Valencia Half Marathon — 2024

Let it rain!

I just returned from the Valencia Half Marathon, and I am still in the running mood. I wanted to share my experience with my fifth SuperHalf race — Valencia!

I had high expectations for the Valencia race and had been training hard to get a good finish time. After a sloppy start to the year when my results were below expectations, I put in more work and passion, believing I would reach my best shape by the end of the season.

I started my year with a 1:46 in Lisbon, followed by a 1:50 in Prague, and a 1:47 in Helsinki — still a bit far from my previous two races last autumn when I did a 1:45 in Cardiff and Bucharest.

Welcome to Valencia!

Valencia is a beautiful city to visit, with plenty of things to do. You can fly directly into Valencia or fly to Madrid and take the train. I opted for the second option and arrived in Madrid in the morning, with plenty of time to take a Renfe train to Valencia. The train trip lasted 2 hours, and the comfort was excellent. I chose the “comfort” option, which cost me 120 euros for a round trip, but the experience was great.

See some pictures from Valencia and the Renfe comfort option.

The race kit

The race kit was good. It included a T-shirt, a bib, and plenty of little extras, as with every other race. I had forgotten what I had chosen, but when I picked up the kit, I discovered I had opted for a singlet, which turned out to be a great choice.

Access to the expo was via the Metro, followed by a 15-minute walk. Once inside, despite being a race with 30,000 runners, everything went very fast and smoothly. In 10 minutes, I had my bib and kit.

The expo center was big and not very crowded, with plenty of things to buy. I bought a SuperHalf singlet to wear in my last SuperHalfs race in Berlin, and some Maurten jellies for the race.

I liked the quality of the singlet, so I added some pictures — both taken by me and from the official site for comparison.

As always, I looked for a hotel close to the starting line, and this time I booked Hotel Olympia Universidades, a three-star hotel but a good one. The hotel was clean, just 50m away from the metro, and had easy access to the start and the city. Also, the breakfast was good, which was unexpected.

Race time!

So far, everything was very well organized, and I expected the same for the race. I was seeded in the Brown section for runners with an expected time of 1:43–1:50, and being in the 7th wave of the race, I was a bit worried that the route would be crowded and it would be difficult to get ahead of other runners.

We jogged to the starting area, doing our warm-up routine, and I must say the way to the start section was also very well organized. There were hundreds of toilets on the way in case you needed one.

Access to the start sections was rigorously managed by the organizers, and I didn’t see any runners from other sections in ours. That was a good sign and showed that the organizers had a lot of experience managing the race.

I was hoping for a good result, close to my personal best of 1:44:45, especially since I hadn’t run under 1:45 in the last two years.

I decided to leave the watch alone, focus on running, and not be influenced by the lap times but by how I was feeling in the moment.

The sky was cloudy, and it was raining — sometimes a bit more than I would normally prefer while running, but it was manageable. Although it was 14 degrees Celsius and raining, I decided to run in a singlet and 4-inch running shorts. I felt cold at first, but after the race started, I felt perfect.

The results

That weekend, Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha beat the world record, finishing the race in 57:30, 1 second better than the previous record.

I also had a great race. I started slow, not trying to get ahead of anyone in the first two kilometers, and that really helped me pick up the pace later. Although my first two kilometers were the slowest, I think this strategy set me up for a great time in the end.

There were only four fueling points along the way, and since it was raining, I thought that was more than enough. They served water in bottles, which was a great choice. Bottles allow you to maintain your pace and drink over a longer distance.

The race course is flat, the roads are wide, and I had no problem accelerating or overtaking other runners. There were a few puddles, but I just ran through them since I was already completely wet.

I managed to run a negative split, with the following average paces measured every 5 kilometers: 4:57, 4:53, 4:52, and 4:51. I finished in 1h 42m 05s, which was a personal best for me — 2m 40s faster than my previous PB.

I think the weather conditions, temperature, and fast course all contributed to my performance.

Considering the SuperHalfs series so far, after doing five races, I think this was one of the best-organized races I’ve ever run. Only Paris matches Valencia, but Paris is not a race for a PB. If I were to rank the SuperHalfs races so far from best to worst, it would be: Valencia, Cardiff, Prague, Copenhagen and Lisbon.

Good luck, and keep running!

Resources

• Some of the pictures were taken from the Valencia Oficial Half Marathon site

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