I participated in the 2017 Valencia Marathon for the first time after reading positive feedback on social media following the 2016 race. There are not a lot of big city IAAF label races which take place in November so this was the perfect way to end the running year. 

This was my first time visiting Valencia, having only been to Madrid and Barcelona previously. I went from Thursday to Monday so that I could explore the city as well.

Registration for the race is available until a week or so before race day and the entry fees increase as you get closer to race day - €45 to €75. 

Valencia is called the "city of running" for good reason. The race weekend consists of the sport expo on Friday and Saturday, breakfast run and fun runs (mini marathon) on Saturday and the 10k and marathon on Sunday. I went to the expo on Friday afternoon. It took place at the City of Arts and Sciences which is a complex of museums, the opera house, aquarium and parks. This is also the race village, start and finish areas.

The expo was a standard marathon expo with bib number collection on the upper level, runner bag/t-shirt collection and exhibitors on the lower level. There is also a free paella party for runners (and paying non-runners) on Saturday but I didn't attend. 

I didn't plan on spending too much time on my feet on Saturday, but while was out to carb load for race day, I watched the mini marathon for a short while and soaked up the atmosphere there. 

On Sunday the race was scheduled to start in waves with the first wave setting off at 08:30. I was in the pink wave with the start time of 08:46. I took a slow walk to the start area from my hotel and arrived there just after 7:15. I waited around and kept warm until about 7:45 then delayered and handed my bag in to the volunteers. The bag drop was extremely well organised. I stopped at the portaloos on my way to my start pen. There were enough portaloos available. The ones close to the bag drop usually always have the longest queues but there were others down the side road with a shorter queue. 

The race itself was the best marathon that I've done in Europe! The course was flat as a pancake and was really scenic, passing residential areas as well as tourist attractions and shopping areas. The roads on which the race is run were wide enough and did not feel crowded at all. There were refreshment stations every 5k and were well stocked with water, powerade and after 20k also included energy gels, fruit and nuts. There were also volunteers offering leg cooling spray from the 15k mark. The atmosphere and spectator support was phenomenal - there is no need to wear headphones during this race. The temperature was about 19-20 degrees when I got to the 35k mark and I had to walk a little bit but the cheering and support made me start running again. The finish straight was on a purpose built platform over the water feature on the lower level of the City of Arts and Sciences which was awesome. It was also overlooked by two grandstands were spectators could watch and cheer. 

The finish funnel was breeze to get though with water, powerade and oranges available. The medal was a big, chunky and uniquely shaped. 

I cannot recommend the Valencia Marathon enough! Everything about the race is positive - organisation, course, support, atmosphere, marshalls, volunteers and city. It is a race that needs to be added to the majors!