Maratón Mérida

The Marat'hon Mérida is the flagship road-running event of Mérida, Yucatán, organized by the H. Ayuntamiento de Mérida (Dirección de Bienestar Humano / Subdirección de Deportes) with the Comité Ciudadano and endorsed by Mundo del Atletismo en México. Currently held under Banorte title sponsorship as the 'Marat'hon Mérida Banorte,' the race is timed to the city's founding anniversary and runs every January along a course certified by AIMS and World Athletics. All distances start and finish at the Monumento a la Patria on the Paseo de Montejo, Mérida's grand 20th-century boulevard, before threading through the Centro Histórico. The course is essentially flat, characteristic of the Yucatán Peninsula, and organizers schedule an early-morning (pre-dawn) start to mitigate the region's tropical heat. The event offers a full marathon (42.195 km), half marathon (21.097 km), 10K, and a 3K recreational walk, and has grown into one of southeastern Mexico's largest running events, drawing thousands of national and international entrants plus a total prize purse of nearly one million pesos.