By David Rogers. VALENCIA, Spain — Advertised as one of the fastest half marathon courses in the world, the Valencia Half Marathon lived up to its reputation on Oct. 27.
Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia smashed the the men’s world record, running the 13.1 miles in under an hour, in 57:30. He pulled along a brigade of the world’s top distance runners, including seven others from Kenya, Ethiopia, Bahrain, Spain and France all running under an hour.
Among those enjoying the fast pace was Blowing Rock-based ZAP Endurance team member, Andrew Colley, who crossed the finish line No. 18 (out of more than 20,000 runners) and set a new ZAP Endurance club record for the half marathon, in 1:01:35, just 27 seconds behind the top finisher from the USA, Morgan Pearson (No. 13) and 15 seconds behind the second American, Hillary Bor (No. 14).
Not too coincidentally, Colley’s previous personal best at the half marathon distance came a time of 1:01:39, in Houston, Texas, this past January and establishing the previous club record.
Underlining how fast the field was for the Valencia race, Kenya’s Agnes Ngetich won the women’s division in 1:03:04, just 12 seconds slower than the women’s world record of 1:02:52, set by Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia, in the 2021 Valencia race.
“We had a plan for Andrew’s race and he executed it very well,” said ZAP Endurance head coach Pete Rea. “At 33 years old, Andrew is having the best year of his racing career. This was his eighth personal best established just in 2024. He’ll run in Houston this coming January and we are targeting his going under 1:01, possibly lower.”
This is a busy week for the ZAP Endurance head coach, boarding a plane within the next day for New York City where four members of the Blowing Rock-based professional running team will be competing on the weekend.
Middle distance specialist Dan Shaffer will run on Saturday, Nov. 2, in the Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5K, the runners zipping through the the streets of Midtown Manhattan to the famed finish line of the New York Marathon in Central Park.
ZAP Endurance longer distance specialists Tristan Van Ord, Josh Izewski and Ryan Ford are entered in the New York Marathon, slated for Sunday, Nov. 3.
