--- title: "Clásica Sol y Arena 2025; information and tips" published: 2025-03-07 updated: 2026-09-05 source: "https://abuenpaso.massivoai.com/en/articles/clasica-sol-y-arena-2025-informacion-y-consejos" --- # Clásica Sol y Arena 2025; information and tips **La Clásica Sol y Arena Beach Run 2025 runs tomorrow, once again to a sold-out crowd: registrations are completely exhausted and about 2,500 runners will brave the hot sands and intense heat of Puntarenas. We're sharing some important event details with you:** **Start times**: The 3k race will start at 4:00 p.m. in the beach sector in front of the Puerto Azul hotel. The 9k race will start at 4:30 p.m. from Calle La China, about 800m east of Monseñor Sanabria hospital. **Kit pickup**: The last opportunity to pick up your kit is tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Puerto Azul Hotel. You must bring the email with your race number; if you haven't received it, you can get it [**HERE**](https://admin.chronotrack.com/user/account/confirm-reg?la=6c04e5941c16a4021750c5936d0381a0fca54e7e). **Buses**: There will be free buses from Paseo de los Turistas to the 3k and 9k start lines, running continuously from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ATTENTION! Don't get complacent! The last bus will leave at exactly 3:00 p.m. with whatever capacity the bus has; if everyone tries to catch this 3 o'clock bus, there won't be room. Better to arrive early to secure a spot. The service is free for registered runners and you must have your race number to board. **Hydration**: There will be three hydration stations on the course, with more than 30,000 water pouches that, doing the math, would be more than 10 pouches per runner. Also, of course, there will be hydration at the finish with an Electrolit bottle for each participant, as well as fruit, energy bars, and more water. ATTENTION here on the environmental issue: It's not the plastic, it's you! That's the campaign the organization is launching, and the message is simple: plastic bags don't throw themselves on the beach—you throw them! Be aware of this and take responsibility for your pouches; you can keep them in your shorts or dispose of them in the bins after each hydration station. There's no excuse for throwing pouches on the beach! We're also sharing some race tips with you: 1. **Avoid loose sand**. If you run on loose sand you'll burn much more energy, go much slower, your shoes will fill with sand, and on top of everything you'll run more distance because, imagine the beach as a giant running track, you'd be running in the outside lane of the track—meaning you'll run more. Look for compact sand closer to the sea, but be careful you don't get your feet wet… 2. **Don't even think about watching the pier**. It's an optical illusion that science still hasn't figured out, but the pier looks super close when you're 10 kilometers away from it, and then, like magic, it refuses to get closer as you run and run toward it. The fact that the pier resists getting closer is a lethal blow to your psyche, a blow your body won't be able to recover from. 3. **Arrive early**. There are about 2,200 registered athletes plus an unknown number of unregistered athletes that could be very similar to the number of registered athletes. In summary, there will be maybe about 4,000 athletes. If your goal is to be at the front of the pack, you need to arrive early. If your goal isn't to be at the front of the pack, you should still arrive early considering that the 4,000 athletes come in cars, vans, and buses, and naturally some traffic jams happen getting into Puerto, and we never have parking when we need the blessed parking, and it's normal for us to forget water, or our shoes, or the car keys don't show up, or… Arrive early, everything is more enjoyable, you save yourself a lot of rushing around and unnecessary stress. 4. **Don't roast yourself in the hours before**: For races like Sol y Arena it's vital to arrive as fresh as possible at the start. Try to stay in the shade, sit down for a while if the wait is long, keep yourself very well hydrated with cold water or a sports drink. 5. **Enjoy**. It might seem strange that one of the tips is "enjoy." And what good does that do me? Well, Sol y Arena is many things, depending on how you look at it. You can say "ugh, what a crowd" or rather "how cool that it's so packed." You can say "this horrible heat is unbearable" or "this little bit of heat is just right for running"; "Ugh the sand is full of holes and sticky" or "how nice this compact sand is"; "what a bunch of people in the way" or "how awesome all these people cheering us on." Do you get what I'm saying? Go in with a positive attitude, it's a race to enjoy, to experience, to watch the sunset while you run. In the end that's what makes the difference between a good and a bad experience. 6. **Bring water**. If you're one of the fast runners and you're in the front half of the pack, then carrying a water bottle on your belt might affect your time and besides you don't need it because you'll find water at the hydration stations. If you're one of those who finish in the back half, carrying a little water bottle won't bother you much and could be a lifesaver. Good hydration in hot races like SyA is vital, and those running slower don't always find water at the hydration stations. There are a lot of people who grab water by the handful and aren't even registered; the hydration stations aren't infinite… 7. **Arrive well-fed** but not too full. The race is at 4:30 p.m., so you need to have lunch, but not a lot. Avoid fats and proteins—the former because they can cause problems while running, the latter because they digest slower and your body needs more water to digest them. A light lunch is ideal; save the fried pork, seafood, and the same heavy meal for after the race. The last tip, which isn't so much a tip as a request, is please **don't throw water pouches on the beach**. Of course there will be organization staff picking them up as much as possible, but what's possible in this case isn't enough and the sea swallows hundreds of plastic pouches that never come back out and cause the death of animals and pollution in our oceans. It costs nothing to keep the pouch! Are you going to tell me you'll lose a few seconds because of that? It costs nothing to put them in your shorts, in your visor, or carry them in your hand. A Buen Paso uses [Massivo](https://massivoai.com), the event-registration platform that powers this article.