Maratón Internacional de San Sebastián
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Nov 22, 2026
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The Zurich Maratón San Sebastián is a road marathon through the centre of Donostia-San Sebastián in Spain's Basque Country, held on a Sunday in late November together with a 10K. It dates from 15 October 1978, making it the second-oldest marathon in Spain after Madrid's. The start is on Calle Hernani in the middle of the city, next to the town hall and the Alderdi Eder gardens, and the finish is on the Boulevard after a flat straight of more than a kilometre. The circuit, introduced in 2022, runs through the central districts of Antiguo, Amara and Gros and is run as one short lap followed by two identical longer laps. It passes the Paseo de la Concha, the Teatro Victoria Eugenia, the Anoeta stadium, the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, the Kursaal and Plaza Gipuzkoa. The organisers describe the circuit as more central, faster and flatter than before, and it is certified by the Spanish athletics federation. The marathon has a 5-hour time limit and is capped at 7,000 participants; the race is also the Gipuzkoa and Basque Country marathon championship. Eight pacer groups run between 2:45 and 5:00.
Typical climate for the race month — an estimate, not a forecast or a race-day record
Late November on the Basque coast is cool and damp: average highs are around 16 °C and lows around 8 °C, with rain on roughly 14 days of the month.
San Sebastián
The San Sebastián Marathon began on 15 October 1978 and, after Madrid's, is the second-oldest marathon in Spain. The first course was one lap of four kilometres followed by two of 19. The organisers measured it with a measuring wheel, which proved a disaster because the asphalt was so bumpy, and used a tape measure in later editions. The route originally passed the Paseo Nuevo, a section later dropped because of the force of the waves.
Ana Isabel Alonso's 2:26:51 from 1995 stood as the women's record for almost three decades. It fell in 2022, the first year of the current circuit, when the Kenyan Rebecca Sirwanei Tanui won in 2:23:09 in her first marathon. She finished at the Boulevard, where the race now ends.
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02:09:34
Timothy Cherigat (2002)
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