By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS

More than 36,000 women took to the streets in Mexico City on Sunday, March 5, to promote gender equality and female empowerment in the 19th edition of the annual Bonafont Marathon, the largest free-form race for women of its kind in the world.

The five-kilometer race, which is programmed each year to coincide with International Women’s Day on March 8, ran from Mexico City’s Ángel de Independencia through to the downtown Zócalo under the banner of the #KilómetrosQueUnien (#KilometersThatUniteUs) campaign.

For the second consecutive year, the physical race was complemented by a virtual race in which online “runners” could keep up with the in-person participants in a computerized contest.

And for each kilometer run in the physical race, the Mexican purified water company Bonafont committed to donating one peso to support projects of female entrepreneurs in Oaxaca and the State of Mexico, in alliance with UN Women.

The top three winners of the race were Brenda Rocío Martínez, Aranza Flores and Emma Islas Lazcano.