MY STORY

Hi! My name's Valentina and I'm a runner

I started running in 2019, when the COVID pandemic broke out and we weren’t allowed to leave the house.

I wasn’t an athlete, I had never run in my life, and I didn’t know whether I would enjoy it. But I wanted to start exercising, and using the treadmill I had at home seemed like a great way to begin.

The very first time I tried running, I lasted THREE MINUTES. I’m not joking. But I didn’t give up. I kept trying — although definitely not every day! Slowly but surely, with determination and consistency, my endurance improved.

I worked my way up to 5K, then 10K — I still remember nearly passing out face-first the first time — then 15K and finally… in 2023, I decided to run my first half marathon.

At the time, running 21 kilometres seemed completely crazy. But I had already been running for three years, and I wanted to give it a try. It went brilliantly! I did it in 2:19:59. I felt incredibly proud of myself and happy to have achieved my goal. So I decided to keep going and ran several more half marathons, always finishing in more or less the same time.

But I didn’t care about running to compete or improve my time. I ran because I enjoyed it and wanted to have fun — as well as stay fit!

Rome Marathon

In 2025, I ran my first MARATHON in beautiful ROME.

Once again, running 42 kilometres seemed like an enormous challenge. It meant running two half marathons back-to-back and spending at least five hours completing the entire course.

I trained for six months, three times a week. The closer race day got, the more anxious I became. Not because I was aiming for an extraordinary performance, but because it was my first time attempting that distance, and I was afraid I might not make it.

But I kept telling myself: “Give it everything you’ve got. Don’t think about the time, and don’t think about the speed. Just do it.”

And it was amazing! Rome is a wonderful city, an open-air museum. The marathon route motivates you to keep going and never give up — and I didn’t.

Of course, it was incredibly hard, and I walked for parts of the course. But nowhere does it say that you have to run an entire marathon from start to finish without taking any breaks!

When I crossed the finish line, I burst into tears like a child as they handed me my medal. Then I realised that I had finished in 5:07:59.

I would have loved to finish in under five hours, but who cares? It was my first marathon — simply finishing it was already an incredible achievement!

Milan Marathon

I came home feeling happy and proud. Instead of saying, “That’s it — no more marathons!” — which is what everyone thinks after finishing one — things didn’t quite go that way.

For the next few months, my brain wanted absolutely nothing to do with another marathon. But once the summer was over, the idea of giving it another try slowly began to creep back into my mind.

Without even knowing which marathon I would enter, I started training again. In the meantime, I ran two SuperHalfs — Berlin and Valencia — and it was around that time that I decided to run the MILAN MARATHON.

I spent the following months memorising the course, just as I had done for Rome. By the end, I knew exactly what to expect at every kilometre.

And so, in 2026, I found myself standing on the start line once again. I hadn’t slept at all, my stomach hurt, and my motivation was practically non-existent. But I pushed myself all the way to the finish line and crossed it in 4:53:01.

A new personal best!

So, as of today, I can say that I have run 19 half marathons and 2 marathons — something I never would have thought possible when I first started.

I’m definitely not an elite athlete. In fact, statistics would probably define me as a “slow runner,” but the truth is that my times are average for women in my category. Some women run faster, but there will always be others who run more slowly.

I know how difficult it is not to be influenced by other people — it happens to me too. But we should never compare ourselves to others. We should focus on ourselves and on our own progress.

For me, running is not a race against other people, and it is not a competition to see who can go the fastest. It is a personal challenge to reach the finish line.

Being able to run even just 5K — let alone a MARATHON — is an incredible achievement!

So, if you are like me and are looking for someone who started from scratch and made it, get in touch. I’ll help you work towards your goal!

MY NEXT RACE ---> LONDON MARATHON 'THE DOUBLE'

MY RACES:

SUPER HALF: BERLIN 21KM

SUPER HALF: VALENCIA 21KM

MARATHON: ROME 42KM

MARATHON: MILAN 42KM

LONDON LANDMARKS HALF MARATHON 21KM

STRAMILANO 21KM

STRAWOMAN 1OKM

DEEJAY 10KM

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