My Life in Valencia

October, 2024

One of the things I love about Valencia is how outdoorsy it is-the sunny weather all year round, the amazing parks, running and bike trails, the beach….all make living outside not only possible but enjoyable. Because of all that, it is a runner’s paradise. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many runners. And I mean runners, not joggers. Valencia is known as the Ciudad de Running, and for good reason. There is always a race going on pretty much every weekend. Valencia’s half and full marathons are well known and often have record breakers. And you can always find runners all times of the day all year round.

So with that background it shouldn’t be too much a surprise that I’ve started to run myself. However, those of you who know me well no that I’m not really a sporty person and I certainly have gone through my ups and downs with exercising regularly. Life in here in Valencia has gotten me outside walking, biking and working out in the park regularly and I have never been healthier. But I decided that I needed to step it up even more so I decided I wanted to start running. As far as I can remember I have never run a whole mile without stopping and I have never run a road race. My 1st goal was to be able to run a mile. So with the help of my amazing trainer, Katherine Williams, I started running this summer using a Couch to 5K app running three days a week. It hasn’t always been easy but I am happy to say that I’ve been doing it and not hating it which is a huge surprise. :). I’ve been doing intervals changing between running and walking. But finally on Sept. 14 I ran a solid 20 mins without stopping. So I reached my goal of being able to run a mile (and then some). Since then I’ve gone back to running intervals with the goal being able to do a 6K road race. And today was the day! I met that goal and did my first road race ever. A HUGE thank you to Katherine Williams who is the one who has been my biggest cheerleader through this. I really don’t think I would have done it with out her (even though I probably could have). Below are some highlights of our running together and my own training (we always took pics of ourselves after our run) followed by today’s road race.