This is another marathon blog penned by Geoffrey. Please contact me if you are interested in knowing more about anything related to this Marathon event.
Valencia had been on my bucket list of marathons for a few years. It is known for its consistent weather and is favoured amongst the faster runners. 36,000 entered the 2024 event but in the end, only 28,000 turned up due to the consequences of the devastating floods which affected the region a few weeks prior.
We’d flown in from Zurich on the Thursday so I had a few days to familiarise myself with the logistics for the marathon on Sunday. The registration and Expo were a few kms out of the old city where we stayed and getting there proved a bit of a challenge as pubic transport was patchy (as a consequence of the floods) and this had a knock-on effect with catching taxis / Ubers. The expo was well organised and not too crowded and we spent a couple of hours looking at the exhibits without buying much.
Running is big in Valencia and the event creates an incredible vibe for the city. On Friday I went for a jog and ran into the Ethiopian elites including Kenenisa Berkele which was pretty cool. On Saturday I ran the 5km Bimbo Valencia Breakfast Run but this was a somewhat disappointing event and it wasn’t well supported and not that terribly well organised. It is nicely informal though and I made a couple of friends whom I hope to meet up again in the future.
Marathon Day
Valencia turned on a perfect day for the run. Like all big city marathons, there are staggered starts and based on my projected finish time I was in wave 10 of 11starting at 9:25am (the 1st wave started at 8:15am). There was a tribute to the victims of the floods before the start of each wave. As the wave start times were well spaced apart the course was not congested and resulted in the run being more enjoyable. The course is flat and fast with the start, finish and the old city centre being the undoubted highlights. I somewhat overestimated my fitness and ended up with a disappointing 8 minute positive split – but overall – I was still happy with my 4:09 finishing time. My time placed me around. 21,000 out of 28,000 finishers – but interestingly, there were only around 200 total finishers who were older than me! Valencia is popular with the faster runners and the results bear this out – the winner’s time was 2:02 and there were over 5,000 runners behind him who finished sub 3hours. The average time was 3:35 which probably makes Valencia the fastest big marathon on the planet.
Summary
Valencia is a long way to travel (especially from New Zealand) just to run a marathon but Valencia is a stunning city and well worth visiting. We incorporated the event with a 3 week itinerary including other regions of Spain. It was a great trip to experience the Spanish food and culture and to learn more about the rich history of the region.
