Lanzarote in December 2026: the month's three races, day by day

December leaves three races on Lanzarote and all three are different sports: an international marathon that takes up three days in Costa Teguise, a championship duathlon on a city circuit in Arrecife, and the capital’s end-of-year race. There are four weeks between the first and the last, so you can enter one without the other two getting in the way.

Here is what each one asks you to decide, and when.

Thursday 3 to Saturday 5: international marathon in Costa Teguise

Worth clearing up before you book a hotel: the Lanzarote International Marathon is not run in Puerto del Carmen. The marathon starts from the Los Charcos car park in Costa Teguise, and every distance finishes at the Sands Beach Resort, also in Costa Teguise. Puerto del Carmen is the marathon turnaround point and the half marathon start.

Saturday 5 holds the four long distances: the marathon at 08:00 (85 EUR), the wheelchair half marathon at 09:00 (50 EUR), the half at 10:30 from Puerto del Carmen (70 EUR) and the 10 km at 12:00 from Arrecife (55 EUR). Thursday 3 is for the short races, all of them in the finish area in Costa Teguise: the children’s categories at 17:00 and the 5 km Santa run at 18:00.

If you are going to run it, the date that matters now is Tuesday 24 November. From the 25th the marathon goes to 90 EUR, the half to 75 and the 10 km to 60. For the deadline we give Monday 30 November, the earliest of the closing dates the organiser publishes: anyone working to that one is in time whichever applies.

Numbers are collected at the same Los Charcos car park, from Wednesday 2 to Friday 4. There is one last window on the Saturday, 06:30 to 07:30, and that one has to be booked in advance, so it is not a desk you can simply turn up at. The buses to the outlying start lines are not included with your number either: they are a ticket you buy and reserve. They leave from the Sands Beach Resort, the last one to Puerto del Carmen at 08:30 and the last one to Arrecife at 10:00.

If you are coming to watch, the place to be is the Costa Teguise seafront promenade between 10:00 and 14:00: all three long distances pass, the finish is there and the trophies are handed out at 14:00.

Saturday 12: championship duathlon in Arrecife

The II Duatlón Supersprint Ciudad de Arrecife now has a day and a time: Saturday 12 December 2026 at 12:00, on a city circuit in the capital completely closed to traffic. It is the Canary Islands supersprint duathlon championship, and the same day settles the senior title, the club title and the youth titles, with children’s races from 12 years old.

Entries are open and close on Monday 7 December at 23:59. They go through the Canarian Triathlon Federation platform, which lists the Real Club Náutico de Arrecife as the contact, and what you pay depends on whether you hold a licence: 25 EUR with one and 35 without in the supersprint, 5 and 10 EUR in the youth categories. So the licence is worth 10 EUR either way. Taxes included, booking fees on top.

The exact distances are set by the event’s technical delegate, so the day they come out we will put them on its page. The supersprint format is short and flat out from start to finish, with no room to fumble a transition, and if the field is big there can be qualifying semi-finals before the final.

For watching, it is one of the best plans of the month: a city circuit closed to traffic in the middle of Arrecife is the kind of race you follow on foot instead of chasing it by car.

Thursday 31: San Silvestre through central Arrecife

The San Silvestre Ciudad de Arrecife is 5 km through the capital’s central streets and, by turnout, one of the biggest mass-participation races on the island: more than 1,300 people ran the last edition. It is run from 12 years old with a parent or guardian’s consent, a good share of the field is in fancy dress, and the children’s categories go off before the senior race, each with its own distance. This is the whole-family race of the year.

The price does not come from a set of race rules, it comes from a municipal tax ordinance: 12 euros for the 5 km senior race and 5 euros for children up to 12. That same ordinance carries reduced rates almost nobody looks at, for large families, disability and unemployment, and they are broken down one by one on its page.

As of 11 October 2026, the announcement for this edition is still to be published. The day we give is the one the ordinance itself sets, describing the race as the mass-participation race held every 31 December, and the previous edition was run on 31 December 2025. The start time will be settled with the announcement: the 2025 race rules gave 11:00 for the senior race and that same edition’s programme gave 12:00, with the children’s races from 10:00. It comes out through the Deportes Arrecife Facebook page and the town hall phone number, and as soon as it does we will update the page with the time, the rules and the entry link.

And the detail that really decides whether you get a number: in 2025 they were handed out only on 30 December, from 10:00 to 14:00 and from 17:00 to 21:00, and that was the only day. If 2026 repeats the format, you collect your number the day before and not on the morning of the race.

What December is like for running here

What changes in December is not the heat, it is the daylight: these are the shortest days of the year and all three races have it written into their timetables. The marathon starts at 08:00 and closes the finish line at midday, the duathlon goes off at 12:00 and the San Silvestre is run in the morning, with the afternoon of the 31st already taken by dinner.

It is also the month the island fills up with visitors for the holidays, so the accommodation gets decided before the race entry. How to choose an area to suit your start line is in the guide to where to stay, and the business of getting to each start line is in transport and logistics. If people are coming to watch you run, the spectator guide has the spots where you can see the race without a car.

The month before, with its six races, is in the November round-up, and plenty of people link the Running Challenge from 22 to 25 November with the marathon on 5 December. If you are planning the whole year, the month-by-month sports calendar explains what each season on the island asks of you.

The full month, with every distance, price and start time, is on the Lanzarote calendar, and each race has its own page with the detail. We check those figures against each organiser’s own website in turn, and every race page says the day the figure was read. The one thing you do have to go to their site for is entering: the payment is theirs.