A race through the illuminated Madrid, a finish through the working-class and passionate neighborhood, and a modest celebration with her boy “with grapes or candy” to welcome the new year. The San Silvestre Vallecana is yours. He discovered it in 2024. The night of December 31 that saw Ruth Chepngetich, the world marathon record holder, falter, the same one who weeks later was discovered to be running cheating, and took her first victory. The second arrived 12 months later. in the stadium where a huge banner paid tribute to the recently deceased Jorge Ilegal. New times, wild times. There, wild, unbeatable, the woman from Palencia triumphed again, (31m 11s), the all-time record for a Spanish woman in Vallecas.
The already double champion of the San Silvestre knew the pitfalls of the circuit. The famous Vallecas hill, where people gather with cans of beer and euphoria for the end of the year, where its rhythm began to hurt Diane Van Es. Or the most winding stretch, where she had already lost sight of the Dutchwoman to enter triumphantly, raising her arms, into the stadium, where the crowd ignored the cold and humidity rising from the grass. Where a few minutes earlier, a Kenyan who is a three-time half-marathon world champion and two-time cross-country world champion, Geoffrey Kamworor, took the victory in men (27m 41s) after descending from the Bernabéu to Cibeles and Atocha alongside the Spanish Jesús Ramos, who came in second and also went under 28 minutes. Third was another Spaniard, Aarón las Heras.
Marta García couldn’t celebrate in a big way. In 11 days she will put on her number again, again in a 10K, the one in Valencia, the fastest in the world, where she hopes to break the Spanish record (31m 11s) of Carla Gallardo, another woman from Palencia, who was third in Madrid before saying goodbye to her training group to move to León with José Enrique Villacorta.
“With this environment and these people from Vallecas, it goes by very quickly,” explained Marta García. “People carry you along. This race is very hard, but thanks to the public it is very easy for me,” said the athlete who had just won the San Silvestre de León and who hopes to close her trilogy on the asphalt with success, and perhaps a record, in Valencia on January 11.
Madrid once again said goodbye to the year with the race. . An event in which athletes such as Mariano Haro, Roger Clark, Carlos Lopes, José Luis González, Eliud Kipchoge, Joshua Cheptegei, Grete Waitz, Carmen Valero and Rosa Mota triumphed. Before, more than 40,000 people enjoyed this universal race, the same one that was founded decades ago to see if a few would sign up to run.
