Maratón Valencia Trinidad Alfonso

Gav Meadows

Grantham Running Club's Gav Meadows took part in the Valencia Marathon in south-east Spain on Sunday 20th November. Notable sights on the 26.2 mile route include the Jardin del Turia, Mercado de Colon and Palua de la Musica, finishing at the stunning Museo de las Ciencias Principe Felipe. There's also live music to keep runners entertained. The course is very flat and is suited to running fast times.

Gav set himself a pretty lofty goal for this race, targeting a new personal best and also the 'good for age' time required for the London Marathon in his age/gender category (under 3:05). In the end he came up short of this difficult target but finished in a very respectable 3:14:35 placing 2409th overall in a field of over 18,000 runners. He also placed 626th in his age/gender category and was 7 minutes over his personal best time.

He said 'I really enjoyed this race. It was my second outside the UK and certainly won't be my last! Highlights were getting my name called out by an announcer over the loudspeaker at mile 21 & a very crowded and noisy finish. The crowd were practically on the course for the last 2 miles! It was just a corridor of noise - they were so close to the action!'

'I can't really complain about my performance. I knew that what I was trying to achieve would be very difficult indeed and was fully aware that it might not happen. All I could do was give it my best shot. I knew the pace required & for 17 miles things went according to plan. Unfortunately fatigue took over from that point. Things got pretty desperate at miles 21 and 22 where I was a minute per mile off the pace. However, I managed to dig deep for the last 4 miles & salvage a sub 3:15 time.'

Position	Time	Name		Category		Grading	AG Ranking
2409	03:14:35	Gav Meadows		All		64.20%	812