Valencia (my 10km) Marathon 2012

As you can probably tell by the title I didn't run the whole of Valencia marathon! I was very close to changing my mind and doing it anyway but thought I might end up doing more damage to my knee and not being able to run at all.

So I decided to meet my friend Ciry just after the 30km marker and run up to 40km with her. From there I could cut through the park and watch her run into the finish :-)

I arrived in Valencia on the Saturday evening and went down to the Science and Arts area which is also where the start and finish lines are. Then I went back to hotel to meet Ciry.

At 9am on the day of Valencia Marathon I went and stood downstairs of my hotel and watched the start of the marathon. I actually cried because I wanted to be running with them (I was glad later on that I wasn't as it got very hot again).

At 11am I waited at the 41k marker and saw the two marathon leaders come running by! That is something that I normally don't get to see :-) From there I walked up to 30k and waited for Ciry.

Once she arrived I jumped on the course (I had last years bib number on minus the chip so I wouldn't get sent off again) and joined her for the next 10k. A lot of the spectators that had been there on the walk up had now disappeared, probably down to the finish area. It felt really strange running in a marathon which I wasn't really running in! Ciry was doing great and only started getting tired around 37k (from what I could see anyway).

At 40k I said goodbye to her and ran down to the finish area. She came running past about 13 minutes later looking very tired but very determined :-)

Ciry finished in 4 hours, 36 minutes and 9 seconds!!!

Valencia Marathon is a No Go for Me!

After Berlin Marathon my recovery hasn't been so good! Actually it's been the worst yet after a marathon....

I knew my legs would hurt for a few days but I hadn't figured on my knees, especially my right one, still hurting on and off after 9 days :-(

I've always had knee problems after a run but since training for Valencia Marathon last year they stopped hurting and have been fine since. I can only imagine that because I was pushing my body to the limit in Berlin, and didn't slow down for the last 5k as I normally would, that my knees just couldn't take the extra pressure. Also maybe going from not running at all to running 4 marathons in 16 months might not have been so smart!

Not that I regret running Berlin for one second as, thanks to Paul, I DID finish in under 4:30!!

My plan for the next couple of months is to take it easy and learn to land on my fore or midfoot to take away  some of the jarring on my knees. I'm also going to stengthen up my quad muscles as this should help too. Right now my plans for next year include no marathons but at least two of the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series half marathons in Europe. Next year I will have the choice of Nice, Edinburgh, and Dublin and probably Lisbon. Edinburgh and Lisbon are the ones I'm thinking of doing! So next year for me is going to be no serious racing and just running for fun :-)

So basically because I'm going to be learning to land differently and I want to give my knees some time to recover I won't be running Valencia Marathon :-( I will, however, be running the 10k there if my knees are feeling better by then but I'll just be using it as a 'fun run'. I'll also have to jump on the marathon course in a couple of places to run with my good friend Ciry and help her beat the 4:30 time as I did in Berlin :-)

I last saw Ciry in Madrid in April and can't wait to see her again in Valencia!! See you real soon Ciry!

Valencia - To Be or Not To Be??

As I seem to be visiting Spain so much I want to take some Spanish lessons in a school somewhere there.

First I was thinking of just visiting Madrid again in July but then I come up with the idea of taking them in Valencia and running the Valencia Marathon again while I'm there :-)

Maybe I could go to both places?

I have Berlin marathon on 30th September and as Valencia Marathon isn't until 18th November I have time to recover in between. But then again if I can run another marathon after Valencia would that then make me a member of the 'Marathon Maniacs' club?

BRONZE LEVEL 
1. 2 Marathons within a 16 day time frame.

2. 3 Marathons within a 90 day time frame.

Decisions! Decisions!

31st Edition of Valencia Marathon 2011!!

My official Valencia Marathon time is 4 hours, 31 minutes and 55 seconds! (I had run 44k)

My official Copenhagen Marathon time was 4 hours, 43 minutes and 33 seconds

I stopped my watch after marathon distance (I was only at the 40k marker when my watch said 42.2k) and it said 4 hours, 21 minutes and 13 seconds.

It's the 'official' time that counts though.

MY VALENCIA MARATHON FINISHING VIDEO (around 1 minute in) I look finished quite literally!!

http://www.rtvv.es/va/maratovalencia/Arribada-Marato-Valencia_3_598770171.html

 Setting up before the marathon

 Setting up the finish before the marathon

On marathon morning I woke up, had some breakfast and an espresso. Then I put on my usual Running Copenhagen orange t-shirt, black shorts and pink trainers. At 8.30am I made my way to the start line 10 minutes away. The weather was around 12 degrees with some light cloud. I didn't like the look of it as I could see that the sun would be out later!

Once at the start line I queued for the toilets and took in the atmosphere. It was fantastic, even better that Copenhagen Marathon. There was a 10k race starting at the same time as the marathon. The marathon runners were starting on one side of the bridge and the 10k runners were on the other side. We would run around the first 4k together but on different sides of the road. 

I started almost at the back and then heard the fireworks which meant the marathon had started. It was much quicker to get over the start line and only took 4 minutes.

The photo below shows how great the start was:-

 Valencia Marathon Start

 Just before 3k a really cool Spanish guy started talking to me. It was his first marathon. He was running with a video camera on his head and wanted to interview 42 different runners about a dream they have for the future. I thought this was a fantastic idea :-)

In my interview at the 3k point I told him that I wanted to run a marathon in every city in Europe before the age of 50!

While he was doing his interviews at every kilometre mark I ran with his sister. It was also her first marathon. More and more of the people that had given interviews to her brother started running with us. There was a really cool family of 5 that were having the best of times :-)

I really enjoyed running with all these people but started dropping back from them at 19k. This was when the weather started getting a lot hotter!!

I did the same as I did during Copenhagen Marathon which was to walk through all the water stops. Valencia had better stops in some ways and worse in others. The water was in a bottle so you could run with it and take sips all the way until the next stop but there was only water there. No oranges! No bananas! No energy drinks! From 20k onwards I started taking 2 bottles, 1 to throw all over me and 1 to drink. I was very glad that I had 9 energy gels with me this time instead of just 6.

From 7.5k and then every 5k (12.5, 17.5, etc) there were 'firemen?' hosing the runners down with water if they wanted it. I ran through everyone of these and enjoyed being cooled down, if only for a little while.

I started really beginning to struggle with the heat from 28k onwards. By then the temperature was around 20 degrees. It was around 22 degrees when I hit the 38k marker. I just looked at the green marathon line on the floor, listened to some Justin Timberlake and kept on running!
I had planned to only walk at the drinking stations but at 38k I walked for a minute and just took my extra energy gel that was for emergencys!

At 41k I began to speed up as I knew I was nearly there :-)

Just before I started to run on the platform on the water I got the crowds on either side to cheer really loud for me :-) That was a great moment! It was like I was in front of everyone and was about to get my gold medal!!

Once I crossed the line I was so happy! It was a harder run than Copenhagen had been simply because of the sunshine. I always knew if the sun came out I might be in trouble. I hadn't expected the weather to be quite so hot as everything I had read said it would be between 12 and 17 degrees.

 Me and my Medal

 The finish line

 With all my Valencia Marathon gear

My Official Time

To sum it all up I would say that this is a fantastic marathon, very well organised and certainly worth running! The Spanish crowds are great and really get behind you. Their cheers really helped me along and gave me such a boost each time :-) This is a marathon that I would run again :-)

http://www.rtvv.es/va/maratovalencia/Arribada-Marato-Valencia_3_598770171.html