You wouldn’t know it from Andrew Colley’s red hot October, but Andrew missed 2 months of training after suffering a foot injury at the Olympic Track Trials this summer. But in typical Andrew Colley fashion, once he got back to training it didn’t take long before all systems were firing. He has turned 2 last minute additions to the racing schedule into 2 new ZAP records. The latest of which came this past weekend in Valencia, Spain where Andrew ran 1:01:35 at the Valencia Half Marathon.
Andrew wasn’t originally on the start line for Valencia, just as he was a late addition to the Twin Cities 10 Miler 3 weeks prior before going on to run a PR and ZAP record of 46:25. In Valencia, the race was broken up into small groups with the top group aiming for (and Yomif Keljecha eventually getting) the world record. Andrew went out with the 3rd group, originally planning on running 1:00:30 pace, the group passed 10k in a relatively slow 29:08 in the rainy conditions.
Just past 11k, Andrew decided to break free from the group and give chase to the pack in front of him. As the competitors began to falter in the conditions, Andrew slowly reeled them in. He ran his way into the top 20, finish 19th in the most competitive half marathon in the world.
Andrew is expected to take another crack at the distance at the Houston Half Marathon in January. You can find results from the top 20 men at Valencia here.