1st December 2024

After declaring back in 2022 that I would never attempt another marathon again, here we were in 2024 tackling another one, but this time in the beautiful coastal city of Valencia in the middle of the Spanish winter. 

I’d heard all about this course, flat, fast and very popular with some of those global elite marathoners who see this as an opportunity to break their own and even the world record.

Indeed, this was the scene of a recent jaw dropping performance from the newly crowned half world record breaker Yomif Kejelcha with a time of 57:30. 

What was more attractive to me was the excuse to enjoy some tapas in the winter sun, a respite from the harsh conditions of Blighty and in particular Sheffield. 

We had several other motivations for this race, my two younger brothers had missions of their own, The Wu (William) was seeking redemption for his sub 3 attempt, and Stephen had been nursing a long term injury to his foot, and therefore hadn’t trained as well as he’d have liked all year. 

Regardless, this was going to be a very special trip for the 3 brothers to enjoy a different kind of “holiday” together. Some wouldn’t consider this a holiday at all. More like unnecessary suffering and hard work. But hey, this is what “runners” do, in the name of fun. 

We all know what had happened in the Community of Valencia at the end of October, we continue to wish the people well in their recovery. When the organisers confirmed the race was going ahead, I was surprised, I had mixed feelings, but excitement soon kicked in. The organisers had said this event was a way to show solidarity and to now support the city and local people more than ever. It would be an event of high emotional significance. Thanks  to the community of Valencia they’ve managed to pull this event together in just 1 month since the devastating floods. 

“No hay meta mas grande que estar unidos!”

Onto the weekend. I realised i was one of the few who blindly ticked all the boxes during sign up a year ago, when 2 days before the event I received an email telling me to get down to the “Bimbo” Breakfast run. Some eyebrows raised but I discretely let everyone know the English equivalent would in fact be the “Hovis” or “Warburtons” run. 

Saturday Shakeout Bimbo Run

Saturday 8am then, I took a little jog to the start area to check out this so called official shakeout run. What I found was a buzzing almost festival like atmosphere, similar to a big milestone parkrun, maybe 2000 people, all smiling and excited, stuffing themselves with the plethora of free pastries and snacks that were laid out on tables. 

It was already getting warm by this point, about 18C and the watch was reading 9am. I was already breaking out into quite a sweat and it suddenly dawned on me that keeping hydrated in these conditions was going to be a real challenge for all 42km. 

A nice little jog through the park amongst masses of other runners doing their shakeout runs albeit in all different directions. A hive of busy bees. Very pleasant park, full of palm trees, manicured lawns, paths, statues and set amongst the not too shabby backdrop of the famous City of Arts and Sciences. 

The run concluded after almost 6km (not 5 as advertised), and a goodie bag was handed out at the end, filled with some treats, like “Cola Cao” hot chocolate, a sandwich and some protein bars. 

Not bad, and all in a nice big “bag for life” type shopping bag emblazoned with “Bimbo” that I’ll try and use back home. 

After all that, the sun came out, the temperature read 21C and it was still only 11am. A sign of what was to come. 

From here, I took various modes of transport (tram and bus) to go to the Expo in order to get my bib and probably more goodies, and see what was being exhibited. 

The Expo

After quite a long time queuing to get in (about 1.5 hrs) I can safely say to everyone, never try to go to an expo on a Saturday and especially during lunchtime, an absolute pain and not a very good use of time at all. Lesson learned – go on a Friday or very early morning before opening on the Saturday. 

My brothers Stephen and William, clearly more experienced Expo stalwarts, opted to go very early and thus were able to get the job done and be back for some tourist activities in the afternoon. 

The main displays in the Expo were the New Balance stand showcasing their latest products, namely the new 1080 Fresh Foam shoes, a name I find amusing, almost appetising even. 

Adidas also featured heavily, mainly the new Adizero Pro Zero 4 super shoes, with members of the public testing them out on treadmills. 

Not that much else, some live talks with Spanish elites, lots of stalls selling running gear and the usual sideshow of sponsors promoting random products like EV cars. 

Sunday And The Big Day

A good nights sleep, an oat laden breakfast at 7am, preparations up to this point were as perfect as you can get. Even my Garmin was telling me I’d slept very well – less excuses not to get this race done. 

The Wu left our apartment earlier, since he was targeting a sub 3 hour time, his start time was a good hour before ours and he wanted to also meet a few other YouTubers and do what they do. He seemed quietly confident. 

Myself and Stephen left at 8, we strolled down to the holding area for our group (11 of 11). From the signs, it became obvious that we were being sent to the “back of the class”.

Our holding box for Group 11 didn’t have any toilets either, I’ll spare you the details but we had to use the already very busy toilets dedicated for Group 10. 

9.20am and a shunt to the actual start line and a bit more waiting. We listened to a rather emotional speech, the countdown followed and off we went, 9:35 on the nose. 

We started from the famous Arts and Sciences building from the elevated bridge and we could see the beautiful blue carpeted finishing straight, I was thinking (hoping) we might get to see that by early afternoon, if the sweeper car doesn’t catch us first (a 5 hour 30 minute cut off). This was a real concern as my only previous marathon attempt was in fact 5:30 in Madrid. So all I had to do to get a PB was to keep the sweeper at bay. 

I don’t remember a lot of the scenery we passed as I had to focus on breathing (forgot my asthma inhaler) and dealing with the heat but some highlights:

• the Mestalla stadium, home of Valencia football club, a place that probably Gary Neville would rather forget 
• The bull ring (plaza de toros)
• Big wide boulevards, open straight roads stretching for miles 
• Beautiful train stations and official government buildings (little bit different to the Moorfoot)
• a couple of people shouting out “Go Sheffield” – this is why I love wearing the Striders racing top on away days 🙂

Water stations were quite regular, every 5km I think, gels were also handed out, and even some fruit at one point. 

The first 21k ran like clockwork, thanks to my brother Stephen who helped with the pacing. We were on for a 4:30 at this point. However about 25k in I could feel the ankles and hamstrings starting to bite. Some twinges of cramp were knocking on the door too. Our plan was to not make this worse and therefore stick firmly to the plan of maintaining heart rate and longevity given the warm conditions. I backed off when needed and also kept to the fueling strategy every 20 mins, keeping hydrated with water and electrolytes. 

Despite this, pace slowed noticeably, and after 30k some short walks were needed to keep the cramps at bay, and to cool down the ankles, which felt like they were on fire.

Temperatures were reaching 22C and shade provided respite only when running around tall buildings. However, Valencia has huge open straights with no cloud or building cover, this really made things difficult. Thankfully there wasn’t a single hill anywhere on the course. A mere 70m elevation for the entire course. About a third of a Striders Monday night at Heeley. 

The last 5k was a real war, a battle of body and mind as any marathoner will tell you. Absolute nightmare with pain, sweat, cramps and the feeling of utter exhaustion. I’d been through this before but each race is different with so many variables. What helped though were the crowds, the latter part of the course goes through the central part of the city, people were gathered in force, the support giving us a boost round each corner. I appreciated the shouts of “Vamos” more than ever. 

Stuttering my way to the final kilometre pretty much describes it. The feeling of emptiness and wanting to surrender. The unrelenting heat. The shoes feeling like concrete blocks. Nausea. Calling of nature. It was all happening, at the same time. 

Every 100m was now signposted, the crowds getting bigger and louder. I could see the end, the blue, the carpet, the famous finishing straight. The music grew louder, the crowds too. 

This was it, we were not giving up now, cramp or whatever. We picked up the pace, the fastest split of the whole race, our entire bodies on fire.  

We hit the blue, the first and only downhill section of the entire course, but what a treat, absolutely wonderful feeling it was. Adrenaline surging, we dioubled down the pace, sprint finish, giving everything we had. With nothing left, we crossed the line, myself almost hyperventilating. Cramp took over, a collapse on the sidelines. People rushed to help, many thanks to the fantastic support from the medics and volunteers. 

The reward for this punishment was a nice solid (gold looking) medal, some fruits and isotonic drinks. Vía a quick refuel at KFC, we made the arduous walk back to our apartment. 

Getting a taxi was nigh on impossible. 

A fantastic race, a lovely course and an even better city to visit. Highly recommended. 

The race was won by Sebastian Sawe of Kenya (2:02:05) and Megertu Alemu of Ethiopia (2:16:49). 

I was the only Strider, finishing in 4:51:07. Chuffed with that as it meant I was 39 minutes faster than the sweeper :-))

Gracias por todo, Valencia!

Striders result