06/09/2026
Around 70,000 runners are about to take over Rio de Janeiro.
This weekend, June 7, the Maratona do Rio rolls out the biggest street running festival in Latin America. Marathon, half marathon, 10K, and 5K all on the same weekend.
The course is what runners travel for. Sea level. Mostly flat. Hugging the Atlantic from Barra da Tijuca through Ipanema and Copacabana, with the finish at Aterro do Flamengo and Sugarloaf Mountain watching over the field.
It carries a World Athletics Road Race Label, so the field mixes elites chasing fast times with first-time marathoners chasing the bucket-list moment.
The catch is the weather. Heat and humidity show up early in Rio, and the second half of the course is where it bites.
If your social feeds look like a postcard on Sunday, now you know why.