loan. That says it all 😅. The race changes its name in 2007 to become the Maratón de Santiago. The following year, in 2008, a symbolic move takes place: the start and finish permanently relocate to in front of the Palacio de La Moneda 🏛️, the Chilean presidential palace, on Avenue Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins, “the Alameda” to those in the know. Running in front of Chile’s government palace, along the historic artery that cuts across the capital from end to end, is a real statement. The race asserts that it belongs to the city, not just to the sporting calendar. In 2012, World Athletics awards it the Bronze Road Race label, an international recognition that makes official what many already knew: Santiago plays in the big leagues 🏅.

If you’ve been following, the marathon course (42.195 km, as it should be) starts and finishes on the Alameda, which is to Santiago what the Champs-Élysées are to Paris, with more political history and fewer tourist-trap restaurants 😄. The route winds through the neighborhoods of the Chilean capital, passing in front of the Stadium Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos (which carries a heavy history, having been a detention camp after the 1973 coup), skirting parks, crossing modern downtown arteries 🏙️, before returning to where it all began for a finish in apotheosis. And all that time, if the sky is clear—which is common in the austral autumn—the Andes are there, unflinching, barely 70 kilometers away, their snow-covered summits rising above 6,000 meters 🏔️. The weather, precisely, is one of this race’s secret assets. Temperatures generally range between 5 and 18°C on race day. Almost ideal conditions for performance, with a slight risk of rain and cool mornings that more than justify the old reflex of the T-shirt under the T-shirt. The marathon isn’t completely flat; it’s actually rather rolling, and the last ten kilometers benefit from a slightly downhill profile 🎢. In terms of performance, the men’s course record belongs to Kenyan Luka Rotich, who completed the race in 2h09'39 in 2017, a full-fledged champion since he has won the race three times 🏆. For the women, it’s Peruvian Inés Melchor who holds the best mark with 2h28'18, set in 2015.

In terms of formats, the race offers three distances: the marathon (42.195 km), the half marathon (21 km) and the 10 km 👟. All three share the same festive atmosphere, the same Alameda, the same Andes in the background 🎉. During the previous edition, more than 30,000 runners in total took the start across all distances, making the event the largest sporting gathering in the country. Bibs go fast; the cupos, as they say over there, sometimes evaporate within a few hours after registration opens. For foreign runners, the organization provides direct access without going through the local lottery system, with prices in dollars (around 80 to 120 USD depending on the distance) 💵. Bibs are picked up at the Expo Running, traditionally set up at Estación Mapocho, a former train station converted into a cultural center. A word must be said about the social dimension of this race, because it’s part of the event’s DNA 🧬. The marathon has established a Fundación Maratón Social that works around three pillars: civic connection, solidarity, and environmental sustainability. The 2025 edition presented itself as a carbon-neutral race 🌱. It’s a direction the organizers have openly embraced for several years, in a country where environmental awareness has progressed considerably in recent years.

Santiago is a city that often surprises those who don’t know it yet. The seventh-largest urban area in Latin America, nestled in a valley at 520 meters above sea level, bordered to the east by the Andes and to the west by the Cordillera de la Costa, it boasts an exceptional natural setting for a capital of this size. The marathon is one of the events that elevates it even more! ⭐️