Never before had so many runners participated in the Clásica San Silvestre de Costa Rica. What was a race of hundreds just a few years ago is now a race of thousands. "But who in their right mind would run on December 31st instead of being at the beach, partying or simply resting?!" That's what people used to say, but nowadays the question is: who would miss the last race of the year?
Five thousand people registered to run the last race of 2015, a new record. Of all of them, though, only 3,500 crossed the finish line, according to official results. The rest may not have arrived (did the temptation to go to the beach win out?), didn't finish, ran without a chip, or were disqualified. The traditional distance of 10.4 kilometers remains by far the favorite: 2,988 athletes versus 512 who ran 5 kilometers.
Women are the ones who take the most advantage of the 5k distance, as 62% of the 512 finishers were women. The opposite happens at the 10.4 kilometer distance, where 62% of finishers were men and only 38% were women.
And who runs faster? Not that it matters, of course—not everyone runs to the death to achieve their best time—but it's interesting to know some numbers. The average pace of all 2,988 finishers of the 10.4 kilometers was 5:39 minutes per kilometer (1:02:46 was the average final time). Men finished the race, on average, 10 minutes faster than women (0:58:48 versus 1:09:12). These figures are based on the time recorded by the chip, not the official time (according to IAAF rules, official time is measured from the starting gun, but in this case it's more accurate to calculate averages based on chip time, which was the actual time each person took to cover the 10.4 kilometers). In fact, on average runners took four minutes just to reach the starting mat, as the average official final time was 1:06:45 and the chip time was 1:02:46.
The time that splits the pack exactly in half is 1:02:09—that is, if you finished faster than that time you're in the faster half of participants; if you finished in a longer time you're in the slower half. Salvador Araica and Mercedes Callaci were right in the middle, as both finished in 1:02:09. Among men, the time that divides them in half is 0:57:57 (Josué Calvo achieved that time), and among women 1:08:31 (Annia Zúñiga and Marianella Ruiz finished in that time).
You can see the complete results from San Silvestre 2015 and rate the race HERE.
Other data:
Average time for 5k finishers: 35:32 (chip)
Average time men 5k: 32:21 (chip)
Average time women 5k: 37:27 (chip)
Best time men 10.4 km: 31:55 (César Lizano)
Best time women 10.4 km: 39:34 (Gabriela Traña)
Slowest time 10.4 km: 1:47:19.
