Porto Alegre Leads Brazil Marathon Rankings, ChronoMAX Study Shows

A study by the timing company ChronoMAX examined nearly 12 million results from 9,803 road races across Brazil between January 2023 and December 2025. Using median finishing times to represent each city’s typical performance, the analysis identified Porto Alegre (RS) as the fastest Brazilian city in the marathon distance (42 km) for both men and women.

Porto Alegre’s median male time was 3 h 49 min 50 s, ahead of Rio de Janeiro (3 h 54 min 36 s) and Florianópolis (3 h 56 min 47 s). For women, the city recorded 4 h 19 min 07 s, beating Florianópolis (4 h 21 min 34 s) and São Paulo (4 h 22 min 34 s). The study attributes the city’s strong results to a robust local running culture, a well‑established race calendar, active training groups, cooler climate and low‑altitude courses. The findings also highlight the broader strength of Brazil’s southern region in marathon running.