Lately I’ve been seeking out new running spots in Mexico City. The park across the street and the nearby Pabillon are fine for a weekday jog, but I prefer a proper running path (and the company of other runners) for my weekend runs. There are several scattered throughout the downtown area of Mexico City. One of these, El Sope, is located in Chapultepec Park – the largest park in the capital. Locally known as the Bosque de Chapultepec, the park covers 1800 acres and is divided into three sections.
The Pista del Corredores El Sope is located in the second section of Chapultepec Park. It’s a gated area with two gravel running paths with distance markers (the longer of the two is 2km) and areas for stretching and warm-ups. Weekends are busiest time at El Sope when runners crowd into the park and vendors offering a variety of running gear, clothing and shoes set up stalls outside the main entrance. You can also find information about upcoming races and events. Distance runners often combine a visit to El Sope with a run through other areas of the park or up to Chapultepec Castle for a good hill workout.
El Sope is open daily 5:30am-5pm and the closest Metro station is Auditorio.
After my run I like to head over to Las Ninfas and grab one of the outdoor tables on the patio. The service is slightly unpredictable, but the food is good and you can’t beat the location directly in front of the fountain and across from one of the entrances to el Sope. Las Ninfas offers a full menu of traditional Mexican fare with a variety of healthy options. I recommend the fresh jugo de toronja (grapefruit juice), soya agua de horchata (soy horchata water) and vegetarian enchiladas, sin queso of course.
Having never been very good at maintaining a running journal, lately I’ve resorted to logging my runs on dailymile.com, a free social networking site geared toward runners – though you can log other types of workouts as well – and it allows you to easily keep track of your training. In addition to searching popular running routes in Mexico City, I’ve been playing around with the site’s route mapping function which, as it turns out, is pretty useful for calculating the distance of city routes.
Travelers can use the site to find popular running routes in destinations around the world, network with other runners and even seek out potential running partners.
Note: At the time of writing portions of the running paths at el Sope are under construction.
Photo credit: via flickr
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Hi Laura,
I’m just back from Mexico and Chapultepec park was really good! Isn’t there a running track in Coyoacan area around the botanical zone too (not as big ofcourse)? Good luck for your preparations, I’m preparing for a half-marathon in May.
Priyank
There is, it’s called Viveros de Coyoacan. I walked through there the other day and it’s really nice too. I’m actually planning to go back this weekend. Thanks and good luck to you too!
This is a great post and I wish more existed like this for cities across the globe. I found one of the most difficult parts of traveling for so long was that I didn’t know where to exercise when I did have the time…especially in Latin America.
I had the same problem while traveling, and that’s actually one of the reasons I wanted to share some of my discoveries here in Mexico City. The city has several other good running spots that I plan to highlight as well. I’m hoping future travelers will find this info useful.