San Silvestre Ciudad de Arrecife

Event information

About the event

The San Silvestre Ciudad de Arrecife is the capital’s end-of-year race and, by turnout, one of the biggest mass-participation events on Lanzarote: more than 1,300 people ran the last edition, according to La Voz de Lanzarote.

It is put on by Arrecife town council through its sports department, the Concejalía de Deportes, with Tripasión and Lumar Canarias on the logistics. It is not a race for times. It goes out on the morning of 31 December through central Arrecife, and a good part of the field is in fancy dress. This is where the island’s racing year ends, and where the people who compete all year mix with the people who run once.

What exists for 2026, and what does not

As of 14 October 2026 the 2026 call has still not been published: no date, no rules, no entries, no poster. That day we looked in four places belonging to the organiser and its circle. On the search page of the council’s own website, arrecife.es, the most recent item about this race is the presentation of the 2025 edition, dated 21 December 2025. On the public notice board of its electronic register, which that same day was posting notices dated 13 and 14 October, a search for «silvestre» returns an empty table. On the public calendar of Tripasión Eventos, the platform behind the last edition, December 2026 holds only two races, on the 12th and the 19th, and the 31st reads «diciembre 31, 0 eventos», 31 December, 0 events. And on the Deportes Arrecife Facebook page, the posts visible without an account are from 27 September, none of them about this race.

We give 31 December because that is what tradition dictates, and because the municipal by-law describes the race as «la carrera popular San Silvestre Ciudad de Arrecife que cada 31 de diciembre organiza la Concejalía de Deportes», the popular race the sports department puts on every 31 December, not because the council has announced anything.

And one link is misleading. The address listed as the official website, sansilvestrearrecife.es, is not a website: it is two lines of code that take you to the entry form for the 2025 edition. The server dates that file to 10 December 2025 —Last-Modified: Wed, 10 Dec 2025 12:23:42 GMT, read on 14 October 2026— so nobody has touched it since last year’s campaign. Click it looking for the 2026 edition and you land on the previous one.

When it has gone out in other years. The council published the opening of entries on its website on 13 December 2021, on 4 December 2023 and on 11 December 2024, and presented the 2025 edition on 21 December 2025 with entries already open. In other words: December, and sometimes with the race ten days away. It will go out where it always does: the Deportes Arrecife Facebook page, the address deportes@arrecife.es and the council switchboard, 928 81 27 50. The rules themselves point there even for bib numbers, announced «en nuestras redes sociales y vía email a cada participante», on the organiser’s social channels and by email to each entrant.

Route and distances

The main race is 5 km through the city’s central streets, starting and finishing at the Parque Islas Canarias in 2025. It is run from the age of 12, not 14: the rules ask entrants to «contar con 12 años el día de la prueba con autorización madre/padre/tutor», to be 12 on race day with a parent’s or guardian’s consent, and the 2025 programme repeats it when announcing the main start, «Mayores De 12 Años Inclusive», ages 12 and up.

The start time changes depending on which document you read, and they all come from the organiser. The 2025 rules say 11:00: «La prueba se celebrará el día 31 de Diciembre del 2025 en el horario estipulado, Carrera Infantil a las 9:30 horas y seguidamente a las 11:00 horas comenzará la Carrera de Adultos». The official programme for that same edition, posted on the entry platform, says 12:00: «12:00 horas, Salida Absoluta 5 Km». And the council, presenting that edition on 21 December 2025, also gave 12:00: «La prueba arrancará a las 10:00 horas con la carrera infantil para, posteriormente, a las 12:00 horas, dar la salida a los adultos, con salida y meta en el Parque Islas Canarias», the children’s race at 10:00 and the adults away at 12:00, starting and finishing at the Parque Islas Canarias. It had written the same when opening the 2024 edition: «La carrera de adultos, la 5K, a partir de los 12 años, tiene la salida prevista a las 12:00 horas». Both council notes read on 14 October 2026.

So 12:00 comes from three documents and 11:00 only from the rules, which also trip over themselves: their table of children’s distances puts the last of those races, for ages 10 to 13, at 11:15, fifteen minutes after the time that same document gives for the main start. We give both and say which one is better supported; the real one will come with the call.

The children’s categories run first, each with its own distance. In 2025 that meant 50 metres at 10:00 for ages 2 to 4, who could be accompanied by an adult; 200 metres at 10:20 for ages 5 to 7; 400 metres at 10:45 for ages 8 to 9; and 800 metres at 11:15 for ages 10 to 13. The rules themselves warn that «los horarios son orientativos», the times are only a guide. That is why this is a race for whole families and not only for runners.

The most concrete thing published about the course is how the council described the 2025 route when presenting it: «arrancará en el Parque Islas Canarias, llegando hasta la zona de la Punta del Camello y pasará por toda la capital, incluyendo el entorno del charco de San Ginés», out from the Parque Islas Canarias as far as the Punta del Camello and through the whole city, including the Charco de San Ginés, with the seafront promenade by El Reducto beach on one of its stretches. The exact route is published with the rules and can change from year to year depending on the municipal arrangements, so we do not fix it here.

Entry and prices

The 12 euros for adults and 5 for children are not set by the race rules: they are set by a tax by-law. The rules only say the fee «debe hacerse en la RED TRIBUTARIA DE LANZAROTE», that it is paid through the Lanzarote tax office, and point to the municipal by-law. That by-law is the Ordenanza fiscal reguladora de la tasa por la participación en la carrera popular San Silvestre Ciudad de Arrecife, and the text in force is the one published in the Boletín Oficial de la Provincia de Las Palmas number 19 of Monday 13 February 2023, when the decision the council plenary had taken on 28 October 2022 became final. Its article 4 sets the general rate at 12 euros for the 5 km race and 5 euros for children up to 12. Read on 14 October 2026 on the council’s tax by-laws page, which lists it with no later amendment.

The same by-law carries reduced rates almost nobody looks at: in section B.1, 8.40 and 3.50 euros with a large-family card or a disability of 33 % or more; in B.3, 9.60 and 4 euros for registered jobseekers and their children. For a high degree of disability two sections overlap: B.2 puts 6 and 2.50 euros on entrants «con un grado de discapacidad superior al 65 por ciento», above 65 %, while B.4 states that «en caso de participantes con un grado de discapacidad igual o superior al 65 por ciento, se establece cuota cero tanto para la persona como para su acompañante», at 65 % or above there is no fee for the entrant or for one companion. Certificates are shown when the bib is collected.

And the by-law’s rate is not what was charged in the last call that published a price. Opening the 2024 edition on 11 December 2024, the council announced «una cuota de 8 € para los adultos y 5 € para los niños», 8 euros for adults and 5 for children, and that year’s takings went to the Asociación Pequeño Valiente. For 2026 no fee has been announced, checked on 14 October 2026: what you will actually pay comes with the call, and until then the figure in force is the by-law’s 12 and 5 euros.

How you pay is article 6’s business: the fee «se realizará a través del régimen de autoliquidación y se realizará en la Red Tributaria Lanzarote a través de su página web o personándose en sus respectivas sedes», self-assessed and paid at the Lanzarote tax office online or in person, while entry «se realizará en la plataforma que se indique en su debido momento», on whichever platform is named in due course. So the by-law ties the race to no platform; in the last edition the form was Tripasión Eventos’. One refund is foreseen, in article 7: «cuando por causas no imputables al usuario no se preste el servicio, procederá la devolución del importe que corresponda, previa solicitud, por escrito, a la Red Tributaria Lanzarote», if the service is not provided for reasons outside the entrant’s control, on written request to the Lanzarote tax office. And the 2025 rules warned that «no se permitirán inscripciones el día de la prueba», no entries on race day, so they are worth reading as soon as they appear.

What the fee covers is listed in article 2: putting on the race, public liability and accident insurance, the «servicio básico de avituallamiento al corredor (agua, zumos, frutas…)», basic aid stations with water, juice and fruit, and a runner’s bag that, «dependiendo de cada edición», depending on the edition, may hold a technical shirt, a cloth backpack, a visor, a tubular scarf and a reflective wristband.

Planning notes

This race is shaped by the day it falls on. On 31 December central Arrecife has last-minute shopping traffic and road closures, so arrive early and do not rely on the car: parking near the start is not going to happen.

In the last edition the bib could not be collected on race day. The 2025 programme handed bibs out on Tuesday 30 December 2025 at the Parque Islas Canarias, from 10:00 to 14:00 and 17:00 to 21:00, and put it in writing: «solo se reparte este día, el día de la carrera NO SE RETIRÁ ningún dorsal por ningún motivo», that day only, and on race day no bib is released for any reason. If the 2026 edition repeats the format, that is the detail that leaves people out.

And expect no afternoon. In 2025 the trophies went out at 12:30, half an hour after the main start, and everyone has dinner that night, so whatever comes after tends to be short.