The route and road alternatives for the Mexico City Marathon CDMX 2022

The 39th edition of the CDMX Marathon 2022 will be held on Sunday, August 28, thousands of runners will gather in one of the most important sports competitions in Latin America, but the people of Mexico City should also be prepared to know the route and the road alternatives that will be implemented.

The government of Mexico City (CDMX) has invited the general public to participate in the marathon, which this year will run along the most representative avenues of the capital.

What is the route of the CDMX Marathon 2022?

The 42-kilometer route will start in Insurgentes Sur, between the Central Library building and the Olympic Stadium of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

The start will be staggered: at 6:45 a.m. the wheelchair and the visually impaired block will start; at 6:50 a.m. the elite women's league will start and at 7:00 a.m. the elite men's block will start.

The runners of the CDMX 2022 Marathon will reach the Glorieta de Insurgentes, where they will join Avenida Oaxaca and then pass through Nuevo León and Sonora, until continuing the route on Avenida Chapultepec.

As part of the route, participants will enter the Chapultepec Forest, run through some streets of Polanco, and join Paseo de la Reforma, to finally reach the downtown area of the CDMX, since the finish line is the Zócalo.

The route of the CDMX Marathon 2022 can be consulted on Google Maps, where each of the avenues and streets that participants must travel to reach the finish line is indicated.

What road alternatives to using during the CDMX 2022 Marathon?

The Road Guidance Center of the Secretariat of Citizen Security (SSC) announced that due to the CDMX Marathon 2022 some closures will be implemented for the passage of runners.

To avoid setbacks, people will be able to use alternative roads in the surrounding areas where the marathon runners will pass, such as Anillo Periférico, Circuito Interior, Marina Nacional, and Eje 3 Oriente.

For its part, Metrobús CDMX informed that on August 28 service will be interrupted in several stations of Lines 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7, from 05:00 to 16:00 hours, so it invited users to take precautions.

The History of the Mexico City Marathon

The first edition of the Mexico City Marathon was held in 1983 and since then it has been held year after year on an interrupted basis, except in 2020, when it was suspended due to the covid-19 pandemic.

In that first event, held on September 25, 1983, more than 7 thousand runners participated, starting at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and finishing at the Monumento a la Revolución. The first winners of this Marathon were the Mexicans Casimiro Reyes, with a time of 2h29:35 hours, and María del Carmen Cárdenas, with a time of 3h05:29. For the following year, the number of participants doubled and on September 23, 15 thousand participants took the start line.

In 1985, the route and date of the competition underwent some modifications, since the earthquake of that year (September 19), prevented it from being held on September 22, and due to the debris in some streets where the route passed it was impossible to run there. Finally, the event was held on December 8 of the same year.

For the following race, the competition was held again in September and this time with a larger turnout, since in that edition a Guinness record was established, with 32 thousand runners. In 1989, the Marathon changed its route, with the start and finish line at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, with close to 20 thousand participants, while in 2000 it returned to its traditional route.

In the first stage of its realization, it did not matter how many runners finished it, but how many started it. Still, nowadays the organizers emphasize that it is important to run it from start to finish, and this has been the case in recent years.

Changed to August

Already for the 2013 edition, the Mexico City Marathon left September as the traditional month of its realization, and from then on it was run on the last Sunday of August, in addition, the route started at the Hemiciclo a Juarez and ended at the Olympic University Stadium. Also in that year, the Marathon implemented a new motivational strategy: participants who finished the course were given medals in the shape of letters that at the end read the word MEXICO.

Remembering Mexico 68

In 2018, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Mexico 1968 Olympic Games, the route emulated almost the entire route of this event, as it started in the Zócalo Capitalino and ended at the Olympic University Stadium; for that edition, there was a total of 27 thousand 544 finishers (who finished the race), out of 29 thousand 555 who appeared at the start. For the following year, to have more runners complete the competition, the organization reversed the route and now the start was at the Rectory Tower, and the finish line was located in the Zócalo.

The pandemic stopped it

The Marathon had been held uninterruptedly from 1983 to 2019; however, due to the global health emergency caused by covid-19 the event was suspended in 2020, and runners who had registered to compete received their medals at the beginning of 2021, so as not to lose the continuity of the awards.

The Mexico City Marathon was to continue its march and for 2021 it was only postponed, as the pandemic continued. The event was postponed for November 28 and this time around 13 thousand participants were registered, since several runners chose not to compete, because they did not have enough preparation time, and even only signed up for the Half Marathon, since it is a shorter race, and 20 thousand were registered there.

For this year, Mexico City's Indeporte expects the participation of between 15 and 20 thousand runners, and the event will be held again on the last Sunday of the month, on the same route.