Olympic triathlon champion Alex Yee warmed up for his second marathon in encouraging style when he clocked a time of 1:01:30 as he finished 19th in the Valencia Half Marathon on Sunday – though he later said he was a “bit disappointed” with the time.
Yee chose to make his official 13.1-mile road race debut in one of the world’s biggest – and quickest – half marathons and he showed training is very much on track as he largely focusses on running this year rather than triathlon.
He made a sensational bow over 26.2 miles when he was 14th in the London Marathon earlier this year in a time of 2:11:08 but is confident he can go markedly quicker in the Valencia Marathon on Sunday 7th December. Putting this half marathon time through an age-grading calculator suggests something around the 2:08 mark.
Conditions in the Spanish city were significantly cooler than they had been the previous day when temperatures climbed to 30 degrees but while Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha repeated last year’s win, he didn’t get close to his time of 57:30 which was a world record until Jacob Kiplimo clocked 56:42 in Barcelona.
Kejelcha still won convincingly, his 58:02 over half a minute ahead of the rest.
28:45 for first 10km
Since London Yee has taken in a couple of triathlon races – winning on his comeback at Supertri Toronto and then finishing ninth at WTCS French Riviera when he and Hayden Wilde – the man he beat to gold in Paris last summer – were on the wrong side of a bike split.
But since then he has been doing plenty of training with top British marathon runner Phil Sesemann.
And there was a clear indication recently that the training was very much on schedule. For Sesemann, whose main target is also Valencia, competed in the Amsterdam Marathon en route to that and clocked a new PB of 2:07:16 as he took 10th, saying afterwards: “Onwards to Valencia in 7 weeks where I’ll play it a little less safe 😎”
Yee reinforced that impression with his half marathon display here which began with a 28:45 for the first 10km and was followed by a 29:37 second 10km and then 3:08 for the last 1.1km.
Writing on Instagram afterwards Yee said: “Always an honour to be running with this company but leaving Valencia a bit disappointed. I felt like I had a minute more but determined to learn and grow from it! Thanks everyone for the messages, I seriously appreciate it.”
Flat and fast
There was another swim / bike / run connection too as Yee ran pretty much the whole way in Valencia with Australian Jimmy Whelan (1:01:37) who is a former pro cyclist turned triathlete.
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Looking ahead to December, Valencia is renowned as one of the fastest marathons in the world, with minimal elevation and it normally has favourable cooler weather given its slot in the calendar.
The unexpected heat in London in late April meant that Yee, in common with the majority of the elite field, slowed down in the closing stages.
Valencia also featured in Yee’s London build-up as he finished in the top 30 against the world’s best in a 10km race there in early January with a time of 28:07.
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