Salamanca Half Marathon 2025: route, winners, and highlights

The Salamanca City Half Marathon 2025 once again turned the urban center into an open road-running course, with Paseo de la Estación as the start and Parque de La Alamedilla as the finish. The race brought together 2,495 runners on a morning marked by the cold, the bustle of Carnival, and the symbolic weight of a race that is already firmly established on the popular calendar of northern Castile and León.

The overall victory went to Raphael Lekakeny Olekei, who stopped the clock at 1:09:00, and to Gema Martín Borgas, the women’s winner with 1:14:53. Beyond the individual names, this edition left the image of a city that recognizes itself running: central streets, spectators on the sidewalks, and a 21,097-meter course designed to blend pace, heritage, and endurance.

A race that already carries weight on the Charro calendar

The 2025 edition cemented the Salamanca half marathon as one of the major popular events in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. It is not just a 21-kilometer race; it is also a city day, with residents, clubs, family members, and fans occupying strategic points along the route to follow the runners’ progress. That mix of competition and celebration explains why the event continues to attract athletes of different levels and backgrounds.

From a sporting perspective, the race delivered what one expects from a good urban half marathon: a fast course, a large field, and competitive times at the front. Olekei, the pre-race favorite, confirmed expectations with a solid win. Gema Martín, for her part, delivered one of her most recognizable performances in Salamanca, where her dominance over the distance is already part of the event’s local story.

The very scale of the race also helps explain its appeal. It is not an isolated event or a minor neighborhood date, but a half marathon with a broad organizational structure, institutional backing, and a media presence that grows every year. The start and finish at highly recognizable locations make it easier for the public to follow the race and for runners to feel the city as a stage rather than a mere backdrop.

Olekei and Gema Martín, two victories with different meanings

Raphael Lekakeny Olekei’s win had the value of a debut. The Kenyan athlete won in Salamanca for the first time with a time of 1:09:00, enough to prevail with authority and headline an edition that was tightly controlled by the favorites. His performance confirms a familiar reality in Spanish half marathons: when the pace is steady and the course is favorable, African athletes often turn the race into a clean distance battle, with economical stride and pinpoint patience.

In the women’s race, Gema Martín Borgas crossed the line in 1:14:53 and achieved her eighth victory in the event, a fact that speaks for itself. Winning once is news; repeating it until it becomes routine places a runner in a different category, that of a consistent benchmark for a race. Her 2025 triumph also carried extra weight because of the cold and the competitive tension of a morning when nothing was left to spare.

The men’s podium was completed by Juan Bueno Losada and Álvaro Cubillo García, both in 1:09:02 and 1:09:16, respectively, while in the women’s standings Verónica Sánchez Romero and Cristina Giurcanu Mihartescu joined Martín on the podium. That final picture helps read the race as more than an individual win: the half marathon is sustained by the density of names, clubs, and categories that give it competitive depth.

The cold, Carnival, and the texture of a race morning

On March 2, 2025, Salamanca woke to a temperature that spared no one. The cold hit the start of the race and forced participants to warm up early, with long sleeves, light gloves, and nervous gestures in the start area. In a half marathon, that detail alters the reading of the race more than it seems: the body takes longer to respond, the first kilometer becomes more cautious, and strategy must be fine-tuned to avoid spending too much too soon.

The Carnival setting added an appealing contrast. While the city kept its festive rhythm, thousands of runners moved along the asphalt with almost artisanal concentration, measuring breathing, pulse, and sensations. That coexistence between urban celebration and athletic effort is one of the most visible hallmarks of the Salamanca half marathon, which does not simply close streets but occupies the city with a choreography of bibs and applause.

In that atmosphere, the race gains special depth. The runner is not only competing against the clock or the pack, but also against the cold air, numb hands at the start, and the temptation to go out too fast. Salamanca, in that sense, gives nothing away: it forces you to run smart and rewards those who can read the morning from the very first kilometer.

An urban route that invites you to run with the city alongside you

The 21,097-meter course follows a clear logic: show Salamanca while running. The start at Paseo de la Estación and the finish at La Alamedilla frame a route that passes through highly recognizable points and allows the public to spread out across different sections. For the runner, this translates into a sense of continuous progress through a compact city, with visual references that ease the effort and help gauge the passing kilometers.

A well-designed urban route has something of a visual metronome. Facades, intersections, and the presence of spectators help sustain the pace, and in Salamanca this mix works especially well because the heritage appears not as distant scenery but as an active part of the effort. The runner feels they are crossing a living city, not an avenue without soul.

There is also a practical advantage: the concentrated course makes it easier for families to follow and for the organizers to manage the event. Middle-distance races benefit greatly from a clear route, ease of orientation, and the absence of long disconnected stretches. That allows the race to run more smoothly, both for those seeking a time and for those simply hoping to finish feeling good.

The results that shape the competitive picture

The 2025 standings produced very strong times at the front and notable depth across categories. Raphael Lekakeny Olekei dominated in 1:09:00, closely followed by Juan Bueno Losada and Álvaro Cubillo García. Behind them appeared athletes with different profiles, from specialists from Castile and León clubs to veteran runners used to squeezing every kilometer with skill.

Among the women, Gema Martín Borgas set the pace in 1:14:53 and maintained a sufficient advantage to claim yet another victory in Salamanca. Behind her, Verónica Sánchez Romero finished second in 1:20:40 and Cristina Giurcanu Mihartescu completed the podium. These are names that reflect the usual profile of traditional half marathons: club athletes, master runners, and very consistent profiles who know how to compete over long distances without unnecessary drama.

The results also show something important for understanding this race: the Salamanca half marathon combines popular elite and mass participation without losing clarity. There are clear winners, but also a wide variety of times and category battles that feed the race’s identity. That pluralism is one of the reasons the event keeps growing without needing gimmicks.

The importance of categories and the role of the clubs

In races like this, the overall podium tends to grab the headlines, but the real life of the event is spread much farther down, in the tangle of master, senior, and club-team categories. That is where the pulse of a popular half marathon is truly measured. Salamanca once again showed that diversity, with clubs strongly present in the leading positions and veteran athletes capable of producing times of enormous competitive value.

The cases of Verónica Sánchez Romero, J. Ricardo Merchán, and Miguel Rubio Vizcaíno illustrate that background well. It is not just about running, but about fitting the effort into a seasonal structure, into a sum of travel, training, personal leagues, and time goals. For many participants, the half marathon is the race that organizes the winter, the benchmark that gives meaning to entire weeks of preparation.

Clubs also add a layer of storytelling that major races need. It is not just individuals running; it is groups who know each other, measure themselves against each other, and push one another. That dynamic adds temperature to the standings and turns the day into a kind of social map of popular athletics, with accents from different provinces and a constant mix of ambition and camaraderie.

The start, the finish, and the symbolic value of the places

Choosing Paseo de la Estación for the start is no coincidence. It is a wide, recognizable, and functional place for gathering runners, a point that simplifies logistics and allows for an orderly staging. The finish at La Alamedilla, meanwhile, has an obvious emotional value: concentrating the finish there turns the final effort into an easily identifiable scene for anyone following the race from outside.

In urban races, those two ends function almost like two different photographs of the same story. At the start, nerves rule; at the finish, exhaustion and relief mix together. Between those two points lies the true heart of the half marathon, that long stretch in which each runner negotiates with their strength and with the city around them.

Salamanca lends itself well to this kind of narrative because it has a human scale and a historic center that speaks to sport. The race does not need to invent artificial epicness. It is enough to let the streets speak, the footsteps echo, and the crowd do the rest from the sidewalks.

What 2025 leaves for the next edition

The 2025 edition confirmed that the Salamanca half marathon now lives not only on its local prestige, but on a recognizable brand within the national popular-race calendar. The participation of 2,495 runners, the front-running times, and the presence of athletes with different profiles reinforced an image of organizational stability that few races achieve without decades of work behind them.

It also became clear that the race has a very defined personality: urban, competitive, fairly fast, and with an atmosphere that mixes sport and city in balanced proportions. That combination explains why it continues to draw attention both from runners seeking a time and from those approaching a historic half marathon for the first time.

Olekei’s victory and Gema Martín’s eighth win left an easy-to-remember mark, but the value of the day lay in the whole. A race like this is measured by its podium, yes, but also by the overall image it conveys: solid organization, abundant participation, a spectator-friendly course, and a city that understands athletics as part of its landscape. Salamanca once again ran over itself, and in that mirror many found something more than a time: they found an entire city turned into a road-running course.

Official results: orycronsport.com.