La Ruta del Pejerrey 21K: Dates, Tickets & Venue (Lima)

A Saturday on the Pacific edge

This race only goes one way: north. La Ruta del Pejerrey 21K takes place on Saturday, December 12, 2026, and covers the full half-marathon distance of 21km. It starts in Miraflores and finishes in La Punta, the narrow peninsula at the far end of Callao.

Lima has plenty of road races that loop back to the start. This is not one of them. You run along the city’s coastal corridor with the Pacific on one side the whole way, and you end up at a different stretch of shore from the one you left.

From the Miraflores cliffs to the tip of La Punta

Miraflores sits on top of brown cliffs, the acantilados, that drop steeply to the shore. Down at the base runs the Costa Verde, the beach road that carries traffic along Lima’s coastline. Heading north from Miraflores, the coast passes:

• San Isidro and Magdalena del Mar, where the cliffs get lower and the beaches turn to grey pebbles
• San Miguel, the last district before the coastline enters Callao
• Callao, Lima’s port city, with the cranes and ships of the harbour off to the side
• La Punta, a small peninsula reaching out into the Pacific toward San Lorenzo Island

Any course this close to the ocean is mostly flat. Since it runs point to point, the wind off the sea may help you or work against you, depending on which way it blows that day. On the Lima coast, sea breezes usually pick up later in the day.

Why the race is named after a fish

The pejerrey is a small silver fish caught off the Peruvian coast. It has been a staple in Lima’s working seafront kitchens for generations. The race name refers to a fish everyone in the city knows, and to a route that sticks close to where it’s landed and eaten.

Look for these on menus once you finish:

• Pejerrey arrebozado: fillets fried in a light batter, usually with rice, salad or yuca
• Sánguche de pejerrey: the fried fish inside a crusty roll, topped with salsa criolla (sliced red onion, lime and chilli)
• Ceviche de pejerrey: the fish cured in lime with onion, sweet potato and big kernels of Andean corn

Callao and La Punta are known for their cevicherías. Many people in Lima eat ceviche only at lunchtime, because the fish is freshest early in the day. That timing works out well after a morning race.

Race morning on the Lima seafront

Most of the city sleeps late on Saturdays, so race-day logistics are your own job. Here’s how Lima runners usually handle it:

• Kit pickup. Peruvian races hand out bibs and shirts at an entrega de kits in the days before the race. Runners bring their ID (DNI or passport) and registration confirmation.
• Getting to the start. Taxi apps work across Miraflores. Runners staying in the neighbourhood often just walk to the start.
• Paying for things. Locals pay vendors and small cafés with the mobile wallets Yape and Plin. Visitors without a Peruvian bank account carry small soles notes, because street vendors seldom take cards.
• Language. A half marathon is a medio maratón. A water station is a punto de hidratación. Spectators shout ¡vamos! and ¡fuerza!

In sit-down restaurants, people typically tip around ten percent when service isn’t already included. The organiser’s official channels carry the date, start area and registration details for this edition.

Getting home from a point-to-point finish

Finishing in La Punta means you’re on the far side of the metro area from Miraflores. Most visitors stay in Miraflores or Barranco. That’s a long ride back through Callao and San Miguel on tired legs.

Most finishers get back in one of three ways:

• A friend or family member with a car, who meets them at the finish
• A ride-hailing app. There are usually lots of finishers ordering at the same moment, so it helps to walk a few blocks away from the finish area first
• A shared taxi with other runners heading back to the same district

La Punta is only a few blocks wide. Its streets fill up fast when an event brings in a crowd, and drivers coming in have only a couple of roads to choose from.

December weather and what runners pack

December is the start of summer in Lima. The winter garúa, the grey drizzle that covers the city from about June to October, has usually cleared by then. Mornings can still start overcast, and the sun comes through later on. Once it does, the coast warms up quickly.

It almost never rains properly in Lima. Humidity off the Pacific is what you’ll notice. Runners on this coast usually bring:

• Sunscreen and a cap, even when the sky looks white, because UV is strong at this latitude
• A light layer for the start, left in the bag drop or with a friend
• Electrolytes, since humid air makes you sweat more than you’d expect

After the finish: La Punta and old Callao

Plenty of people stay a while once they’ve finished. La Punta was once a summer resort for Lima’s wealthier families. Its waterfront still has a row of old seaside houses with wooden balconies.

The Malecón Figueredo promenade runs along the peninsula’s edge. It looks out over the pebble beaches to San Lorenzo Island and the small rocky island of El Frontón. People take walks there after lunch and sit on the sea wall.

A short taxi ride back toward the port brings you to the Fortaleza del Real Felipe. It’s the large star-shaped fortress the Spanish built in the eighteenth century to guard Callao from pirates and enemy navies. Close by is Callao Monumental, a few blocks of old port buildings now covered in murals and turned into galleries. Together they make a good half-day with lunch, though most runners save their legs for the ceviche.