Puerto Vallarta México by UTMB®

Let's get one thing straight from the start: Puerto Vallarta, in most people's minds, is a Mexican beach resort with all-inclusive hotels ⛱️, margaritas on the jetty, and whales poking their noses into the bay between November and March 🐳. This reputation is fully deserved and absolutely incompatible with what the Puerto Vallarta by UTMB comes to do here. Because this race does not start from the beach and run along the coast in shorts and flip-flops 🩴. It starts in the mountains, the ones of the Sierra Madre Occidental, and descends through the jungle to the ocean Pacific 🌊.

To understand the terrain, you first have to understand the geography of Jalisco state, and it’s dizzying 🙄. The course crosses the largest mountain range in Mexico 🇲🇽, the Sierra Madre Occidental, before descending into the Cuale river and winding through the jungle to Puerto Vallarta. Runners get to tread among peaks above 2,500 meters ⛰️, pine forests at altitude, agave plantations on the slopes... and more 🫨. In a single route you cross everything the Jalisco can offer in vertical 🔝. And this territory is not devoid of history. It is the cradle of the Wixárika (also known as the Huichols) a people whose presence in these mountains goes back to times well before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors 🇪🇸. The Wixárika literally mean "the people with the deep heart" in their language uto-aztec

Each event even has a name in the Wixárika language, and the meanings are worth knowing. Wixárika translates to "the person with the deep heart," reflecting how the course is designed to take participants through the Mexican heritage. Hikuri means "the wise one", Nakawé "the mother of waters", Ereno "the sea foam" and Pata Salada "salty feet", the affectionate nickname given to coastal people 😌. In terms of formats, the range is complete and well built. The "Hikuri 81K" is the crown jewel with 81 km and 3 900 m of positive elevation and 3 Running Stones for the Chamonix qualifications 🏔️. It largely follows the Wixárika road route from the town of Mascota, through the Sierra Madre, surrounding jungle, and on to the Pacific Ocean. The Nakawé 53K with 2 500 mD+ climb and ends at the jetty of Puerto Vallarta, a start and finish on the Pacific that will earn 2 Running Stones. The Haramara 37K (1 600 mD+, 2 Running Stones) is the perfect terrain introduction for those who don’t want to commit to the unknown for hours, and the Ereno 20K (1 050 mD+, 1 Running Stone) lets you run in the tropical jungle without exhausting all your reserves 🌴. And to finish, the cherry on top 🍰, the "Pata Salada 5K", is 200 mD+ for families, and people who still want a bib without wrecking their knees for the summer 🦵.

What’s really unique about the Puerto Vallarta by UTMB experience is the multiplicity of ecosystems you traverse in just a few hours. You start in a colonial village perched above 2,000 meters, San Sebastián del Oeste, and you finish in a waterfront town, with your feet (literally) in the Pacific. In between: high-altitude forests, vast fields of agave on the slopes, waterfalls in dense jungle, rivers to cross, and a tropical humidity as intense as your hair will remember 💇.

April in the Jalisco, it's the dry season coming to an end, with temperatures between 25 and 30°C on the coast, cooler at altitude, and Mexican light that makes photos look like nothing an Instagram filter can reproduce 📸. For the Huichols who run in the Sierra Madre for centuries, it's just daily life. For trail runners showing up with rain jackets and GPS watches, it's one of UTMB World Series calendar's most exotic adventures 🤩. These two truths coexist perfectly, and that’s the whole charm of this race. 🌅