Running in Mexico (An Ongoing Investigation)

I’ll probably keep updating this as I go along, but thought it’d be handy to keep a little tally of run opportunities (thought I’d be cute and call it ‘runortunities’ or something horrible, be glad I didn’t) throughout our travels in Mexico.

Don’t be fooled: It can be VERY difficult, almost impossible, in some areas due to a variety of reasons I’ll get into. Let’s look at the regions we’ve visited so far, in our tender febrile month away. I already feel like an expert and I also 100% feel like I will be eating those words in a humble pie in oh…3.5 months down the road.

San Felipe: This is the first big or ‘real’ town we drove to from the hideous border town of Mexicali. It’s very much a working-class to poor area, with a tourist street, beach-side restaurants, and…not much else. We camped in San Felipe (which I already complained about earlier. Exorbitant) but at least it was right on the beach. Good for running? Sort of.

The biggest issue with running or walking freely on the streets in San Felipe is that it’s almost all ‘residential’ so, dirt streets with shacks lining them leading to the main commercial street. There are no real sidewalks, and the houses/shacks all have incredibly frightening and vicious dogs and no fences. So, if you want to take a casual stroll, be prepared to be immediately chased down the street by something that wants a piece of your calf. Sometimes the street dogs will join in. They sure did for me! Otherwise, the street dogs will leave you alone- they generally don’t want trouble here. The second time this happened a lady on the street told me to get some rocks and peg the dogs with them. Lesson learned.

The beach is the safest option, but it’s tough. Running on sand looks glamorous but the reality is a sideways-slanted grind of running, slipping in deep sand, slogging and tripping again.

San Felipe gets a 1/10 for running.

Next up- Playa Santispec in Mulage

This one actually ranked a bit higher because it had a cool trail (that people actually drove these 4X4s on) to reach the next bay/beach. It’s a fun little trail, and it was approximately 500 metres from our campsite so you can gain a little bit more mileage that way. Running on the beach here is no problem because it’s so hard-packed, you can get traction and really enjoy it, unlike San Felipe.

One problem: When you take the trail to the next beach, it looks so inviting and fun to run on, and also no ‘private road only’ or ‘no trespassing’ signs so it’s fine and safe right? NOPE. I did this run exactly twice and the second time a vicious German Shepherd joined by a less scary looking dog bolted out of an ex-pat’s house on the second bay, when I was about 500 metres away, and came straight for me, barking and snarling. It was extremely frightening. Remembering what I learned from San Felipe, I immediately grabbed a piece of driftwood and started brandishing it at the scary, furious animal. Lucky for me I didn’t have to try to physically defend myself because the owner came out and called the dog back. The dog stopped, and then decided to try its luck with me AGAIN so I picked up the driftwood again and started yelling profanities. The dog’s owner called to it again and finally got close enough to get control over the animal, so I could put the driftwood down. The owner did apologize…

So, Playa Santispec gets a 2/10, for another scary dog encounter but it had a better trail access than anywhere in San Felipe.

And that takes us to the relative metropolis of…Loreto!

I liked Loreto a lot, compared to Mulage, Playa Santispec, San Felipe and Guerrero Negro. Small but fairly busy, very walkable and amiable. The malecon is short though, beautiful but about 500 metres, so it’s not a great running option and again, every residential area has houses armed with very frightening, scary sounding dogs. Gidget was not a fan. However, due to it’s relative affluence, they have fences! So the dogs can menace at you instead of the regular ‘chase you down the street while you yell profanities at them and search for a rock to throw at them.’ Ah, progress. But, the malecon, while very safe and pretty, is short and kind of boring. There is a long beach that leads off the malecon and for variety I did a bit of beach running, which is fun for… 4 minutes. Tiring of that, we were driving through town and spotted a recreation centre (crumbling, some garbage but quiet and safe) that had a running track all the way around it! Success! And nary a vicious or threatening dog to be found.

So, I found my first good running place in Baja, to my delight. Plus I could run there alone without worry, and I did so very happily. I did run into two street dogs hanging around the track one morning so I snatched up some rocks and started brandishing them at them, shouting. The dogs cowered and took off immediately…Making me feel like a total monster. Sorry guys, I didn’t mean it.

Loreto gets a 6/10! Nice job.

Next up we leave Loreto and head to an even bigger place: La Paz! Now, driving in La Paz was a real mind-bender, tough, busy, scary compared to Loreto but how was the running? Super nice! You ONLY run on the malecon here (the roads suck. The drivers are not patient, stop signs are ‘suggestions’ not the law, the sidewalks off the malecon are what a Bend, OR couple told me are ‘sidewalk parkour’ as you really have to be careful where you’re walking, and lots of scary dogs behind fences). The residential areas here are unpleasant. Not mugging-scary, just…Sucky. Busy, noisy, dusty, impossible to ambulate, no sidewalks, etc.

The malecon though? A sheer delight! You have to navigate few roads to get there from where you’re staying but many places are close by and it’s not difficult. Their malecon is a shining pearl of the Baja South- stretches to approximately 4.5 km long, and it is well maintained, safe, well-lit and poplar with athletes, families, vendors and everyone. It is very peaceful and fun to run along, there’s a ton to look at and you do not have to dodge traffic, holes in the sidewalk, random rebar, two foot high sidewalk edges, dirt, sand, rocks, garbage, dogs, nothing. I rank running in La Paz on the malecon the highest so far in Baja!

Nice work La Paz- you may be a chaotic mess in other places, but you do a great malecon! 7/10

We did a few days in San Jose del Cabo after our first few days in La Paz, and while I really disliked our hostel, the location it was in was fantastic. Right in the heart of the old town city centre, super easy to walk everywhere and very pleasant walking. Almost no street dogs, no garbage, the sidewalks were a thing even? Luxury! The run we did was through the main plaza, up to the river and to the hotel district. Now, I don’t want to rag on San Jose del Cabo but I would rank it below La Paz, despite it’s relatively beauty and ease of locomotion because the run was short and I also got chased by angry geese. Now, maybe it was my fault because I interrupted them when I was running but…WTF? They were really aggressive?!

There’s not a lot of runway in San Jose del Cabo (we made it about 6km round-trip if you want to keep to the easiest, well-maintained sidewalks) so I think that damages the score a bit. Otherwise, it’s lovely, safe, accessible and straightforward. If a bit boring.

Decent work San Jose del Cabo! 6/10

We then spent a few days in Los Barriles, which I quite liked. Lots of ex-pats here for what I wouldn’t really describe as a ‘town’ rather than a super-long beach and a highway with stores. I loved the beach and the water and the weather were fantastic. So relaxing and peaceful. However the running suffers here. The street dogs can be aggressive to other dogs (Gidget was not safe unless she was in the compound where we were staying, I personally never had a problem). The sidewalks aren’t realistic- garbage cans, driveways, cars and everything take precedence over walking. The drop on the sidewalks is about 2ft, so you’d better be freaking agile if you want to run from one sidewalk to the next. There’s next to no town, so you’re running for about 500 metres and then it’s sand roads/the highway. Traffic is never-ending.

However the sand on the beach is driveable (everyone drives on it instead of in the streets in town) and you can definitely run on them! BUT because everyone drives on the sand, you have to jump into deep sand dodge absolutely every vehicle known to man. That gets old real quick.

I wouldn’t recommend Los Barriles for running, particularly after I got spoiled by the malecon in La Paz. 3/10 here.

So what’s next? Well we are heading to the mainland, so watch out Mazatlan, I’m coming for you!

MAINLAND MEXICO

Now Mazatlan, this is a different beast entirely. They have an astounding malecon, stretching from the Golden Zone (Zona Dorado) where all the newer hotels are, all the way to the Faro (Lighthouse) at the other end of the point (old Mazatlan). We stayed in an air BNB near the centro historicale, and so we also had very easy access to the malecon- we could see it from our window!

It is considered one of the longest seawalls in the world at 21kms! Beautiful and accessible for running, the temperature was very pleasant, with afternoon winds cooling down the area and the sun not being quite so hot and beating down as La Paz. I actually had every intention of hoofing it a looong way- and had a water backpack full of Gatorade ready to do it! Unfortunately both Ian and I got extremely sick due to food poisoning (thanks tainted cheese), so I was too weak to attempt more than 5k. It’s a lovely stretch though, and we did a hike up to the Faro as well earlier in the week before sickness took us down. You can actually run the malecon up to the Faro and then hike the faro! They have a guard posted at the gate and rules though- so no granola bars or energy bars allowed, no sports drinks.

I would HIGHLY recommend running the malecon in Mazatlan- it’s so easy, beautiful and spectacular to run on. Very accessible, safe and pleasant, it’s a must-do!

Mazatlan, you get a 9/10- I only wish I was feeling better to be able to do more!

Next up…the jungles of Nayarit!

Sayulita and Lo de Marcos

Still recovering from the horrible fog of extreme food poisoning (more on that in a separate blog post, be warned it will be sooo whiny), we straggled into Sayulita and basically staggered to find a hamburger, the best we could find. We did, and it was spectacular.

Sayulita is also an insane zoo and extremely difficult to walk, let alone run. So, no running there as it’s just not physically possible in that area, and we were too tired and weak to do so. Moving on!

Our next stay was the beach town of Lo de Marcos, a mere 40 minutes away from Sayulita (they look very close on a map but the roads are very slow and take a long time to get to each other). It is a very humble beach town, made up primarily of dirt roads, rock roads and compounds interspersed by empty vacant lots, weed-choked and dust-ridden. I actually really liked it! It has a main road that splits, and goes all the way to the beach, which is glorious. It is not busy.

There is a paved road (mostly) that goes to the second beach, and it is about a 2km stretch. Friends, that was MY stretch during our five night stay! While short and kind of boring, I did get to see a troop of about 15 coatis slowly and tentatively creeping out of the jungle 🙂 Also because the stretch is fairly short, but quite hilly, I ended up doing a few moderate training blocks, instead of my fav – long zone out runs. It was very strenuous but pushed me in a way I haven’t experienced since, oh, running the marathon I guess? Sometimes it feels good, righteous to really slam out some runs. Boy does it feel rough, but when you’re done and dripping sweat onto the tile floors, you get it 😉

Sayulita gets a 0/10 for running, do not recommend trying as it is not safe, too chaotic and rough, and Lo de Marcos gets a solid 6/10- boring but very safe and doable!

Next up- an even hotter beach town five hours away in the metropolis of Maleque, in the state of Jalisco (according to them, the friendliest state in MX!)

Merry Melaque! We’re spending 7 days here, and while it took us a day or so I think we’ve got it figured out. They have a nice, if very short malecon- accessing it can be a bit tricky as they are current rebuilding it, so you basically run over grass, and then walk carefully over caged rocks serving as a sort of ‘bridge’ to get to the main malecon section. It is very beautiful, flat and safe! But…very short.

So let’s keep the malecon in Maleque as a sort of warm-up, and take to the hills! That’s right, next to the malecon is the mirador, which is a beautiful look-out. Again it can be a little tricky to find at first (go off the highway to an unmarked concrete wall. Walk up the path from there), but apparently they do host the Costa Alegre 10k there! How neat eh? It’s a bit of a grind- uphill with rocks, so you get a trail-run experience too- for about 1km. You have a choice of which lookout you want- take a lower path to the other mirador and you will be well rewarded! If you continue on straight, you can get to a large flat section. In total, it’s about 2km round-trip for the main route, a little further (500 metres) for the lower mirador.

It’s beautiful and easily the best way to check things out, and bonus it is a fun run! Nice work Melaque, you get a 7/10. Safe, reasonably accessible, not boring, people are around but it’s not a total zoo and it’s temperate and nice in the morning, while scorching during the day.

And now for something entirely different…We left the relative heat of the coast and headed inland to Comala, in Colima!

I later learned that Colima is very much considered dangerous and a real no-go zone for pretty much anyone, with corrupt policemen and cartels. We did enjoy Comala, as it is very touristy and felt quite safe. Also there’s this: Comala had a lovely and long walkway connecting the two cities! It stretches for almost 4km one way (unheard of here) and it’s safe, popular and very temperate. I ran it for fun one morning and didn’t once feel like I was going to die in the heat, lol! I did run into an expat walking his dogs (from Boston) and he lived in between Colima and Comala and really loved it.

Nice work Comala, 8/10!! Too bad about the state (all terrible, apparently and the city of Colima itself…)

But after that we were really into the wilds. I’m not going to get too far into discussing exactly the Michoacan Coast went, but suffice to say, it is NOT SAFE for running. I’m not even really talking about the desperate villagers, or the literal swarm of tourists, just more the infrastructure is absolutely not there.

The Maruata hospital on the way to the beach is literally crumbling into pieces and people are being treated in army tents in a makeshift set-up in a basketball court. It’s that bad. We stayed in Lazaro Cardenas (highly recommend AVOIDING this city. It is dangerous) and it’s…a big, dirty nasty port town.

We actually stayed at the ridiculously overpriced chain CityExpress, and it had a gym! Running for sure, right? HAHAH. Every single piece of cardio equipment was busted. They did have nice a/c and a very good set of weights, so I just did some work with dumbbells. Not too bad, but not good for running or…anything else.

Michoacan Coast, you get 0/10. AVOID. It is generally unsafe due to struggling infrastructure, gang violence and random violence.

So, on to Zihua (in the highly notorious state of Guerrero) and Ixtapa~ from the frying pan, into the fire?

Not at all! Zihua (please don’t ask me to spell it. Yikes) and Ixtapa were pure delights for running. True it is excruciatingly hot, but that forced us to get a little more creative and not so lazy, lol. I got up a few times early-ish to go explore the bike path that winds itself through the city (it is busy, lot of people commute walking on it and you have to be careful with street crossings) and immediately learned it was not early enough! I was sweating out of my finger-webs. I did have to walk a bunch, otherwise it could get dicey. I felt very safe on the bike path though, only had one interaction with a girl dog walking a bunch of dogs and I could tell straightaway there was an extremely vicious one that wanted to rip my face off. It lunged, snarling, at me but the girl wrestled it away. Not bad!

And I’ll bring Ixtapa into this too. True people call it ‘soulless’ and basically just see it as a bunch of all-inclusive hotels for spoiled tourists, but man… Ian and I really enjoyed our run there on the bike path to the jungle, it’s a sort of ‘vivero’ jungle route. It was downright lovely. Big, wide expanses…Not too many people, but more than we expected actually, and wonder of wonders there was SHADE! No shade in Zihua, at all. I felt sad that we only did the one run there. I wanted to go do some trail exploring!! Combined with the excellent beaches and super-warm water (we swam twice a day!) I wanted to stay, lol.

Zihua gets a 7/10. Nice effort but frick it is HOT.

Ixtapa gets a richly deserved 10/10. Beautiful, easy to navigate, safe (no giant holes in the sidewalk, pieces of rebar sticking up, 3ft drops) and left me wanting more. Amazing!

And after this run paradise, we ended up in Patzcuaro, which… is fine. I didn’t run there (cobbled streets, extremely busy traffic) and wow it is very chilly compared with Zihua/Ixtapa. If we were there for longer, maybe we could get into it? I was not inspired to do so though. Looked like it would be a gigantic pain in the ass.

For now, a 0/10 for Patzcuaro. Not welcoming to runners. Nothing really bad, just a place where you can’t really do it. Also they are absolutely on my shit list for getting all of our camping gear stolen, and the near-constant explosions were doing my freaking head in. I did love our hotel though, like sleeping in a cave!

Morelia and Zitacuaro – 1/10. I didn’t run in these cities as I was extremely weak and sick from altitude sickness and getting poisoned by Bonafont strawberry-flavoured sugarfree water (thanks guys, it’s an extreme laxative as it turns out…). The streets are cobbled in Morelia and lots of traffic and closed-in roads. You may be able to run, but it is difficult to get to.

Zitacuaro does have a bike lane that looks pretty fancy running through the main parts of town, linked to the highways. You have to stop for lights every block though. There isn’t much traffic in the morning, so you might be able to jaywalk, get more bang for your buck? I didn’t try it – I was too weak and sick.

Veracruz- 8/10! Good running here, an excellent malecon that stretches for many kms! Weather when we were there was temperate, chilly and cool in the morning and not too staggeringly hot. However, I was too sick to enjoy it other than for the half-marathon, unfortunately. One note of caution: The drivers are literally INSANE here and you need to be close to the malecon and use the appropriate crosswalks with real caution. They are fucking nuts, and will NOT hesitate to edge you out, cut you off or just generally try to run you down at a crosswalk if they are turning right and you are crossing. We got sworn at by a lovely cab driver who yelled, in pretty bad English ‘Fuck you’ in the Centro at like 7pm on a Monday when it’s pretty dead downtown for… crossing at an intersection. Runners beware.

Campeche- 8/10. Nice job Campeche! This is such a breath of fresh air in comparison to the psycho drivers of Veracruz. They drive carefully and with consideration. They stop at pedestrian crosswalks, not even forced to do so by red lights – imagine! There is a lovely bike and pedestrian walkway that stretches for many kms along their peaceful malecon. One downside: the malecon is so peaceful because it is blisteringly hot here. Like, dangerously hot. Run with caution due to the heat, not due to the angry drivers. I really liked Campeche and am interested in coming back! Run early in the AM or in the evening; it’s safe and beautiful.

Merida- 6/10 so far. I might rate this higher later but for now three days in, I have been enjoying running at a track a block behind the apartment we rented in no-man’s-land, near the airport. It is incredibly hot here – dripping sweat and struggling at 8 a.m. with 33 degrees and 85% humidity! It is quiet and the drivers don’t seem like they are hunting for your blood, so I am enjoying that (albeit, I run on the sand track lol). Will see how it goes…

Update: We ran the Paseo de Montejo on Sunday and really enjoyed it- all of the main city streets being closed and open only to pedestrian and bike traffic really elevates running in Merida from a paltry 6/10 to at least a 7! Nice job, Merida. You win for being my favourite Mexico spot for now…