Last Sunday, the Galician marathon runner Yolanda Gutiérrez took a step further in her route to the Rio 2016 Olympic dream by finishing the New York marathon with a great sensation. Our marathon runner has started the sporting season in a great way and has also started in her new team, the Maeloc Way Athletics Club, with which she will run from now on in all her competitions.
Various members of the team accompanied her in her adventure in the Big Apple to enjoy the moment in person. Among them was José María Rivera, Sole Administrator of HR Incorp, who wanted to be near Yolanda on her debut with the Club. Both during the days before the race, as well as during the race itself, the Maeloc Team followed Yolanda to cheer her on through the streets of the city, and welcome her at the finish line.
The New York race is a great step towards the Olympic dream as Yolanda Gutiérrez finished the marathon 24th in the general women’s classification and was the first woman to reach the finish (the only Spanish woman in the first 100 classified), completing the race in 2:52:59. With this time, Yolanda is among the top in the Galician ranking in women’s marathon. The athlete trains and keeps up her strength for her more decisive race, the National Marathon Championship, to be held in February in Seville, where she will aim to make the time that will classify her for the Olympics next summer in Brazil.
After completing the 42 km of the Marathon through the streets of the Big Apple, Yolanda was happy and satisfied with the result:
“I was a little scared that I wouldn’t be able to finish the race as I had had a problem with my peroneus for a couple of weeks. But right from early morning and from the start at the Verrazano Bridge, I felt good, my body responded well to the distance”
“I didn’t come to New York looking to achieve a time, I didn’t want to wear myself down. The aim was to face the feared 42km for the first time this season. This race has served as a test before starting to train again for the Spanish Marathon Championship, and the results are very positive”.
Yolanda also wanted to thank her new club, Maeloc Way, for all the support that they have given her these last months:
“I dedicate this good result to my new club, Maeloc Way. I am really grateful to the for allowing me to take a key leap in my career and for believing in the importance of supporting sport and Galician sportswomen. Thanks to their collaboration I can dream of those objectives that would otherwise be unthinkable”.
Support that for the first time in her sporting career allows her full-time dedication to preparing her personal best in order to aspire to the Olympic dream. And Maeloc will be right beside her on that journey.
Speaking about the route through the streets of New York, Yolanda highlights the exciting route and how the city turns out to support this sporting event:
“You have to live it to know what this race is all about. This city and the public turn out to support the runners in a way that I had never seen before. There are 2 million people in the street shouting and cheering people on non-stop from the very first kilometre, after crossing the bridge, right up to the finish line. On arriving I was congratulated so many times and so effusively that I couldn’t help getting emotional”.
“We all know that running is in fashion, but this race is the best example to show that running is much more than a sport. It’s an example of having to overcome physical and mental barriers which everyone can identify with, even if they have never run before”.
The New York marathon is one of the Majors, the six most important marathons in the world, along with the London, Tokyo, Boston, Chicago and Berlin, in which Yolanda has also taken part. Over 60,000 runners accompanied Yolanda on the streets of New York.
Yolanda Gutiérrez was born in Boiro (A Coruña) in 1982, and she worked as a social worker for 11 years, until last spring when, with the support of Maeloc ciders , she took a step further to become a full-time athlete. A new career that she still combines with her charitable side as she donates a large part of her prize money to NGOs and charities.
Maeloc has wanted to support the talent and effort made by Yolanda Gutiérrez. The fight for her dream has created a special bond with our brand, whose slogan is ”be who you want to be” ; a philosophy that, undoubtedly, is perfectly represented by the Galician athlete.
