VALENCIA HALF MARATHON 2025
Valencia half marathon was the second of the Super Halfs for Steven and myself.
We flew to Valencia with KLM via Amsterdam. We could not find direct flights, although we later found out there are some direct flights with Ryanair.
Like our previous Super Half in Prague, the race is very well organised. With over 26,000 runners, it is a mass participation event which has the feel of a marathon. You collect your number from the Expo within the 2 days before the race. You also collect a goody bag and a t-shirt . The goody bag had loads of stuff including protein drinks, nuts, chewing gum, Vaseline, olive snacks and potatoes!
The course goes through the city. It is scenic and flat. The day before race day the temperatures were around 28 degrees. Thankfully on race day the temperature dropped to 19-20 degrees with rain which came on after a couple of miles of the race starting, which was helpful. The starts were staggered, with waves going off at set times. Steven starting 10 minutes behind the elite start, and me half an hour later. With such large numbers, the course was very busy. Difficult to get up much speed, although maybe not a bad thing to stop you going off too quick at the beginning. I felt it was busy for the whole race although not an issue for me as I wasn’t able to run fast anyway. Maybe more frustrating for the faster runners. The wave you were assigned to was taken on trust of your predicted time – never accurate on race day.
The race itself went smoothly with km markers, water stations roughly every 3K and a couple of gel stations. It was very organised at the end . Collect your medal and another goody bag, this time with water, fruit, and juice. You had to book and pay for bag drop at the time of entry if you wanted it. Otherwise come dressed to run. Pre-booked bag drop was helpful for us as we were pretty cold after the rain during the race and we had a bit of a journey back to our hotel. The start and finish of the race are beside the University buildings and close to each other. Valencia itself is not massive, so probably within walking distance for many folks’ accommodation, otherwise there is a decent metro service which is easy to use.
Overall I enjoyed the race experience. All the better for meeting up with fellow Harrier John Hynd during and after the race, and some other friends from Kinross Road Runners. The post-race debrief/beers complete the experience. Valencia itself is a lovely city and worth the visit even just for a long weekend.
The Super Halfs are becoming very popular, which means they are becoming increasingly difficult to get an entry for. Some of them offer team entries. Which means if you enter as a team, eg a couple, if one gets in, the other will too. This is a great idea when it comes to events like this where you might be scared to enter in case 1 gets in on the ballot and the other doesn’t.
So far we have done 2. Next stop Lisbon!
Gail King October 2025