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Valencia marathon 2025, SUB 2:40, dream come true

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I’ve been dreaming of this moment for years and years. 
I’ve accomplished some things in life, but I’ve never been more proud as I am of this accomplishment. 

I know most of us are surrounded by a bubble that makes it look like the entire world is running marathons, but the truth is very few people in the world can run a marathon, much fewer can do it in under 2:40 hours, and if we talk about how many can do it in my age, 44.5 - we probably talk about few hundreds, out of more than 8 billion. And I know, you’re probably thinking reading this - oh, this guy is very full of himself, and you’d be right - I’m indeed very proud of what I’ve achieved and I’m not trying to hide it, but to be honest, the point I’m trying to make is exactly the opposite - 

There is absolutely nothing special about me. To the very least - I definitely don’t have any special talent for long distance running. If you don’t believe me, here’s a brief summary of my running history - 
I ran my first half marathon when I was 28 (2010), at the time of 1:59, and more or less at the same time ran 10k for the first time @~55 minutes. It took me 3 more years and 4 more halves to finally crack sub 1:40 at half marathon, and when I finally managed to get my body to be able to endure a marathon training block, I ran my debut marathon in a time of 3:18:58, 12 years ago. Slightly better than an average marathon time, but definitely not anything special.
It took me 3 more years after that, to enter the sub3 marathon club (January 2017, almost 9 years ago) for the first time. 
Six years later, at the age of 41, I barely cracked the sub 2:50 marathon for the first time, and I was pretty sure that that’s also where I would be stopped. I just couldn’t see myself improving much further than that, at that point. 
And then came the last 3 years, where I made the big and significant jump, against all odds, that finally brought me to the sub 2:40 marathon. 
I didn’t get here because of talent. I got here thanks to other qualities that I have, but don’t necessarily apply in other aspects in life - patience, commitment, dedication, determination, stubbornness, perseverance, and tons of passion and willpower. 
I didn’t take any shortcuts, didn’t look for any quick fixes. I simply surrendered myself into the process, believed that at the end of the road, it would eventually pay off. And on marathon no’ 20 - boy it did. 

And this is my message for those who read it. You don’t have to be talented to succeed and accomplish something truly special. Sometimes, it’s enough to simply work hard. Very, very hard. Not look for the shortcut or the quick fix, choose to run more instead of less, choose to do the difficult workout instead of the easy one, choose to commit to the sometimes Sisyphean and tedious process, and believe that with lots of patience, at the end of the road it would pay off. 

Valencia marathon 2025 @2:39:14

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Erez Algazi 🌱

Valencia marathon 2025, SUB 2:40, dream come true

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Valencia marathon 2025, SUB 2:40, dream come true

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