About me: Jose Serrano

I’m Jose Serrano, from Valencia, and I run RunningValencia. I’ve played sport all my life and I’ve been running since 2001. At first I ran to get fit for the football season. Over the years, running became the main thing.

My Garmin watch has 2,186 runs and more than 24,000 km logged since December 2008. I have no data from before that: back then I ran without a watch.

My personal bests

Distance	Time	Pace	Race	Date
10 km	39:25	3:56 /km	10K Valencia Ibercaja	14 Jan 2018
15 km	1:00:05	4:00 /km	15 km Vila de Massamagrell	11 May 2013
Half marathon	1:28:56	4:13 /km	Quarta i Mitja Marató Paiporta-Picanya	23 Dec 2012
Marathon	3:24:13	4:50 /km	Valencia Marathon	18 Nov 2012

The races I’ve run

I’ve run a bit of everything: 6 km neighbourhood races, 10Ks, 15 km road races, half marathons and three marathons, almost always in the province of Valencia. These are the ones I have on record:

Valencia Marathon: 2010 (3:57:56), 2011 (3:31:07) and 2012 (3:24:13).
Valencia Half Marathon: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 (1:32:18) and 2019 (1:32:50).
Quarta i Mitja Marató Paiporta-Picanya: 2011 and 2012 (1:28:56, my best half).
Santa Pola Half Marathon: 2012 (1:35:04). Riba-roja Half Marathon: 2013 (1:29:44).
10K Valencia: 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2018 (39:25). Mislata 10K: 2013.
Valencia 15K Night Race: 2013 and 2018. 15K Valencia Abierta al Mar: 2018 (1:00:13).
15 km road races: Massanassa (2012 and 2013), Puçol (2012 and 2013) and Massamagrell (2012 and 2013).
Local races: Turia Natural Park race in Pedralba (2012 and 2013), Volta a Peu a Albal (2012), Volta a Peu a Natzaret (2013), Riba-roja Night Race (2011) and the Avapace Challenge 10K (2014).

For a few years now, between injuries, other commitments and work, I’ve been running less and I no longer race. Even so, I try every day to commit a bit more to getting out for a run.

Two marathons left unfinished

I trained for the 2013 Valencia Marathon aiming to break 3:15, but an injury ruled me out and I never made it to the start.

In 2014 I signed up to run it with my wife, Olga. She asked me to help her train for it, and on race day I ran about 29 km with her, according to my Garmin, because I was still injured. She ran the whole thing.

How this site started

RunningValencia began as the website of a group of friends who ran together in Pinedo. I kept the race calendar, results and photos of the races we went to. Later I learned SEO and affiliate marketing and the site grew with gear and training guides. Today it’s what I always wanted it to be: a place where any runner, from Valencia, from Spain or from abroad, can find the information for their next race and what they need to prepare for it. That’s why it’s also in English: lots of people come to run in Valencia and Spain without speaking Spanish.

How I work

Races: race pages with date, distances, course and elevation profile. I calculate the elevation profiles from the course. When I can, I check the details with the organisers.
Gear and shoes: when I say I’ve tested something, I’ve tested it myself. When I haven’t, I say so and cite where the data comes from.
Health and injuries: I’m not a doctor or a physiotherapist. I write what I would have liked to find when I was injured, and every article links to the health sources the information comes from. It does not replace seeing a professional.
Tools: I built the race calendar, the race map, the pace calculator and the shoe size converter myself.
Artificial intelligence: I use AI tools for part of the content, together with other tools and my own work. I review what gets published and fix what’s wrong. More details in the legal notice.