Last Sunday, November 30th, together with my friend Juan we traveled to Alicante to take part in its marathon, with over 3,000 runners registered in the distance.
We picked Elche – Alicante following our series of marathons abroad (to combine tourism with long distance running) that has taken some of us to run together in Paris, Berlin, Roma, Athens, Rotterdam, New York, Sevilla (x3), Madrid, Millau, Dublin (x2), Lisboa, Vienna, Krakow, Porto, Bucharest, Malaga and now Alicante (in bold those run with Juan).
To prepare for this marathon I followed the same 16-week training plan I had used in the past. I started with the plan in mid August during our holidays in Italy. In the end I arrived to Alicante with 540km in the legs in those 16 weeks, a bit less than I would have liked. For some months I felt the Achilles tendon of the left leg a bit sensitive, hence I decided to run a moderate weekly mileage for over a month before starting with the long runs. I also chose to skip the series training, as being overweight (94kg the day after the race), the series would hurt the tendon. By mid October I started to run some long runs. Not many though, just 3 over 20km: 27km, 30km and 30km. I then had some business travel during which I managed to run some days even if on the treadmill. With that training behind and the experience of the last 3 marathons I was somewhat confident in being able to complete the marathon in a time between 4h05′ and 4h15′ even if the final mark was uncertain.
The profile from Elche to Alicante was rather flat on each of the cities and with a 10km descending stretch from one to the other. The race started in Elche by the castle and finished by the port in Alicante. We stayed in Alicante and we counted with another friend, Nacho, to bring us to Elche on the morning of the race.
Race profile
The temperature was a bit fresh in the morning (~8°C), the sky was clear and it would be a bit warmer towards the end of the race, though the temperature did not exceed 19°C. My strategy was to start at a pace just below 6min per km, and then, if I felt well, accelerate a bit after some kilometres to build up some margin during the descent part of the circuit so that I could target a time below 4h15′. There were pacers for times aiming at every 15-minute mark and I started a bit behind the 4-hour pacers, which I kept at a short distance until the km 25.
The race started at 9:00am and Juan departed a bit ahead, hence we wished luck to each other and ran separately. I ran at comfortable and faster paces than I had targeted until the km 25. I didn’t feel any pain in the tendons. Then from the km 30 I started running at paces above 6:00/km, but I still felt good, focused and running one km after another. Until km 37… During the 4 kilometres between 38 and 41 I was unable to keep those paces and I slowed down to ~6:40/km, until I gathered some strength for the last 1.2km.
That last kilometre of the race felt great, as always. Seeing the finish line arches from afar and sprinting towards them, feeling proud of having done it again without having gone through much suffering during the race itself.
In the end, I clocked a net time of 4h08’46”, a time about what I expected given the weight with which I arrived at the race and the incomplete training that I followed, even nearly 3 minutes faster than the last marathon (Málaga). This has been my 25th marathon completed, easy to say today but not so on April 30th 2000 when I started in the distance in Madrid.
With those 4h08’46”, I was again above the 4-hour mark and finished in the 2,266th place out of 3,161 finishers (28% percentile). That time makes it my 8th worst marathon, though with a positive feeling of having completed another marathon 1 year later and a bit faster than the last. I am now looking forward to the next one.
This was the first marathon organized between Elche and Alicante. The organization of the race was rather good. They only underestimated the amount of trucks needed to provide a smooth wardrobe service for the runners’ bags. The circuit was good. They included plenty of water supply (with bottles) posts, isotonic drinks, some food (bananas and dates; a bit late in the race though) and gels (though I carried myself enough of those). It was a great experience.
I leave below some charts with statistics of the race:
The average finish time was just below 3h52′. For the men 3h48′, for the women 4h11′. You can also see the distribution of runners by their times by splits of 10 minutes.
Last time I checked all-time men’s best marathon times and the world record evolution was in 2014 ahead of running Rotterdam marathon (post back then). In this blog post I’m going to make an update, share some charts and review some statistics. For that purpose, I use the website “Track and Field all-time Performances” (maintained since years ago by Peter Larsson).
With the data of all-time best men’s marathon I plotted the chart below with the best 1,903 times, i.e., all those below 2h08′ and their dates, highlighting marathon times by Haile Gebrselassie, Wilson Kipsang, Eliud Kipchoge, Kenenisa Bekele and Kelvin Kiptum.
Some stats in relation to those 1,903 times under 2h08′:
Countries of which athletes achieved most such times: Kenya 853 times or 44.8%, Ethiopia 570 times or 30.0%, Japan 114 (6.0%), Morocco 44 (2.3%), Eritrea 41 (2.2%), Israel 20 (1.1%), France 20 (1.1%), Uganda 19 (1.0%). Those are the top 9 countries, there are another 34 from which athletes have run below 2h08′ (for a total of 43 countries).
There are 742 athletes that have run below 2h08′. The individuals who have done so more often: Eliud Kipchoge 18 times, Sisay Lemma 17, Tsegay Kebede 15, Tamirat Tola 13, Abel Kirui 13, Wilson Kipsang 12, Bernard Kiprop 12, Evans Chebet 12, Benson Kipruto 12, Laban Korir 11, Emmanuel Mutai 11, Amos Kipruto 11, Birhanu Legese 11, Kenenisa Bekele 10, Haile Gebrselassie 10, Leul Gebrselassie 10, Deso Gelmisa 10…
Now, if we raise the bar to see the times at or below 2h05′, we find 231 times:
Countries of which athletes achieved most such times: Kenya 108 times or 46.8%, Ethiopia 98 times or 42.4% (both combined 89.2%!), Tanzania 4 (1.7%), Belgium 4 (1.7%), Netherlands 3 (1.3%). Those are the top 5 countries, there are another 11 from which athletes have run at or below 2h05′ (for a total of 16 countries).
There are 124 athletes that have run at or below 2h05′. The individuals who have done so more often: Eliud Kipchoge 14 times, Tamirat Tola 8, Wilson Kipsang 8, Sisay Lemma 7, Amos Kipruto 6, Birhanu Legese 6, Leul Gebrselassie 5, three athletes with 4 times including Kenenisa Bekele, 14 athletes with 3 times including Kelvin Kiptum, Dennis Kimetto, Geoffrey Mutai and Haile Gebrselassie, 23 athletes with 2 times including Patrick Makau…
Which are the fastest marathons? The cities where most of those 231 times at or below 2h05′ have been achieved are: Berlin and Valencia with 35 each, London and Dubai with 27 each, Rotterdam 18, Amsterdam and Chicago with 15 each, Tokyo 14. Those are the top 8 cities (accounting for 81% of those 231 times), there are other 16 cities where such fast times have been achieved.
Now let’s look at the evolution of the World Record since 1985 in this other chart:
Some comments to the chart:
In the last 40 years, the record has been beaten 13 times.
The current world record was set by Kelvin Kiptum in Chicago in 2023 with 2h00’35” at the age of 23.9. He sadly passed away in a car crash a few months later. His career was very promising, having run only 3 marathons, all three in less than 12 months, all 3 below 2h02′. 3 of the best 7 times, 1 of the only 4 men having run below that mark.
The record that lasted the most was Dinsamo’s 2:06:50 in 1988, which took just over 10 years to be beaten by Ronaldo da Costa in 1998.
3 athletes have set the world record twice: Khalid Khannouchi, Haile Gebrselassie and Eliud Kipchoge.
The biggest improvement of the record was made by Eliud Kipchoge who took 1’18” off Dennis Kimetto’s previous record.
Geoffrey Mutai ran in 2h03’02” before 3 world records set the bar below his time, however, as he achieved that in Boston 2011 (downhill and point to point race) it didn’t count for the record.
What is the best age to run marathons?
I plotted this other chart looking at the best 1,903 marathon times vs the age the runners had at the time of completing each of those races.
Most of the times below 2h08′ are achieved between 23 and 33 years old, but indeed most of the best ones are achieved between 28 and 39 years old, with the exception of the 3 marathons ran by Kelvin Kiptum, including his current world record.
Another interesting chart to relate best times and age is the histogram below. In that one we can see that effectively most of the times below 2h08′ are achieved between 24 and 30 years old, and between 23 and 33 (both included) 80% of those times are achieved.
Time to look back and reflect on how the year which is about to end developed. Brief recap of my 2024. (*).
The main experience that we enjoyed together in this 2024 was the road trip we did to Namibia during the summer holidays. We spent over two weeks driving up and down the country along solitary and unpaved roads, through deserts, mountains, canyons, along the coast… We did a bit of camping and enjoyed great hotels and resorts. We did some boat excursions and various game watching safaris at different parks. An unforgettable trip.
Namibia
Family. Andrea is now 11 years old and David, 8. Andrea just started secondary and is proving to be a responsible and good student. She loves drawing, researching for her school homework and clothes. She now has her own smartphone and starting playing volleyball in the village team. She is in her 3rd year of Spanish lessons, which now she also studies in the school. This year she is volunteering to take part in the school play at the end of the year. David continues to enjoy building Lego sets, playing video games but most of all he loves football, which he is now playing with the village team. He is also a very good student in his grade 3, where he enjoys Math and French. He is very helpful at home and he is now in his second year of Spanish lessons. They’re both taking piano lessons and this 2024 they have spent several weeks alone with parents in Madrid during school holidays, which they loved.
Running: After an end of 2023 marked by injuries, I just wanted to get again into the running habit and completing another marathon, which I did! In all, I run just 1,250km in 2024, more than in 2023 but less than I would have liked. I still had some injuries now and then but I could cope with them and I ran the marathon of Malaga in December, my 24thmarathon.
Following a mantra I try keep to the letter (when in good health), “the running shoes, always in the suitcase”, the year 2024 caught me running in: Torrelodones, Miranda de Ebro, Brunei, Doha, Galapagar, Athens, London, Namibia (Sossusvlei, Swakopmund, Damaraland, Ethosa), Helsinki, Madrid, Málaga, the Netherlands (Wijchen), San Sebastián, plus the tens of times I trained in my village, in Blagnac and Toulouse.
Running around
Skiing. In 2024 we went again with the family for a week to our favourite resort at Vars, in the Southern Alps. This year again we could enjoy much time skiing with the kids out of their skiing lessons. They are more daring and at ease especially skiing off tracks, and sometimes it’s difficult to keep pace with them. This year Andrea got her 2ème étoile medal and David his 1ère one (levels from the French ESF).
Skiing in Vars (Alps)
Flying. This year I did not manage to fly as much as I wanted. I kept up with the recency requirements doing some training flights and some others with the kids. This year I also flew for the first time with Rodrigo and Harriet-Eve. I am sure that in 2025 I will have the chance to fly with more colleagues.
In all, this year I have flown just 5 flight hours, 7 flights and 15 landings. This takes my total experience to 215 flight hours and 339 landings since I started taking lessons back in 2011. In 2025 I will need to renew the SEP (single-engine piston) qualification, that will certainly require more flying in the coming months, hopefully with some excursions abroad.
Flying with friends and family
Travelling. Apart from the unforgettable trip to Namibia, in this 2024 either alone or with the family we continued to visit some new and old places: Brunei, Aix-en-Provence, Vars, Avignon, Doha, Paris (including another visit to the Parc Asterix which the kids loved), Madrid, Vic-Fezensac, Helsinki, London (including a great trip with the family to visit Harry Potter’s studios), San Sebastian, Málaga, Wijchen, Rijswijk, The Hague, Waterloo, Reims, Saint-Quentin, Poitiers, Bordeaux…
Traveling
Reading. In this 2024 I didn’t read as much as I would have liked to, but I managed to read 10 books with a good mix between reading in English, French and Spanish. I’m also happy for having read other 4 books of the Great Books curriculum for the bachelor in arts of Saint John’s College, I list I have been using as a reference for years. For the detailed list of books, see the post I wrote about my 2024 reading list with a brief description of each one.
Other cultural activities:
Bullfighting. This year again, together with Luismi, we went to Vic-Fezensac to attend its corrida concurso (same wording in French) with very strong bulls from different breedings. This year it was especially tough for the bullfighters as it was raining all the morning. Despite that, we saw a good show, with Sánchez Vara (that we had seen in previous occasions) and the Colombian Juan de Castilla who was awarded an ear, and left quickly after the 5th bull as he would be fighting in another corrida in the afternoon at Las Ventas (Madrid). I also renewed my membership to the foundation Toro de Lidia just a few days ago to keep supporting the art.
Bullfighting at Vic-Fezensac
Theatre. We started the year with two musicals in Madrid: School of Rock (thanks to a wonderful invitation from my sister Beatriz!) and Fabiolo connection (which was hilarious). Luca and the kids then attended Aladdin by the Secret Pantomime Society in Pibrac. At the end of the school year we also attended the great show put up by the kids of the school with Shrek. I took the opportunity of a trip to London to attend Les Misérables (a great recommendation from by brother Jaime, and something I had been wanting to do since I read the book years ago).
Les Misérables in London
Cinema. After years of nearly not having gone to the cinema (small kids!) this year we have started to go more often, with or without the kids (5 or 6 times from memory?). My favorite movie this year was The Count of Monte-Cristo.
Museums. This year again we took benefit of every trip to visit as many museums and castles as we could, among them: Fondation (Victor) Vasarely (Aix-en-Provence), Palais des Papes and Pont d’Avignon, Kolmanskop ghost town (Namibia), Finish Aviation museum (Helsinki), Tower Bridge, British Museum, Tate Modern, Harry Potter Warner Bros studio London, Westminster Abbey, Casa natal Pablo Picasso, Museo Picasso, Roman theatre in Málaga, Alcazaba Palace and Castillo de Gibralfaro in Málaga, Centre Pompidou Málaga, Waterloo battlefield museum 1815, Kröller-Müller museum (NL), Escher in the Palace (The Hague).
Blogging. This is the 15th year since I started the blog in 2010. This year I wrote just 7 blog posts, in line with the past years since 2020. The blog received just over 20,700 visits, a bit more than in 2023 (in line with the past few years) and over 512,000 views since 2010.
Work. No changes in the scope of the work this year (A330neo product marketing since January 2023) but we have had quite a few changes higher up in the organization and more closely we bid our farewell to Anna and welcomed Andoni.
Since 2023 the markets have been very active. If in 2023 we at Airbus broke a new record of aircraft orders, this 2024 has also been very active and positive, with many sales and campaigns.
This year I had the opportunity to attend the Farnborough airshow, where I could showcase a Virgin Atlantic A330neo together with colleagues from Airbus and Rolls-Royce and the airline crews, at times showing the aircraft non-stop for hours to many different and varied groups of customers or institutional representatives.
Working in aviation means fun!
This year, on July 3rd I flew for the first time onboard an A330neo, with our flight test aircraft MSN 1795.
My first flight onboard the A330neo with Jose
In September came another highlight of the year with the organization of the Airbus Family Day, when we spent a whole day touring Airbus facilities in Toulouse with the kids.
2024 Family Day at Airbus in Toulouse
Not everything was positive in 2024: the father in law of one of my best friends passed away as did the father of my boss. The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to create havoc in many families, in autumn we received a short visit from Lena and her family. Hopefully in 2025 that war comes to an end.
On the positive side, some family and friends had new babies and got married in this 2024!
Now it’s time to rest, celebrate with the family and hope for the best in 2025. For the moment we have just a few days in Madrid to enjoy with family and friends and a planned skiing week in Vars; hopefully that will be just the beginning of another memorable year.
Last Sunday, December 15th, together with my friend Manuel we traveled to Malaga to take part in its marathon, with around 6000 runners registered in the distance.
We picked Malaga following our series of marathons abroad (to combine tourism with long distance running) that has taken some of us to run together in Paris, Berlin, Roma, Athens, Rotterdam, New York, Sevilla (x3), Madrid, Millau, Dublin (x2), Lisboa, Vienna, Krakow, Porto, Bucharest and now Malaga (in bold those run with Manuel).
To prepare for this marathon I followed the same 16-week training plan I had used in the past. Just before those 16 weeks of the plan, thanks to a running challenge we followed in the company, I cumulated +200km in 4 weeks between mid May and June. Then at the end of August I started with the plan. In the end I arrived to Malaga with 554km in the legs in those 16 weeks, a bit less than I would have liked. I trained quite well in September, doing most of the series sessions and all long runs, but in early October I had a calf contracture that slowed me for a couple of weeks. At the end of October I resumed the plan but discarded the series sessions while maintaining the long runs… until two weeks before the race when I had another injury in the other calf. I stopped for a few days and resumed with some short runs before the race day. In those 16 weeks I averaged 37km per week, completed 8 long runs (including 4 above 20km; 22km, 30km, 30km and 26km – with positive feelings especially in this last one) and 11 sessions of series, though not enough of them to get a bit faster. Provided that I didn’t get injured again, I was confident in being able to complete the marathon in a time between 4h05′ and 4h15′ even if the final mark was uncertain.
The profile in Malaga is rather flat. The organization prepared a circuit mainly composed of long avenues, mostly by the seaside, which allowed to run at constant pace. The race started and finished in the Paseo del Parque, in front of the iconic Banco de España building, and I stayed for an extended weekend at an apartment at walking distance from the place.
The temperature was a bit cold in the morning (~6°C), the sky was clear and it would be a bit warmer towards the end of the race, though the temperature did not exceed 16°C. My strategy was to start at a pace just below 6min per km, and then, if I felt well, accelerate the pace at mid-race so that I could target a time below 4h15′. There were pacers for times aiming at every 15-minute mark and in the end, I didn’t quite followed that strategy but ran just after the 4-hour pacers at a short distance until the km 23.
The race started at 8:30am and Manu departed from a different box, hence we wished luck to each other and ran separately. We ran with the participants in the half marathon, that made the first half of the race a bit more crowded.
I ran at a comfortable pace until the first half, but I started to feel the same pain in the calf that made me stop a couple of weeks before since km ~16. At km 23 or so the pain became stronger and I softened the pace, fearing that I would have to do some walking later on. Luckily I saw a volunteer with Reflex spray at km 25 and got a good dose of it. A few minutes later the pain mostly disappeared and I could continue running even if at a slower pace. At km 32 I got the calf sprayed again with Reflex and even if I had some difficulties in the last ~6km I could manage the timing to be below the target of 4h15′.
The last 2 km of the race were superb. The race goes through the city centre including Plaza de la Constitucion and calle Marques de Larios with the crowd surrounding and cheering the runners. I kept my pace in the last few hundred metres as by then I had muscle pain in both lower legs so I could not give it a last sprint.
In the end, I clocked a net time of 4h11’39”, a time about what I expected given the weight with which I arrived to the race (93kg) and the injuries I went through during the training weeks, but slower than the last two marathons I ran in 2022 (Sevilla and Bucharest). This has been my 24th marathon completed, easy to say today but not so on April 30th 2000 when I started in the distance in Madrid.
Pace during Malaga 2024 marathon (minutes per km)
With those 4h11’39”, I was again above the 4-hour mark and finished in the 4279th place out of 5733 finishers (25% percentile). That time makes it my 5th worst marathon, though with a positive feeling of having completed another marathon 2 years later and following a 2023 marked by injuries as well. I am now looking for the next one.
The organization of the race was great. The circuit showed a beautiful city. They included plenty of water supply (with bottles) posts, isotonic drinks and food (bananas and oranges), I just missed gels (though I carried myself enough of those). The finish line was great, the wardrobe service was close to the start and finish line (by the bullfighting arena). It was a great experience.
Time to look back and reflect on how the year which is about to end developed. Brief recap of my 2022. (*)
The personal memory from this 2022 was having my father back at home after nearly two months in hospitals, including a couple of days at the emergency room. He suffered a heat stroke at the end of June and only came back from it mid August. Those were testing times for him but also for the family, especially for my mother and brother who lifted the lion’s share of the caring for him during those months.
Family. Andrea is now 9 years old and David, 6. Andrea has been learning piano for most of the year, she enjoyed very much climbing, reading, singing in the school choir, drawing anddoing handcraft. She also started taking Spanish lessons once a week since the fall, on top of the Dutch lessons they both take every second week.
David is now nearly fluent in English and they both talk to each other in that language. He is improving with his reading and writing and very eager with maths. He started to play video games, is very fond of football and wants to help with anything, especially if it involves the use of tools (that probably comes from his maternal grand father).
Sports
Back to marathoning! After not having taken part in any marathon in 2020 and 2021 (breaking a 9-year streak), in 2022 I completed 2 marathons: Sevilla and Bucharest. Those were great and emotional experiences. With them I have now completed 23 marathons.
This year, together with some work colleagues we participated in a month-long sports (running and biking) challenge fighting against hunger in the spring and in the fall we ran the 15km-long Airbus charity run.
I ran 1,200km in 2022, around 100km less than in 2021. You can see below that I alternated periods of heavy training with some weeks of not running, due to illness, injuries, travelling or resting after the races.
Following a mantra I try keep to letter, “the running shoes, always in the suitcase”, the year 2022 caught me running in: Galapagar, Singapore, Seville, La Châtre-Langlin, Fontainebleau, Wijchen, Pontoise-lès-Noyon, Isla, Derby, Hamburg, London, Torrelodones, Almuñécar, Hyères and Bucharest, plus the tens of times I trained in my village, Blagnac and Toulouse.
With those 1,200 kilometres run in 2022, this is the sixth year in a row that I struggle to add more mileage, as I used to do between 2011-2016… One would say whether it is due to the arrival of the second child (spring 2016), the moving of houses (summer 2017) or just getting older (!), but something has made it more difficult. Hopefully in 2023 I can break that trend.
Other sports:
Skiing. After the cancellation of our plan in 2021, in 2022 we could go back with the family for a week to our favourite resort at Vars, in the Southern Alps. If in 2020 it was the first time I descended some tracks with Andrea, in this 2022 it was the first time that the four of us descended some tracks altogether. That was a great experience. This year Andrea got her Flocon medal and David his Ourson one (levels from the French ESF).
Swimming. On top of enjoying the pool at home, this year we went to the beach at three different locations: Isla (North of Spain), Almuñécar (South of Spain) and the Presque-ile des Giens (France). The kids loved it. During the holidays, they also took some swimming lessons to improve their style.
Golf. The whole family started taking golf lessons last year and for half of the year 2022 we continued doing so, though after the summer the kids wanted to quit.
Climbing. Both Andrea and David are very fond of climbing, so now, at almost every school holidays break they follow some climbing stage.
Real Madrid. Even if David and I did not have to play for it, we did enjoy watching a few football matches together supporting our favourite team all the way to winning the 14th Champions’ League, another memorable hapenning of this 2022.
Flying. Unfortunately, this year I haven’t flown much, just 7 flights and 13 landings (the least in 12 years of flying). This takes the total to just above 192 flying hours and 300 landings since I started taking lessons back in 2011.
Together with our Aviation Society we were planning some excursions for the summer time but for different reasons a couple of them were cancelled and I could not join another. Therefore all the flying this year has been around our South West region.
On the positive side:
I renewed the FCL055 qualification that allows me to speak in English to the ATC when flying abroad, this will permit me to attempt long excursions next year again.
This year I flew for the first time with a few colleagues: Iain, Scott, Emilio and Marcellin. I am sure that in 2023 I will have the chance to fly with more colleagues.
Travelling. After many restrictions during the pandemic, especially in 2020, in 2021 we started to travel more and in 2022 we had the chance to visit some new and old places: Singapore (first time for me), Spain (Seville, Santoña, Isla, Madrid (a few times), El Escorial, Bailén, Almuñécar, Las Navas de Tolosa, Tordesillas, San Sebastian), France (Gap, Vars, Avignon, Sully-sur-Loire, Fontainebleau, Péronne, Château de Blérancourt, Meung-sur-Loire, Nimes, Presque-ile des Giens (there we had great week at the beach in the French Riviera)), Germany (Xanten, Hamburg (first time for me, and where we were very warmly hosted by Burkhard!), Munich), the Netherlands (Wijchen), England (Derby, London (it was quite some time since the last time I was in London), Farnborough), Romania (Bucharest) and Pakistan.
In some of those trips we had the opportunity to meet some friends from the university and the high school that we had not seen in a few years. That opportunity to continue reconnecting felt good.
Work. The year 2022 marketing our Airbus widebody aircraft has meant lots of fun and a great learning experience. The everyday work is already quite interesting and exchanging with the team I learnt new things everyday.
This year, with the picking up of the aviation activity and the opening up of many countries, I had the opportunity to meet many of our colleagues working abroad, to give several presentations to customers about our products (remote or onsite), to welcome a few of them and show our A350 final assembly line, host in Toulouse and visit our colleagues from Rolls-Royce in Derby, fly with the press on one of our A350 flight test aircraft during the Airbus Summit, and especially take part in the air shows of Singapore and Farnborough, where I could showcase different A350s, from Singapore Airlines and ITA Airways, respectively. Those air shows have been real highlights of the year, at times showing the aircraft non-stop for hours to many different and varied groups of customers or institutional representatives.
These activities gave me the opportunity to fly for the first time on an A350 (!).
At the beginning of the year, one of our colleagues, Alex, switched departments and we reshuffled the activities within the team and that made it much more interesting, including the working hand in hand in particular with Raphael and Cedric.
At the end of the year, another of our colleagues, Florian, announced his departure and this offered another opportunity to grow. Following a recruitment process, in which a few colleagues participated, I was selected and from January 2023 I will change again the scope of the activity focusing now on the A330neo (back to it after having spent 4 years (2015-2019) working in its development!), working hand in hand with Anna and Raphael.
Reading. I started 2022 reading at a good pace until summer, then I got stuck with the second volume of Le Vicomte de Bragelonne and a series of trips interrupted my pace, and it took me months to recover it. In the end I completed just 13 books, the least since 2015 and read just above 4,800 pages, also the least in the last 6 years. For the detailed list of books, see the post I wrote about my 2022 reading list with a brief description of each book.
Other cultural activities:
Bullfighting. This year again together with Luismi, his family and my family we went to Nimes for a weekend to enjoy its Feria, and in particular to attend the corrida de toros with Roca Rey, currently the most successful bullfighter. The experience and his performance were simply splendid. Roca Rey performed together with José María Manzanares and Alejandro Marcos, and with bulls provided by García Jiménez. He was awarded three ears, hence, he was borne triumphantly aloft through the main gate, “Puerta de los Cónsules” at Nimes Roman amphitheater. The atmosphere in the city those days was ecstatic.
Museums. This year again we took benefit of every road trip to visit as many museums and castles as we could, among them: the Naval and Aviation museums in Madrid, the museum of the battle at Las Navas de Tolosa, the Great War musem at Péronne (finally! I had tried to visit it before but is always closed during Christmas), Château de Meung-sur-Loire, Château de Blérancourt (which includes the Franco-American museum), Château de Sully-sur-Loire, the visit of the roofs at Seville Cathedral and the Roman settlement at Colonia Ulpia Traiana (Germany).
Shows. In the past two years with the pandemic we had not gone to any show; in this 2022 I loved going to the cinema again, with some work colleagues to watch Top Gun Maverick (superb!) and the musical Malinche, about the conquest of Tenochtitlan, produced by the artist Nacho Cano, which was another great experience.
Blogging: This is the 13th year since I started the blog, but I didn’t manage to write much, only 5 blog posts in 2022. The blog received just above 21,200 visits in 2022 (the least since 2012) and over 473,000 since I started it in 2010.
Not everything was positive in 2022: a former work colleague passed away, so did the parents of other friends and colleagues, plus the Russian invasion of Ukraine which created havoc in many families, including the many refugees host in the region. Hopefully in 2023 that war comes to an end.
On the positive side, some colleagues and friends had new babies and got married in this 2022!
Now it’s time to rest, celebrate with the family and hope for the best in 2023. This year we will participate again in the San Silvestre Vallecana in Madrid running along tens of thousands of other runners in the evening of this December 31st as a farewell to the year. For the moment we have just a couple of planned trips for 2023, to the Netherlands and another skiing week in Vars, but hopefully many more activities will make it memorable as well.
Last Sunday, October 9th, together with my friend Juan and my brother Jaime, we traveled to Bucharest to take part in its marathon, with around 700 runners registered in the distance.
We picked Bucharest following our series of marathons abroad (to combine tourism with long distance running) that has taken some of us to run together in Paris, Berlin, Roma, Athens, Rotterdam, New York, Sevilla (x3), Madrid, Millau, Dublin (x2), Lisboa, Vienna, Krakow, Porto and now Bucharest.
To prepare for this marathon I followed the same 16-week training plan I had used in the past. Just before those 16 weeks of the plan, thanks to a running challenge we followed in the company, I cumulated ~240km in 4 weeks between end May and end June. Then I kicked off slow with the plan as I had some weeks in which I traveled due to family and work. In the end I arrived to Bucharest with less mileage (460km) in the legs in those 16 weeks than I would have liked. I trained quite well between August and especially September. In those 16 weeks I averaged 35km per week, completed 4 long runs (of 22km, 27km, 30km and 21km – with positive feelings especially in this last one) and a few sessions of series, though not enough of them to get a bit faster. I was confident in being able to complete the marathon in a time between 4h05′ and 4h15′ even if the final mark was uncertain.
The profile in Bucharest is rather flat. The organization prepared a circuit mainly composed of long avenues, allowing us to run at constant pace though there were up to eight sharp U-turns. The race started and finished in the Constitution square, in front of the iconic Parliament building. And we stayed the weekend at an apartment at walking distance from the place.
The temperature was mild in the morning, the sky was clear and it would be a bit hot towards the end of the race, though the temperature did not exceed 22°C. My strategy was to start at a pace just below 6min per km, and then, if I felt well, accelerate the pace at mid-race so that I could target a time below 4h15′. There were pacers for times aiming at every 15-minute mark and even though I did not follow any of them they were useful as references at every U-turn (i.e., I could see how far I was from each of the 4h00 and 4h15 pacers as I ran always in between them).
The bad news of the weekend was that my brother Jaime fell sick and by Saturday afternoon the throat ache he developed did not allow him to swallow without strong pain. He stayed in the apartment and finally took the decision not to take part in the race on Sunday, as in a marathon you need to constantly drink and eat.
The race started at 9:30am and we ran together with the participants in the half marathon and the relay race. That made the first half of the race a bit more crowded. For the first 13-14 kilometres Juan and I ran together, all the way up to the Arch of Triumph and down to the Romanian Athenaeum. Up until then we had averaged ~5’50″/km including a technical stop. Then, Juan softened his pace and stayed behind.
I kept my pace for a few kilometres including the stretch in the Cișmigiu Gardens where I found it difficult to run with the narrower paths (compared to the big avenues of the rest of the race) and the irregular ground. From the km 18 I increased the pace and averaged ~5’40″km in the next 13 kilometres until the km 30 mark. In that stretch we ran long kilometres by the Dâmbovița river, we passed the half marathon by the Parliament, we ran by the iconic Bucharest Fountains (by then we were no longer a crowd but a flow of isolated runners and some small groups)…
At the km 31 the race circuit went back to the Bulevardul Unirii, where we first turned to the East all the way to the National Arena (by the km 36) and then took a U-turn to head West back to the Parliament building. The circuit was quite straightforward in that last quarter of the race. There I felt the legs a bit stiffer, but I managed to keep a constant pace which was only slowed down at a supply post and a medical stop that made me lose some 30 seconds. I averaged 5’55″/km from the km 31 to the 41.
In all those kilometres I had seen the pacers of 4h00 not very far away and the 4h15 at increasing distances behind me. I started to make the numbers in my head and realized that I could well be somewhat below 4h05 and set that as an objective for the last kilometres, to try to run a faster marathon than my previous one in Sevilla.
The last 3 km of the race are superb. The race goes back to the Bulevardul Unirii and you have the view of the imposing Parliament building at the end of it, where you know that the Finish line is located. I kept my pace along the 40th and 41st kilometres and only gave it all at the last 1,200 metres.
In the end, I clocked a net time of 4h04’09”, a time better than what I expected and a bit faster (45″) than in Sevilla earlier this year (where I finished stronger but did a slower first half). Bucharest 2022 has been my 23rd marathon completed, easy to say today but not so on April 30th 2000 when I started in the distance in Madrid.
With those 4h04’09”, I was again above the 4-hour mark and finished in the 317th place out of 640 finishers (50% percentile). That time makes it my 9th worst marathon, though with a better time than the last three marathons and with a very positive feeling all along the race (for a second marathon in a row), thus, I am already thinking on getting again more serious with the series training to target a time under 4 hours in the next marathon, possibly next spring.
The organization of the race was great. The circuit showed a magnificient and beautiful city. They could have included some more water supply posts, but at least we could get water bottles to administer the water ingestion in between posts. I also missed some gels provided by the organization or more isotonic drinks; but with what they provided and the three gels I took I could manage the race well. The finish line was great, the wardrobe service was close to the start and finish line, there were even some puffs where to sit and rest by the finish area… It was a great experience.
Looking forward to the next race, that one with Jaime running with us again.
Last Sunday, February 20th, together with my friend Juan and my brother Jaime, I took part in the Sevilla marathon, with over 10,000 runners registered.
Following two years of not having taken part in any marathon due to restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the three of us subscribed to the marathon following our series of marathons abroad (to combine tourism with long distance running) that has taken us to run together in Roma, Athens, Rotterdam, New York, Sevilla, Madrid, Millau, Lisboa, Vienna, Krakow, Porto and now Sevilla, again.
To prepare for this marathon I followed the same 16-week training plan I had used in the past. I arrived to Sevilla with more mileage (629km) in the legs than in the case of the last few marathons. I trained quite well in November, December and the first week of January. Then, I caught Covid-19 and had to stop running for about 10 days. During the last two weeks of the plan, with workload and work-related travel, I found it difficult to train, but most of the training was already done. In those 16 weeks I averaged over 41km per week, completed 5 long runs (of over 21km, twice 23km, 27km and 30km) and a few sessions of series, though not enough of them to get a bit faster. The negative note was that in the last long run over 21km (just two weeks before the race) I finished very weak and with bad feelings for the race in terms of targeting a pace at or below 4 hours, but still with the confidence of being able to finish it even if the final time was uncertain.
The profile in Sevilla is rather flat. The organization changed the circuit in comparison to the previous times we had taken part in the race. It did not start and finish at the athletics stadium in La Cartuja, but close to the Parque Maria Luisa.
The temperature was fresh in the morning, the sky was clear and it would be a bit hot towards the end of the race, though the temperature did not exceed 19°C. My strategy was to start with a pace just below 6min per km, so that I could target a time slightly below or around 4h15′, with no pacers for that time.
Despite the 10,000 runners taking part in the race, we could easily run from the start at the targeted pace. For the first 16-17 kilometres we ran the three of us together, then my brother Jaime went ahead and Juan and I kept running together until about the half marathon, which we crossed in 2h04’59” net time (at a pace of 5’55” per km). Then, Juan softened his pace and stayed behind. I increased my pace in the second half, finding my brother again at around the km 28 and, after exchanging a few words about how we were doing at that moment, I went forward.
In the second half of the race I found myself quite at ease with the pace and averaged 5’41” per km to achieve a negative split; completing the second half of the marathon in just few seconds below 2 hours.
In the end, I clocked a net time of 4h04’56”, a time better than what I expected (~4h15′). Sevilla 2022 was my 22nd marathon completed, easy to say today but not so on April 30th 2000 when I completed my first one in Madrid.
With those 4h04’56”, I was again above the 4-hour mark and finished in the 5664th real place (or 5721st official place, in the bottom half, though the percentile is not yet clear as the results are temporary), while I overtook over 1,200 runners in the second half of the race. That time makes it my 8th worst marathon, though with a better time than the last two marathons and with a very positive finish, thus, I am already thinking on getting again under 4 hours in the next marathon, possibly next autumn.
This marathon left me some memorable moments:
seeing my cousin Marileo and her kids while we passed in front of her house,
running several kilometres with Juan and Jaime,
the good feelings of the second half marathon.
The organization of the race was great. There were supply posts of water and isotonic drinks very often, thus we did not need to carry bottles at any moment. They provided a very handy and light cap to protect us from the sun. And there were plenty of music stations to cheer us up in the second half of the race.
The marathon in itself was also a success as the winner Asrar Abderehman set a new race record with 2:04:43 (making Sevilla the 13th world fastest marathon) and the Spanish Ayad Lamdassem set a new national record with 2:06:25.
Time to look back and reflect on how the year which is about to end developed. Brief recap of my 2021. (*)
If I had to pick a couple of personal and positive memories from this 2021 they would be:
Flight excursion to Norway, when three general aviation planes went together from Toulouse to the North Cape in Norway. That was a great experience in which in we flew for over 46 hours in 7 flying days, with a maximum over 9 hours the last day. We completed 15 flights.
North Cape (Norway) from our plane
Family trip to Paris during the autumn school break, when we took the opportunity to visit with the kids the Eiffel tower, Disneyland park for a second time and the Parc Asterix for the first time. We had plenty of fun with the kids in those days.
Family: Andrea is now 8 years old and David, 5. Andrea has been learning piano for most of the year, she enjoyed very much climbing, reading, singing in the school choir or doing handcraft. David learned this year to ride his bike, he’s becoming confident with English language, and started to write, read and do some math. This year we couldn’t go skiing together to the Alps (as stations were mostly closed in France), so we just went skiing one day in the Pyrenees. On the other hand, since September we started taking golf lessons altogether, though what the kids enjoyed the most was the swimming season during the summer, even if this year the weather wasn’t the best for that purpose.
Reconnecting: in our experience 2021 has been a more relaxed year than 2020 was, even if not back to normal. We did not travel far but we made some trips and excursions, we met everyone of our closer family (we visited them and received visits at our place), started to reconnect with some cousins and several friends that we hadn’t seen in two or more years. It felt great.
Flying: Thanks to the aforementioned excursion to Norway this year I flew 30 flying hours, more than in any of the past 10 years. I also took part in another flight excursion to Biscarrosse flying for the first time with my colleague Thomas. During the excursion to Norway I flew for the first time with Jérémie and later with Andrea, the flight instructor with whom I renewed the license for two more years.
Running: even if I did not complete any single race in 2021 (even if I was registered in two) the year has been positive in this front. Following over a year of either not finding the motivation or not keeping the habit to run, since the end of May, the chatting about the sporting activities we had done the previous day(s) with a couple of work colleagues (Alex and Patrick) helped to build up the frequency of runs.
From then on, I exchanged with my brother on the idea of getting back into shape to start marathoning again in a not too distant future. With that I found myself with serious mileage cumulated from June to September (a bit less in end July and August due to different trips and visits). We then registered for the Sevilla marathon (taking place in February 2022) and started the 16-week training plan in November… in the end I have run over 1,300km in 2021, with less than 230km till the end of May and 920km in the second half of the year.
Travelling: After so many months of restrictions, in October 2021 I flew commercial for the first time in two years! I felt like a kid in a first flight. A month later, I flew again. Hopefully traveling becomes soon the norm again.
This year we visited some new and old places: Biscarrosse, Mazamet, Montpellier, Grignan, Lyon, Besançon, Colmar, Strasbourg, the Ligne Maginot at Schoenenbourg, Verdun, Hoge Kempen national park in Belgium (where we spent a few days with the family to celebrate the 50th anniversary of my in-laws), Maastricht (so many years ago since the last time!, where we met Luca’s friends for a wedding), Doncourt-lès-Conflans, Tønder (Denmark), Trondheim, Bodø and Alta (Norway), San Sebastián, Madrid (first beer in a terrace there in 2 years!), Chateauroux, Valençay, Paris (Disneyland again! and Parc Asterix), Orleans, Milano (18 years later!)…
Reading: I started 2021 reading at a good pace until summer holidays, then a couple of trips interrupted my rhythm and it took me months to recover it in the last two months. In the end I completed 20 books and read above 6,500 pages (about half of last year). For the detailed list of books, see the post I wrote about my 2021 reading list with a brief description of each book.
Blogging: This year in February was the 11th anniversary of the blog, but I didn’t manage to write much; only 8 blog posts in 2021. The blog received just above 22,000 visits in 2020 (the least since 2012) and over 450,000 since I started it in 2010.
Work: This year the commercial activity of the company started to pick up, so it became more interesting with more customer facing activities, including visiting them by both Luca and me, in our different roles (she switched jobs). And we even launched a new product, the A350F freighter aircraft.
Now it’s time to rest, celebrate with the family and hope for the best in 2022. This year again there will be no running the San Silvestre Vallecana in Madrid with tens of thousands of other runners in the evening of this December 31st (even if we subscribed to it), but a lonely ~10km run in our village. We have a couple of planned trips for 2022: to Sevilla for the marathon and another skiing week in Vars (hopefully this year is not cancelled!), let’s cross fingers so that we can accomplish those two plans and the many more that should follow.
Other than that, my wishes for 2022 are simple and basic: that the critically of the pandemic fades away in a short time and that the general public and economy can get to their normal lives.
Last Sunday, November 3rd, together with my friends Juan, Manuel and my brother Jaime, I took part in the Porto marathon, with nearly 4,000 runners registered.
The four of us subscribed to the marathon following our series of marathons abroad (to combine tourism with long distance running) that has taken us to run together in Roma, Athens, Rotterdam, Sevilla, Madrid, Millau, Lisboa, Vienna, Krakow and now Porto.
As with the previous marathons in the past two years, I arrived to Porto short of training, with just 427 km in the legs (in the previous 16 weeks), a new minimum and some 30 km less than for Krakow and 20 less than for Vienna, a solid between 200 and 300 km less than when I have closely followed the training plans in the past years. As you can see below, I found myself at 6 weeks before the race without having consistently trained for two weeks in a row and about 10-12 kg overweight, and then I put myself to the business of mitigating the damage. The same story than for the previous two marathons.
In those last weeks of the plan I averaged 50 km per week, but I only did a couple of long runs while running some trail races (of 24 and 26 km) and did only complete 2 series sessions the week before the marathon. Meanwhile, I lost some 4 kg (but still at 89 kg) and arrived with the confidence of being able to finish it even if the final time was uncertain.
The profile was nearly flat with a few short climbs. The race started at a park close to Matosinhos village and then goes towards Porto by the road following the coast with great views of the waves breaking at the shore. Once in Porto the marathon goes back and forth on both sides of the river, to later come back to the same park. Before the race I thought I would not like the passing many times over the same places but it helped to mentally break the race into pieces.
The temperature was fresh, the sky was mostly covered and it could rain but did it only for a few minutes. My strategy was to start with the 4h15′ pacers until I could not keep up with them, hoping to come with them until the km 30 and then see.
With just 4,000 runners taking part in the race, we could easily run after the first kilometre and I quickly caught the pacers. Then, I started running a few metres in front of them and a few seconds faster than the target pace until around the km 25. I continued at about the target pace until the km 32, when the pacers overtook me. I then continued to follow a softer pace but found myself quite comfortable till the end, with a couple of kilometres taking longer due to stopping some seconds at the water and food supply posts.
In the end, I clocked a net time of 4h17’57”, a time around of what I expected (~3′ worse than 4h15′) in view of the lack of training and overweight. It was my 21st marathon completed, easy to say today but not so on April 30th 2000 when I completed my first one in Madrid.
With the 4h17’57”, I was again above the 4-hour mark, and finished in the 2442nd place of the 3804 finishers, that is in the percentile 36% (bottom half). That time makes it my 4th worst marathon, after 2 of the first 3 that I did almost 20 years ago and that of Vienna a year ago.
This marathon left me some memorable moments:
as the circuit has runners going in different directions in both sides of the road for most of the time, I could see the winner, my brother a couple of times, my friends Juan and Manuel, the former world champion Marti Fiz.
just after the km 32 the race enters into the tunnel “da Ribeira” for around 150m in which the organization had placed several screens and speakers playing the theme from Vangelis for the film “Chariots of fire”. That was overwhelming.
After crossing the finish line, I stayed in the park cheering fellow runners as they approached the last metres of their race while I waited for Juan and my brother.
Last Sunday, April 28th, together with my friend Juan and my brother Jaime, I took part in the Krakow marathon, with above 6,300 runners registered.
The three of us subscribed to the marathon following our series of marathons abroad (to combine tourism with long distance running) that has taken us to run together in Athens, Sevilla, Madrid, Lisboa, Vienna and now Krakow.
As with the previous two marathons in 2018, in Vienna and Dublin, I arrived to Krakow short of training, with just above 458 km in the legs (in the previous 16 weeks), some 15 km less than for Dublin and 10 more than for Vienna, but between 200 and 300 km less than when I have closely followed the training plans in the past years. As you can see below, I found myself at the end of the 8th week of the plan (beginning of March, just after the skiing break) without having trained much and with 8 weeks to go and about 10-12 kg overweight, and then I put myself to the business. The same story than for the previous two marathons.
In the 8 weeks prior to the marathon week I averaged 49 km per week, but I only did a couple of long runs (of 25 and 27 km) and didn’t complete series sessions as after the increase of volume in the 10th week I started having pain in the hip, so I kept up the volume, softened the pace and forgot about the series. In the last 3 weeks, however, I did not keep up with the good volume of the previous ones. Meanwhile, I lost some 6 kg and arrived with the confidence of being able to finish it even if the final time was uncertain.
The profile was nearly flat with a few short climbs. The temperature was fresh (10 degrees Celsius at the departure time), the sky was covered and it rained from the beginning to the end. My strategy was to start with the 4-hour pacers until I could not keep up with them, hoping to come with them until the km 30 and then see. Juan started the race with me and we ran together for about 14 km ahead of the pacers.
With less than 6,000 runners taking part in the race (a few hundreds of those registered didn’t start), we could easily run from the beginning and in fact we did the first couple of kilometres a bit faster than intended so we softened the pace. Since then we ran more or less at the target pace (5’41” per km), at the km 14 Juan dropped a bit backwards as he had announced much earlier, and at the km 26 I was caught by the first of the 4-hour pacers, the last of which overtook me at the km 29. I tried not to lose much distance with them but after the km 32 I was feeling the legs much stiffer and I started to soften the pace with only 10 km to go and the only mental objective of finishing the race.
In the end, I clocked a net time of 4h11’17”, a time around of what I expected (5-10′ worse than 4 hours) in view of the lack of training and the rain; it was a tough day of running (a bit better than the feelings in Vienna though). It was my 20th marathon completed, easy to say today but not so on April 30th 2000 when I completed my first one in Madrid.
With the 4h11’17”, I was again above the 4-hour mark, and finished in the 3204th place of the 5184 finishers (see the diploma below), that is in the percentile 38% (bottom half). That time makes it my 4th worst marathon, after 2 of the first 3 that I did almost 20 years ago and that of Vienna a year ago.
After crossing the finish line, I crossed the market square of Krakow, entered the hotel, took a picture with the finisher medal (above), took a shower and waited for Jaime and Juan to share the experiences of each other and start thinking of the next marathon.
The Blog by Javier 