It wasn’t my first marathon, in fact it was my second one, but this one was more special! Earlier this year I tricked my loving wife running the Valencia marathon, together. And,.,.,she said yes! She already was used to run the half marathon, but doubling the 21KM needed “some practice“.
So, mid August, we started our 16 week marathon training (You can find the training we did on my site)! The training was divers, but running five times a week, in good and bad (and very bad) weather, makes you travel beyond your mental capabilities. Specially the last 4 weeks, as you touch your longest run distance, in our case 35KM’s. The last extra 7KM’s are ran on star dust and strong mental health during the race.
On the 3rd of December, we ran. We ran in temperature 15 degrees above our training temperature, but we finished! Not in the time span we wanted, but we finished! During the race I often looked at my wife and was proud! Proud of how firm and focused she was running, and nevertheless, she was enjoying herself. It looked liked the whole city of Valencia was yelling at her not to give up, and she didn’t!
As every good story, this one has also a downside. During our flight back to the Netherlands we lost one of our backpacks containing our Bibs and Medals. Don’t ask how, as we always triple check our self’s, it just happened. We’ve already contacted the airport’s “lost and found” department, and emailed the Valencia marathon organisation if we are entitled to get a new finisher medal, but till now no responds. I don’t mind losing mine, but I really want my wife to get her first marathon finisher medal. She really deserves her’s after months of training and finishing the race in Valencia!