Making running for work a hobby

Every runner needs to specifically prepare for high-calibre races such as a marathon or half-marathon. But at the end of the day running is a very healthy hobby. Many times people prepare for a race as a way for self-improvement, but in some cases running to stay in shape is also a question of work.

This is the case for many men and women who are training to pass the police and firefighter public exams. True athletes destined to serve the public that have also become regulars at prearranged running meet-ups. Competitive motivation both as a hobby and leisure, as well as essential to the preparatory base to face their future or immediate work.

Miguel Ángel Ruiz is a teacher and director of Clockwork, a company that physically prepares firefighters and police officers for the public exams and who also has a lot of runners on his roster. They started out as 3 or 4 frequent runners and now have more than 100 people that go to races with uniforms under their t-shirts.

Miguel Ángel thinks that running is essential for the physical preparation of any sport or work where fitness is key. And Jorge Ibáñez, a participant in the training, and runner already signed up for the 2015 Trinidad Alfonso Valencia Marathon, agrees: “It is a way to build a base for sport. To be able to increase strength or power the first thing to do is get a base, which you achieve by running”.

All of the ‘clockworkers’, who train at the Blasco Ibáñez campus at Valencia University, spend an average of 90 minutes three days a week running. However, those who aspire to greater heights, like those who want to improve their time in the Trinidad Alfonso Valencia Marathon can spend up to 10 hours a week running, as in the case of Jorge Ibáñez.

Jorge Ibáñez and Sergio Gómez are participating in the second consecutive edition of the Trinidad Alfonso Valencia Marathon. Both highlight the great ambience of the event both on and off the road, something they say is that it is “unique and something you don’t see in any other races” in Spain. “I think that everybody who runs has to run a marathon at least once, because it’s the ultimate test. Last year I ran my first marathon and I’ve never experienced anything like the atmosphere I lived in that marathon anywhere else”, Jorge said.

As well as being the training coordinator, Miguel Ángel runs all of the popular races from the Valencian government as part of a group, and confesses that “the feeling you get when you pass the finish line in a marathon is like nothing from any other race. Not the half-marathon, or the triathlon, or any other race that I’ve done. The marathon, as I lived it, is like nothing else, and beyond that the moving goal gives you something that no other race has”.

Sergio, compares the trial to the great mountain passes in cycling races because of the large crowds: “when you go down Calle Colón in the direction of the old riverbed it seems like the Tour de France, only two or three runners fit through because the people are on the road shouting encouragement”.

However, Clockwork, not being a running club, doesn’t have any objectives for the race. But they have it clear, they want to enjoy Valencia as a City of Running. Well, Miguel Ángel, as he is preparing people, does have one: that people who run don’t injure themselves on route and reach their professional goals.