  the saint silvester road race (official name in ) is a long-distance running event, the oldest and most prestigious street race in brazil. regarded as the main international event in latin american athletics, the brazilian competition is held yearly in the city of sÃ£o paulo on december 31. this day is saint silvester's day, as it is the day in which the catholic saint, who was a pope, died in the 4th century of the christian era. sÃ£o paulo's race was originally known as a "marathon", although the course of the race, whose length has varied considerably over the years, was never that of a full marathon. because of that, the organization eventually dropped the term "marathon", starting to refer to the event as a "race", "international race" or "road race". there was never an official effort on the part of the organization to address the change in the nomenclature, which causes many, including some media outlets, to continue using the term "saint silvester marathon" when referring to the event. its course is only  long, less than half the length of a marathon but the race is made more difficult by the intense heat of the brazilian summer and the geographical obstacles that have to be surmounted by the athletes. several other places like amadora, porto and volta Ã  cidade do funchal in portugal (corrida de sÃ£o silvestre rui silva e sara moreira vencem sÃ£o silvestre do porto, pÃºblico (december 28, 2008)), calderara di reno (maratona di san silvestro maratona di san silvestro) and bolzano (boclassic) in italy, and madrid in spain (san silvestre vallecana), organize yearly saint silvester road races or marathons every late december. ==history== cÃ¡sper lÃ­bero, a "media millionaire" of the early 20th century brazil, is credited with originally coming up with the idea for the race. he used it as a means of promoting his newspaper. in 1928, the year of the race's 4th edition, he founded one of the first sports newspapers of the country, the gazeta esportiva (the sportive gazette), which then became the race's official organizer and sponsor. the race would be the main advertising element of this sports new
15K_races December_events New_Year_celebrations Recurring_sporting_events_established_in_1925 Sport_in_SAPSo_Paulo_(city)