Madrid Alpine Marathon 2026: everything about June 14 in Cercedilla

Plan your race pace

The Madrid Alpine Marathon 2026 will take place on Sunday, June 14 in Cercedilla, Madrid, with the start at 8:00 a.m. from Plaza Nueva and an approximate course of 44 kilometers through the Sierra de Guadarrama. It is not a classic marathon with a bit of uphill, nor a hike with a bib, nor that friendly weekend trail that lets you crack jokes at the aid station. It is a serious mountain race, limited to 400 runners, with close to 5,800 meters of cumulative elevation gain between climbing and descending, a maximum time of nine hours, and checkpoint cutoffs that spare no one who arrives completely spent.

The 2026 edition, the XXIX Madrid Alpine Marathon, arrives with bibs sold out since March and with the label of mythical race firmly attached to its backpack. The 400 available spots were gone in just five days; in the first hour and a half after registration opened, fewer than a hundred were left. That says quite a lot. In a calendar full of new races, epic names and technical shirts promising glory in polyester, the MAM keeps something rarer: earned prestige built on stone, altitude, silence and broken legs —in the sporting sense, of course—.

Cercedilla once again measures the pulse of Spanish trail running

Cercedilla here is not a mountain postcard. It is the start and return point, the place where the runner pins on the bib still looking like a civilized person and comes back, hours later, with that mix of dust, salt and distant stare that only the mountains give when they’ve made you pay. The start and finish will be in Plaza Nueva, an urban setting also chosen for environmental reasons: to concentrate the largest crowd outside the most sensitive areas of the park and reduce the impact in the middle of nature. The mountain, for once, does not become anyone’s emotional parking lot. Good.

The weekend begins on Saturday, June 13 with the Cross Alpino del Telégrafo, which starts at 5:45 p.m., and is capped on Sunday with the marathon, the main event. The Cross offers 19 kilometers and 980 meters of positive gain, with a cutoff of three and a half hours; the MAM, on the other hand, goes up to 44 kilometers, 2,450 meters of positive gain and a nine-hour limit. They are sister events, yes, but not twins. One bites you. The other chews you up.

The central fact is worth repeating without any gloss: 44 km through the Sierra de Guadarrama, with a maximum altitude of around 2,430 meters, a minimum of 1,190, and nearly half the route above 2,000 meters. In the mountains, that changes everything. It changes the air, the pace, the stomach. It also changes the runner’s arrogance, which usually leaves the village very clean and comes back with mud under the nails.

44 kilometers that do not fit into a conventional marathon

The Madrid Alpine Marathon is called a marathon, but it plays in another language. On the road, kilometer 30 is a wall; here the wall can appear before, after, or disguised as a technical trail, a dirty descent, sudden heat, or an orange ribbon that’s hard to spot when your head starts making noise. The organization estimates that around 50% of the course runs over technical terrain and warns of the possibility of snow patches, that white reminder that June in Guadarrama does not always sign a pact with summer.

The race moves through familiar points for any mountain runner in the area: Puerto de Navacerrada, Bola del Mundo, Puerto de Cotos, Peñalara, Campamentos, Navarrulaque. They are not just names on an elevation profile. They are places with character, with their own wind, with a very particular way of teaching the runner that climbing fast is of little use if you don’t have the craft left to descend. And descending, in a race like this, does not mean resting either. It means negotiating with tight quads, loose rock and an almost domestic kind of concentration: watch where you step, don’t get carried away, don’t play the hero. The hero falls.

The profile marks a first pass through Puerto de Navacerrada around kilometer 10.2, Bola del Mundo at 12.2, the first pass through Cotos at 17.6, Peñalara in the high section of the course, Cotos again at 28.1, a second visit to Bola del Mundo at 33.1, Navacerrada once more at 36.7 and Campamentos at 40.8. The race has the shape of a rough out-and-back, as if the Guadarrama let the runner go and then asked, with mountain irony, whether they really wanted to come back that way.

Navacerrada, Cotos, Bola del Mundo and Peñalara

The passage through Peñalara places the MAM in a particular category within Madrid trail running. Peñalara is the highest peak in the Sierra de Guadarrama, at around 2,428-2,430 meters depending on official references, and forms part of the symbolic and natural heart of the park. It is not a pretty backdrop for Instagram, though some may try. It is high mountain on the plateau, with scree, thermal shifts and that dry light that deceives: it seems close, but it gives nothing away.

Bola del Mundo adds another kind of toughness, more exposed, more visual, more about looking up and wondering who had the brilliant idea of putting a race through there. The answer, in truth, lies in the history of Madrid trail running: the Sierra de Guadarrama has been one of the natural laboratories for mountain races in Spain, and the race itself carries a tradition that does not need much fanfare. There is a lineage, a kind of old-shoe memory, that explains why this event does not need to shout to impose itself.

The course will be marked with orange and white ribbons, but the organization recommends constant attention and carrying the track on a device. The idea is not to fill the mountain with signs as if it were a theme park. For environmental reasons, the marking tries not to saturate the surroundings. Translated into runner language: if you’ve gone a while without seeing a ribbon, maybe you’re not having a mystical experience; maybe you’ve drifted off course. Better to go back to the last clear point than to give away minutes, energy and patience to the wrong hillside.

Timetables, bibs and the small theater of Plaza Nueva

Bib pickup for the Madrid Alpine Marathon will take place on Saturday, June 13 from 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and on Sunday, June 14 from 7:00 a.m. to 7:45 a.m., always in Plaza Nueva. The organization stresses that the bib is handed over only to the registered holder, with ID, and that licensed runners must present the corresponding license if they took advantage of the discount. Here you can’t send your cousin, your club mate or the friend who “was just passing by.” The mountain allows many things; civil liability, far fewer.

On Sunday, bib control at the start is scheduled between 7:45 and 7:55 a.m. At 8:00 the race begins. The first runners are expected to arrive around 12:40, the awards ceremony at 3:30 p.m. and the finish area to close at 5:00 p.m. That nine-hour window splits the day into two parallel races: the one for those competing to win and the one for those fighting to finish within the cutoff. Both are worthy. One has a podium; the other, more often than not, has more story to tell.

The weather forecast for Cercedilla, four days before the race, points to a sunny morning, with about 17 degrees at 8:00 a.m. and rising heat toward midday, with values around 25 degrees at 12:00 and highs close to 29 during the afternoon. In Guadarrama, it’s wise to treat any forecast as a serious bulletin but not as a notarized contract: the mountain changes its mood and asks no permission.

The awards ceremony should not distract from the tone of the day. The MAM is not a massive city race, with endless barriers and entertainment on every corner. The maximum of 400 runners is tied to the protected environment and the permits from the National Park. That limit gives the event a different scale: less noise, more responsibility and a sense of a chosen appointment. Not exclusive in a cheesy sense. Chosen because not everyone fits, because not everyone should fit.

Self-sufficiency, personal cups and mountains without wrappers

The Madrid Alpine Marathon is run under a semi-self-sufficiency format. There will be eight liquid aid stations and four solid ones, plus the finish aid station, with points in Navarrulaque, Navacerrada, Bola del Mundo, Cotos and Campamentos, but the race does not work like a plastic fair at altitude. There will be no cups at the aid stations and each participant must carry their own container to drink or refill. It seems like a small detail. It isn’t. In a race inside a national park, the reusable cup is almost a political statement, and a good one: less waste, less footprint, less nonsense.

The aid stations will offer water, isotonic drink, Coca-Cola and solids such as fruit, quince paste, chocolate, nuts, gummies and guava pastries. A rule is also reminded that some people should tattoo on the lid of their gel: disposable wrappers must be marked with the bib number. Not out of bureaucratic whim, but to protect the continuity of the race and make it easier to identify waste if it appears on the course. The countryside is not a giant ashtray or a trash bin with pine trees. It’s hard to believe this still needs saying, but Spain is still Spain.

External support will be allowed at the Navacerrada and Cotos checkpoints, both on the way out and on the way back. It’s a logical concession in a long and technical race, but it does not turn the marathon into an assisted walk. Between checkpoints, each runner must manage their hydration, energy, mind and respect for the environment. Semi-self-sufficiency is not posing in a minimalist vest; it is knowing what you carry, when you use it and how you reach the next checkpoint without becoming a story for the volunteers.

Runner services include baggage storage, showers at the Cercedilla sports center, massage, civil liability and accident insurance, a T-shirt, aid stations, access to Expo Trail and other gifts the organization manages to secure. There will also be cardioprotection with defibrillators at different points along the course. Practical details, yes, but in a race like this practicality has a different weight. A shower 300 meters from the finish may seem like a minor line in the program. After 44 kilometers through Guadarrama, it can feel like a Marian apparition with hot water.

Mandatory gear and cutoffs: the race also decides

The rules require carrying throughout the race a mobile phone with enough battery, a cup or container for drinking, a windbreaker, gloves, a hat or neck gaiter, a thermal blanket of at least 130 by 210 centimeters and a bib with chip. The organization may modify this requirement depending on the weather, and may also carry out surprise checks. Not carrying the required gear can lead to a penalty or withdrawal if conditions justify it. The mountain has that bad habit of not reading sporting résumés.

Cutoff times are another filter. The first pass through Puerto de Navacerrada must be made before 2 hours and 35 minutes; the first pass through Cotos before 3 hours and 40; the second pass through Cotos before 5 hours and 45; and the second pass through Navacerrada before 8 hours. The total maximum time is nine hours. Anyone who does not make it must withdraw and hand in their bib at the corresponding checkpoint. It’s tough, yes. It’s also necessary. In the mountains, letting someone continue out of rhythm is not always a compassionate gesture; sometimes it’s recklessness with good intentions.

The organization reserves the right to modify the course or suspend the race if weather conditions or force majeure require it. This is not fine print. In a race that climbs above 2,000 meters and crosses areas of high environmental value, that clause is almost part of the landscape. The runner signs up for a race, but also accepts a pact with the terrain: you run if you can, where you can and as you should.

The overall men’s and women’s winners will receive an exclusive granite trophy valued at 300 euros, along with other gifts, and there will be trophies for the top three in each category. The race also recognizes the so-called megasurvivors, those who have finished every edition of the marathon, with a special Fernando García Herreros trophy. The name has something comic about it, sure, but the feat is very real: coming back year after year to a race like this takes a mix of physical fitness, selective memory and a pinch of Castilian stubbornness.

The Guadarrama is not a backdrop: why this race matters

The Madrid Alpine Marathon crosses an environment that forces sport and conservation into the same sentence. The organization insists that the route follows existing paths and notified and authorized areas, avoids over-marking, separates waste, limits vehicles, moves the start and finish to the urban center and designs the passage through sensitive areas to reduce crowds. This is not green romanticism from a press release; it is administrative and ethical survival. Without that balance, races like this would have no future.

The Sierra de Guadarrama National Park contains some of the most recognizable landscapes in the center of the Iberian Peninsula, with Peñalara as its summit and a fragile ecosystem under human pressure. Running there does not mean conquering the mountain, even if the word “conquer” looks great on posters. You run as a guest. That idea, so simple and so uncomfortable for the sporting ego, should accompany every stride: pass through, don’t invade; enjoy, don’t leave a trace; compete, but without turning the mountains into a disposable stadium.

The history of the MAM helps explain its aura. The first edition appears in the record books in 1997, with 157 registered runners and 118 survivors. Since then, relevant trail names and all kinds of years have passed through: brutal heat, cold, rain, course cuts, championships, more massive editions and seasons of rebuilding. In 2025, the winners were Claudio Díaz Castán and Silvia Serafini, and there were 291 survivors. The word is no accident. In this race, people do not just talk about finishers. They talk about survivors.

That language may sound exaggerated to anyone who looks at athletics from the track or from a flat avenue. But in Cercedilla it makes sense. The MAM survivor is not a castaway or a martyr to technical fabric; it is someone who has completed a demanding race without breaking the pact with the mountain. That is the difference. The merit is not only in arriving first, but in arriving whole, clean, aware. And without leaving your gel wrapper as a personal signature, please.

The Sunday when Cercedilla looks upward

On June 14, Cercedilla will once again do what it does best on days like this: become the gateway to a serious adventure. At 8:00 a small group will set off by popular running standards, but huge in ambition: 400 runners at most, 44 kilometers ahead, nine hours of margin, several passes, two crossings through places that do not usually accept jokes, and a finish line that does not hand out hugs until you’ve truly stepped across it.

The Madrid Alpine Marathon 2026 commands respect because it brings together all the ingredients that separate a beautiful race from a memorable one: altitude, technical terrain, elevation gain, history, environmental limits, a reduced field and a very direct relationship with fatigue. There’s no need to inflate it. The data are enough. 44 km, 5,800 meters accumulated, Peñalara, Bola del Mundo, Cotos, Navacerrada, semi-self-sufficiency, strict cutoffs and a mountain that does not act as scenery but as referee. On Sunday, whoever reaches Plaza Nueva within the time limit will not just have finished a race. They will have negotiated with Guadarrama and come away with its signature on their legs.

Este artículo contiene enlaces de afiliado: si compras a través de ellos, se genera una pequeña comisión sin coste adicional para ti. Más información.