THE UNPREPARED RUNNER’S GUIDE TO THE VALENCIA MARATHON

INTRODUCTION- VALENCIA MARATHON

Marathon on the Mediterranean: If you have been following developments in the world of marathoning over the last few years then you know that Valencia, Spain, is “THE” place to go, to set your personal best, with the race attracting world-class marathoners from around the world. This race is one of the best in the world, with a beautiful flat course perfect for setting world, national, and personal records. The organization is second to none and the caliber of the running field is one of the best in the world. Last year when considering what my New Year’s resolution would be, I decided to give the Valencia Marathon a shot. I had run a few marathons in my younger days and was even a member of my university’s varsity team for 4 years. However it had been almost 30 years since the last race (Spoiler Alert: I did not set a PB but I did leave with a finish medal and an embarrassing story –  more on that later). 

Bucket List

I’ve always wanted to run a marathon somewhere along the Mediterranean and at 59 I finally decided to follow through on this bucket list idea. If you’re middle-aged and have also toyed with the idea of running a “destination” marathon then this article is for you. Sure you could sign up for a run close to home, but if you’re going to commit to this unique challenge, why not do it in style and go somewhere different, somewhere far away, and somewhere FAST.

So, after about a 25-year break since my last marathon, I decided to finally run another one. I had the idea in the back of my mind for a lot of years but just kept putting it off. Then more recently, as I slowly approached 59, I realized that I probably shouldn’t put it off any longer. I’d been jogging/running throughout this whole time, with periods of more consistent training, broken up by periods I like to call “winter”. But now with a marathon goal clearly in my sights for the fall, it was time to up my training game.

First Disclaimer

This article is not meant as a training guide and does not include a marathon training plan. The article is more about inspiring you to check an item off of your “bucket list”. For a comprehensive marathon training plan to help get you from point A to point B, there are some excellent resources online. In fact, I pulled a 6-month training plan from the internet last year in preparation for the Valencia Marathon. This post won’t train you up, but hopefully, it will inspire you to train for and complete a marathon, sort of along the school of thought “If he can do it, so can I”. 

Second Disclaimer

When I mentioned earlier about keeping up with the world of marathoning, the truth is, I had no idea what race I was signing up for. I have a holiday apartment in Spain and I was simply looking for a small or mid-sized race in the immediate area. I stumbled upon an ad online, quickly checked the race date, and immediately signed up. In retrospect, I probably should have worn my glasses for this one, since I thought I was signing up for a marathon with a field of 3000. It turned out to be a marathon with a field of 30,000. I may have missed that small detail! Of course, after I figured that out and started to read more about the race,  I slowly realized what I had signed up for. Yikes!