In this mini episode, Sport and Performance Psychologist Stu Holliday answers the question: Why should everyone know about the Valencia marathon? And the second question... and why should they care?!

Whether you are a runner or not, this event is unique in the World of endurance sport and in the imaginations of the organisers. They put themselves in a different place to nearly all other marathon planners in so far of their aims to make the race 'The Everest of Marathons' for all runners. But what does that mean? Why does it take the effort of the city and regional council to support these aims and what, fundamentally, does it mean in relation to how our environment massively influences our thinking, how we behave and what implications that has for performance in life (across all domains!). I believe that the story of what the organisers of the Valencia marathon have done to elevate this small (in size standards) city in relation to elite sport, aiming to facilitate World Records, and creating a destination event has lessons that we can all use to understand how the environment in which we want to perform can have a huge influence on outcome. Dive in to find out more!

Show links:

James Moles is an athlete and run coach with his own company (https://www.jamesmolesrunningcoaching.com/)

James Power of 10 performance page: https://www.thepowerof10.info/athletes/profile.aspx?athleteid=324086

Lewis Moses is the MD of New Levels Coaching - The UK's largest run coaching company.

Lewia Power of 10 performance page:

https://www.thepowerof10.info/athletes/profile.aspx?athleteid=6495

Articles cited in episode:

Let's Run 'How did Valencia become the ciudad del running?' https://www.letsrun.com/news/2022/12/how-valencia-became-the-ciudad-del-running/

Running Magazine Canada: https://runningmagazine.ca/sections/runs-races/valencia-marathon-sees-record-number-of-sub-three-hour-finishers/