Valencia’s Iron(Wo)Man
Maria José Martínez Maroto is not an ordinary woman, nor an ordinary athlete; she was the only woman representing Spain in the Half Ironman competition in Puerto Rico on March 20th 2016, while the rest of us were recovering from Fallas and groaning “never again!”
She accomplished her goals and now is classified for the Ironman 70.3 championship along with the best triathletes in the world, and will represent Spain, and Valencia in Australia on the 4th September 2016.
The competition in Puerto Rico consisted of 3,800 metres swimming, 180 kilometres cycling and 42,2 kilometres running (I don’t know about you but it’s that last .2 Km that would do for me).
And María José isn’t even a professional athlete, but the Managing Director of Beoptimus, a Valencian cost cutting consultancy.
Her first Ironman was in Atlantic City in 2014; her boyfriend of the time had stated his intention to participate and her response was “let’s go!”
“Let’s go!” he would soon find out really meant “me too!”
Her sporting passions don’t end with Ironman triathlons, she also flies microlight planes, rides horses, boxes, does snowboarding, motorcycling and rafting.
Apart from Puerto Rico, she has already participated in similar events in Florida, Vichy and Abu Dhabi, and all over the Valencia Community; and after Puerto Rico plans to continue in Wiesbaden, Germany in 2016, and to also participate in the Ironman Mecca, at Kon on Hawaii.
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