Valencia Marathon

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  • This is the Spanish Met Office forecast for the next seven days: http://www.aemet.es/es/eltiempo/prediccion/municipios/valencia-id46250#detallada

    Dean, I guess different things work for different people. I do like to keep a bit of intensity in the taper, especially if it’s on the training plan. Just the way I am.

    Didn’t know you could get Hot Cross Buns this time of year. I like to eat oat flakes for breakfast but not warmed up and mixed into porridge. They are my breakfast staple along with a grapefruit all year round. I’ll add in a chopped banana from Thursday onwards.

    I think you can can get a bus from Madrid airport directly to Atocha station, where the Valencia train leaves from. I’m also taking the train from Madrid to Valencia but on Saturday am.
  • I am starting to panic. I am still full of cold. It's the first proper cold I have had since 2015, when I left teaching (I taught primary PE for five years and I was constantly sick from those germy kids). I'm supposed to be flying on Friday and my head is full of snot, I have a headache and I feel like crap. I've only left my house once since Sunday, to buy soup and ibuprofen.
    I don't know whether to press on in the hope that the worst is over by Sunday, or to withdraw.

  • Sorry to read that Cal. Is it just in the head or on the chest too? A lot of runners use that as a rule of thumb to decide whether to run or not, in the head ok, on the chest don’t run. However, that’s just runner’s lore and it might be worth going to the doctors even though you might not get the answer you want to hear. Anyway, really hope you begin to feel better soon and can run on Sunday.
  • Dean NDean N ✭✭✭
    Cal - so sorry to hear your news , you don’t sound well , i wouldn’t withdraw until the last minute , if you don’t feel up to flying on Friday your decision is made , however you may perk up fly out and be a lot better by Sunday maybe not at your best but we’ll enough to finish . I will keep my fingers crossed for you .

    LT -Thanks for the Spanish met office link , it looks like the forecast is improving in our favour ,  yes I am getting the train from Madrid airport to Atocha , it looks quite straight forward.
    Yeah it’s a bit strange but all the super markets seem to sell hot cross buns 12 month of the year ! 
    I will Start loading up tomorrow, bag all packed ready for an early flight Friday morn

  • I woke up in the middle of the night feeling (still) awful and have decided to withdraw. It's the best decision for me. A massive pain in the arse due to flights and hotel (and before you ask, having to haul my sick arse out of bed for a crack of dawn flight tomorrow is not appealing either, as is being sick in a foreign country away from my home comforts) but it's the right decision. I have already been battling achilles issues, a sore hip and a sore shin, so a cold on top of that is just the final straw.
    Have fun and good luck everyone. Maybe next year.
  • Dean NDean N ✭✭✭
    Cal - your obviously not well so you’ve made the best decision as you only know how poorly you feel .

    I know the feeling I once pulled out of London on the day with a similar virus and also had to pull out of Barcelona with a stress fracture a few days before the event , there are pleanty of marathons , you have the miles in the legs so you can keep training and find one in the new year to do and as you say Valancia will still be there next year .
    Get well soon ! 




  • GipfelGipfel ✭✭✭
    Cal, really sorry to hear that. Can understand in particular that an early flight today wouldn't have been appealing when you were still feeling rubbish today. At least you have the Chester PB under your belt - and there is always next year.. . Hope you feel better soon in any case. 

    Had a smooth flight over this morning and quite a relaxed day today - expo wasn't too busy at all when we went at about 5pm (nice buzz and atmosphere, but no queues). I really like the T shirt (vest for me). Noticed the race numbers don't have names printed on them this year - there's a big blank space where they were before, and I'm tempted to write mine on, just because the support round the course was so excellent last year and there were so many people shouting your name, which was surprisingly massively encouraging! 

    It was around 18 degrees in the afternoon, which was great for sitting outside in the sun carb loading with a huge tortilla sandwich! Very happy to be here. 

    Hope everyone else has had a good journey, or does so tomorrow. 
  • Yes very smooth journey (as smooth as it can be with a 20 month old!)

    One quick question... my bag didn’t contain a wristband. Is this a problem (I’m not worried about the pasta party/discounts etc, but will I need it to get anywhere (like start pens!) on Race Day?
  • BB - the final instructions say that you need the wristband to get in the starting pen and collect your medal afterwards. Maybe a good idea to go back to expo tomorrow?

    Cal, sorry to read that. Get well soon.
  • Think I will, just to be safe. Thanks. 

    Also, I assume you can drop any bag off and I wasn’t also missing a transparent bag like you often get a ‘big’ marathons?
  • Dean NDean N ✭✭✭
    Hi All , 
    Arrived yestoday and was also at the expo early evening my Bib number does have my name on and a Union Jack badge aswell .
    The lady who gave me the wristband said don’t put it on too tight as it can not be loosened afterwards, and she said you need it to pick up your medal .
    out to do a bit of site seeing now , 

  • Good luck everyone. I'm sad I can't be there, but I wish you all a great race.
  • Thanks Cal.

    Good luck tomorrow everyone. Hope everyone has a great race.
  • Dean NDean N ✭✭✭
    Thanks Cal and LT , enjoy the race all , hopefully one to remember 




  • GipfelGipfel ✭✭✭
    Thanks all and best of luck. Smash it and enjoy! 
  • GipfelGipfel ✭✭✭
    Hope everyone had a good day. I'm over the moon with my time of 3:57:23 - absolutely the very best I could have hoped for, and now I can finally forget about my growing obsession with getting a sub 4 (was starting to annoy myself)! I've been lucky with how it's all come together - training went perfectly (didn't pick up any niggles or illnesses throughout the whole period), then the race itself went very smoothly. Felt good until about mile 22 ish, when I did start to suffer, but by that stage I could tell myself that I could slow right down and still make it under 4, which helped psychologically!

    Hope everyone else enjoyed it. Was just as good as I remembered from last year - starting pens seemed less packed, although that may just have been because I got there earlier! Warm weather also didn't seem particularly noticeable during the race, which was good, as some of the temperatures showing were very high! 
  • That’s excellent Gipfel, many congratulations! I seem to remember you saying that this was the first time you’d followed a structured plan for a marathon (apologies if I’ve got that wrong). It really helps when you complete a training cycle unhindered. You must be delighted and rightly so.

    3:00:42 for me and very happy with that as I was aiming for 3:02:30. I had a spell from around 32k to 36k when I was really beginning to feel it and thought a faster start than planned was maybe coming back to haunt me but I held it together and actually quickened a little over the last five kilometres. That 39k point when you leave the old town and go along the road next to the Turia Gardens is psychologically important for me as you know you’re almost there and that sooner or later that turn and little downhill into the finish area is going to come.  

    I thought there were were a lot more runners this year. There was very little running room in the first five kms or so. In previous years it had  thinned out much earlier. I found the non shaded parts quite difficult in the second half. Not so much because of the temperature but more the brightness and especially the glare of the road at the water stations. Might invest in a pair of sunglasses!

    Hope everyone else had a good race and weekend.
  • Well done both; excellent news and great to see the hard work paying off. 

    Got to the pens nice and early and found everything very smooth, baggage drop, finish area and goodie bag all getting a thumbs up!

    Definitely recommend to anyone thinking of giving it a go next year!

    I too had a pleasing run. PB by over 2 mins, negative split with every 5km split within 5 secs of each other and a Championship place at London next year!

    Hope everyone else enjoyed and had strong runs!

  • Dean NDean N ✭✭✭
    Congrats to all
    gipfell -great news about the sub4 you not only got under but you done it by a couple of mins , it’s a great relief when it finally happens .
    Lt : well done on the time , I know what your saying about the glare , I wished I had put my sun glasses on , I took them with me but at the last minute decided against wearing them ,big mistake

    BB : sub 2.45 and 2 mins off your Pb ,fantastic ,that’s a lot off your previous time ,what did you change in training to improve so much?

    I personally thoughly enjoyed the whole weekend , what a great city Valancia is , the whole place was behind the marathon and it was so well organised , I loved the food and the red wine however I probably shouldn’t of had a few glasses on the Saturday night !
    The marathon course was as flat as you can find and no sharp corners to slow you down , the pens were fine although I did have to ask a few people to find the start .The only negative was the bus or lack of bus’s from the city down to the start , I was lucky to get on one , I am not so sure about others .
    in an ideal world a couple of degrees cooler would have been better but you can’t have it all .
    The standard of runners was good .
    I found the last couple of ks quite tough and h self together but am very pleased with 2.54 .
    I would definitely do it again but there so many others to run and places to enjoy .
  • Well done BB & Dean, some excellent times there. Really good running.

    Dean, I had no problems with the buses. There was a shuttle bus to and from a lot of the hotels. Also, the hotels were given color coded bands to give to the runners to help them get the right bus back. Glad you were able to get on one. You don’t need that extra bit of anxiety on the morning of the race. Totally agree about the food.

    I read today that the race organizer wants next year’s race to feature an attempt on the men’s world record and 2020 to be an attempt on the women’s world record. They’ve certainly got the course to do it.
  • Congratulations everyone. I've received an email with a discount for next year's race and it's very tempting, given I didn't manage to go this year. My clubmates had a fantastic race - quite a few of the guys got under 3 hours and one managed sub-2:30 which is a club record. He finished 98th and that's pretty impressive in a field like that.
  • Dean NDean N ✭✭✭
    LT : There was no mention of any shuttle buses from our hotel , they only suggested the local number 35 , I saw a lot walking down through the riverbed gardens of which with the benefit of hindsight I had wished had done likewise.
    what a fabulous place that is for reacreational activities if you were a local .
  • Dean NDean N ✭✭✭
    Cal -hope your feeling better now and are planning the next one .our comment
  • Thanks Dean, I managed to go out for a very easy 4 this morning. I can safely say a marathon would have been beyond me on Sunday, so I made the right call, even if it hurt to do so.
  • GipfelGipfel ✭✭✭
    Many congratulations are due all round - excellent running from everyone! Glad you were all happy with your races, and, just as importantly, that you enjoyed the day.

    LT, you're remembering correctly - this is the first time I've followed a plan, and it won't be the last! Although I really liked the FIRST plan, I think I'm going to try another (higher mileage) one next time as an experiment. So the Hansons book is on my Christmas list! Was Valencia a PB for you? I'm guessing close if not quite there? I do agree that it felt more crowded than last year - the increase in numbers was apparent. It didn't get too congested for me, though. There was just one place where I felt a little claustrophobic - think it was one of the last water stops, but quite a small one, along the side of the Turia gardens (I think where you're mentioning, not long before you turn off into the finish area) - it's not a very wide point anyway but got really narrow with all the spectators and volunteers, and felt really hot/crowded, probably because I was suffering at that point already! I'd actually forgotten what a relatively long downhill bit there is into the finish line - really enjoyed that part. By the way, it looks as if the organisers are serious about wanting the world record attempt next year - I've seen a photo of the race director meeting Eliud Kipchoge yesterday! Will be really interesting to see what happens.

    Dean, I love the riverbed gardens too. They are so good for running/general strolling etc, and the first time we visited our friends in Valencia a few years ago, there was a tapas and wine festival taking place there - it was excellent! It is a great city. Glad you enjoyed your time there.

    BB, congrats on the championship spot - that's fantastic! I am entering my club's draw for our one VLM place, which is only open to those who entered the ballot and didn't get a place - odds aren't that bad really, so I may even be (a very long way behind) you at the start line...

    Cal, glad you're feeling better - you should definitely enter next year! I'm yet to find anyone who doesn't think this race is brilliant. I don't think I'll be doing it next year, as I had such a good race this time and feel I should try something different, but I'm 100% sure I'll be back at some point. I'm pretty sure I'll have several moments of regret about not entering 2019!

    Don't know about anyone else, but I'm now suffering from post-marathon comedown (knew it would happen after building up to this event for so long). I've found myself reading through the Barcelona marathon website today, as well as the Madrid one (had a very pleasant couple of days there after Valencia, including a nice short run in the Retiro park). I have a feeling I'll cave and enter something soon!
  • Well done all- that was a great marathon.
    I took it fairly steady as training was lacking a bit so ended with 3:04 and a really enjoyable run.

    Already entered for 2019 !!

    Big Bertie, may target next year will be sub 2:45 but I need all the help possible to get that and knock 9 mins off PB. What would you say your main sessions were, what did your tempo and long runs look like.

    Cheers
  • Gipfel - cave in and enter something soon! I’m already putting together a race schedule for the first half of 2019 which will feature a marathon probably in late April / early May. I can definitely recommend Madrid although the course is quite hilly and nothing like Valencia.

    I think like you that might be my last Valencia for a while. If the numbers keep going up, there’ll obviously be more crowding issues. Apart from what I mentioned in a previous post, there were a few clashing elbows and heels being clipped around me. I also heard some words being exchanged a couple of times related to these kind of incidents. Part and parcel of a big event perhaps. Despite this, I still think its a great race but I’ve done it three times now, so time for a change perhaps.

    Yes, it was a pb for me by almost four minutes beating my 3:04:37 in Madrid back in April. I can strongly recommend Hansons. It really works for me. My last marathon not using a Hansons training plan was Valencia 2016 when I ran 3:12:28. Since then I’ve gone 3:06:12, 3:04:37 and 3:00:41. It’d be really nice if that progression could continue for a bit longer! What I think Hansons has done is made me a stronger runner rather than a faster one if that makes any sense. Some of their philosophy may seem a bit counter intuitive at first but I think it works and is worth sticking with. My friend who recently ran New York got a pb there after following one of their training plans for the first time.

    Interesting that the race director was seen with Kipchoge yesterday. I wonder if they could lure him there as I imagine both NY and Chicago could well be competing with Berlin for his signature. I guess if he did Berlin again, he’d have more time to prepare but maybe not enough time to recover fully and attempt to break the world record again. Intriguing stuff. I wonder if anyone else could threaten the WR there? I would have liked to have seen Wilson Kipsang and Kenenisa Bekele race there a few years back. Mo Farah would be interesting but I don’t think he’d break 2:01:39. I’d also be very interested to see what Mary Keitany, Vivian Cheriuyot and a few others could do there in the women’s race.
  • GipfelGipfel ✭✭✭
    LT, well, I've not actually entered anything yet, but I've got a long list of possibilities! Have just seen OuchOuch's report in the sub 3 thread on Malaga marathon last week, and it sounds like a really good one. Am also debating the Bilbao Night Marathon, which is one of the few events I've found that falls on the weekend closest to my 40th birthday (have decided a decent marathon would be a good way to mark the occasion!) - it looks fun, and the area generally would be interesting to visit. A marathon in May-ish does also sound quite appealing, and I will probably have a look around myself if I don't win our club London place - I probably have around a 1 in 6 chance of getting it, so not bad odds (I do have mixed feelings about running London, because it's so big and crowded, but feel I'd like to experience it at least once). Hope you've got some enjoyable races lined up in your schedule for the first half of next year.

    Sounds as if Hansons has worked really well for you - that's such an excellent progression! Hope it can continue - I imagine a sub 3 must be quite tempting to target now. Hansons does sound very different from the FIRST plan I used this time, but the philosophy does seem to make sense. I can imagine that the relatively short length of the longest runs (for the weekly mileage I'd be doing, anyway - I know higher mileage = longer runs) will seem strange, but on the other hand the relatively low overall mileage of the FIRST plan also caused me concern at times, so that's not necessarily a bad thing! 

    runningeye, glad you enjoyed the race and I'm sure I'll be jealously watching the buildup to the 2019 event. It is tempting to enter, despite my plans not to, but I'm staying strong! 
  • Gipfel, I’ve also looked at the Bilbao race but I think I’d prefer to stick to Sunday morning racing. It’s also a bit early in the calendar for me. Can strongly recommend the area. As you say, it’s an interesting part of the world and there’s some lovely little towns, countryside and coastline nearby. Great food as well.

    I think I have no alternative but to go for a sub 3 in my next marathon, being just 41 seconds off that mark now. I’m currently thinking of the Vitoria Marathon (another Basque Country race) in early May with a couple of half marathons and possibly a 15k race along the way in 2019. Meanwhile, I’ve got a 10k race on Sunday. This will be my 7th consecutive year and I didn’t want to break the streak. No expectation re time.

    Yes, Hansons has really worked for me. P&D did too but I think Hansons has done more for me. The midweek MP and MP -10 secs runs really make you strong. Re the long runs, the plan is more into weekly accumulation and doing the Sunday run on tired legs to replicate the last part of the marathon. I’ve used FIRST before and found it quite good for a half marathon but it didn’t work that well for me for a marathon although you seemed to get good results from it. Personal opinion, but I don’t don’t think you can beat the specificity of training that running five to seven days a week brings. 
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