On a rainy and surprisingly cold (11-13 Celsius) Sunday the Valencia Half Marathon took place on October 27th.

24252 runners finished this half marathon. From Bornholm Runners we were Daniel from Poland as well as Jesper from Denmark. We were both running our second Superhalfs. The route was extremely flat and beside the slippery surfaces due to the rain it was a great race.

During this run also a new World Record 57 minutes and 30 seconds for men, just one second faster than existing record – it is sometimes the smallest margins life is about – see later.

Daniel was as always in a great shape and ran in incredible 1 hour 36 minutes and 35 seconds!

Jesper had some „nervous” waiting time as his own watch showed 2 hours 00 minutes and 00 seconds. However while the final result came Jesper got another sub 2 hours run with 1 hour 59 minutes and 59 seconds – again a magic second makes life SO much better. This was more than 16 minutes faster than 2 weeks ago in Odense, Denmark. A possible reason for the fast result was that thank to advice from Leif at Løberen, Aalborg he was buying his first Saucony Endorphine Carbon shoes less than a week before this race!

All in all a nice trip to Valencia and it was good to meet Daniels nearest family. On Jespers way back to Denmark Monday morning from Valencia to Amsterdam he was flying with a group of runners. Jesper had the chance to have a talk with Daniel Mateiko, who ran the race in 58 minutes and 17 seconds on second place. He mentioned that this was part of this training towards the soon upcoming Valencia Marathon on December 1st. We are looking forward to follow his attempt on the full marathon distance and wish him good luck.

Jesper was also happy that Carlo Kitzlinger has informed that he will donate an amount to Sport’n’Charity in their work to help children recovering after cancer treatment. Such donations gives Jespers running an extra „dimension” – Thank you Carlo.

Unfortunately the weather few days after the race became worse and worse with incredible human results due to flooding. Out thoughts goes to the citizens of Valencia who lost everything due to weather conditions.

Next race? Jesper will be running already following Sunday – Hasseris Half Marathon on November 3rd.