Andrea Romero had the answer in her Formentera. The island where she grew up, she recalls, is about 21 kilometers from tip to tip, and if she tries to run further she meets the Mediterranean, so her distance could only be the half marathon. And that is despite she began successfully on the track, where she became Spanish champion in all the youth categories: 3,000m as sub-18 (2017), 1,500m indoor (2018) and outdoors (2019) as sub-20, and 3,000, 5,000 and cross as sub-23 (2022).
The Balearic athlete, 26 years old, improved marks on the track up to last season, but this year followed her manager Álvaro Rodríguez’s advice, who urged that she could extract all her potential on the road and she decided to debut in the half marathon in March in Berlin. There she stopped the timer at 1h11:27, a promising mark that has encouraged her to persevere on this path. This Sunday she will test herself again in the Valencia Half Marathon Trinidad Alfonso Zurich, where her goal is 1h10:40, the qualifying time for the European Road Championships in Belgrade in April.
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“In Berlin I expected to run 1h12:30, I didn’t think I would run that far. I felt so good that I thought that was my test, and now we have changed many things, the methodology and the mileage. I have gone from weeks of 115-120 kilometers with some of 130 to several weeks in a row of 145 well absorbed in Sierra Nevada. It has been five weeks of a lot of mileage. And earlier in León I combined it with cycling two days, I accumulated 100 running and more than 100 on the bike. That is what gives me margin and confidence,” explains Romero, who a year ago left Valencia for José Enrique Villacorta’s group in León, where she trains with the distance record-holder Carla Gallardo (1h08:30), who will also run alongside the Turia.
“Between Carla and me there are 30 women. In Valencia there is so much volume and density that my mind is set on running at 3:20 per kilometer, and I hope to push a bit later. There are some Spanish women who will also go for the minimum, Ikram Rharsalla, Alicia Berzosa, Beatriz Álvarez… and I know many European girls will want to go for 1h10, just a few. I have to get into a good group, find my pace and suffer a lot, because in Berlin I did not suffer,” analyzes the Hoka athlete, who if she achieves the time she seeks will place herself among the 15 fastest Spanish women in the history of the distance.
ARRIVES AFTER A SATISFACTORY SPRING
Andrea Romero will return to competition after five months. After her great assault at the start of spring on the Road, which included the 10K of Laredo in 32:17, her personal best, she injured herself at the European Cup for the 10,000m in Italy, a bone edema for which she ruled out chasing a 5,000 in the summer as she had planned. “The body told me I had to stop and focus on Valencia,” she explains. “But I haven’t stopped training to recover and become stronger. I’ve only had four days of vacation,” remembers Romero, who returned 20 days ago to Formentera without stopping the plan despite the intense heat and who will return on Monday to her island to take a break with nicer weather.
It won’t be too long, because she hopes to resume the season with cross-country races at Itálica and Atapuerca and to take advantage of her good form to qualify for the European Cross Country Championships in December, also in , and looking ahead to the new year to pursue a fast 10K.
¿Y con la mirada a largo plazo? “Sólo he competido una vez en media maratón, pero me he sentido muy yo, súper cómoda, que dominaba totalmente la carrera. Pensaba que si me ponían 20 kilómetros más los iba a aguantar, así que el maratón se me puede dar bien porque no había hecho kilometraje. Hasta ahora he ido con el freno de mano. Quiero ir poco a poco, pero puedo ser una buena maratoniana”, vaticina Andrea Romero.
