Julio Molina is History of the Zurich Marathon of Seville, which this Sunday meets 40 editions. In all, since 1985, this Sevillian has been that he is one of ‘The Magnificent’ of the Hispanic Test with Luis Caballero, Antonio Gelo, Eduardo Silva and Antonio González. … He has never failed to the Molina event, which gives off vitality, turned 65 on February 14, was a bank employee, is now studying philosophy and always has some pending challenge. A reason to continue training and having fun in that paradigm of overcoming that is the distance of Filipides. The meeting with ABC of Seville occurs, by the way, in the football and athletics field in which Zidane, Beckham or Raúl González rolled in the Sevillian town of Gerena a remembered commercial spot for the Eurocup 2004.
-It already little for the 40th edition of the Zurich Marathon of Seville. How time has passed since 1985 …
-Exactly. I did not imagine that a marathon was going to be running for 40 years. I never proposed it. But look, it has been one behind the other, one behind the other … hooking you and creating an addiction, a need.
-Is the memories of that first edition fresh?
-Yes, not everything, but some things do. I remember, for example, that we left María Luisa Avenue, next to the Prado, where the wardrobe was, which were a kind of nylon hangers. There everything was organized in a tent that mounted the army. And I remember most of many cars whistling. In each corner there was a copon jam and everyone whistling because he was not accustomed to there were people on the street running.
-The supplies were not like now, right?
-Clear. There was no pure water. Now there is isotonic, bars and gels. Then, only water. I remember that the race left María Luisa Avenue and threw through La Palmera, on the left, where there was a disco called the recove. There it turned and there were very uninhabited areas. He also reached the polygon of San Pablo, threw for Santa Clara and also through the polygon of the Yellow road. There was no one there. And then, something very curious, I went through the Alameda, which is not like now. That area was very degraded. Around kilometer 38-39 passed through Joaquín Costa Street, where very curious things were produced. And the arrival was very different, right in front of the Plaza de España. He had his charm. Before the fountain was the finish line and that was a taste because, if I was a sunny and was spraying water, you lay next to you and there you stayed with the agüita.
-Be as soon as people saw them and now there are those who get up early to go outside and see the marathon.
-Of course, of course. This, before, was something, in quotes, crazy or geeks. And it was something that bother the city, it is evident. We ran 800, 900 or 1,500 people. And the city cut. We ran for a single lane. For example, on Kansas City Avenue, cars were going through and we ran through a bark. We were like a kind of intruders and there was no mentality now. In the sense that the city is not only for cars, but also for people who do sports. Which is the best health policy that can be done in disease prevention. Everything has been pending the population little by little. With the professionalization that the marathon has then had, people know that this is already an event that attracts many people from outside, that generates wealth and is a party, but also a business that gives the city a fantastic international projection.
-How many marathons, regardless of those completed in Seville, adds in total?
-Itro 123 and next will be 124.
-Where do you find daily motivation to continue training?
-It’s an addiction. When exercising, a substance called endorphine is created and its absence generates addiction. The day I do not exercise, I am with the abstinence syndrome. I have also influenced me to maintain the motivation that I have met, and with whom I share hobby, although running is a lonely activity. I am from two clubs, one of Genera and the other is the friends of the María Luisa Park. All of that generates friends, trust, and that is what motivates you. The marathon is a day, but the hard is not that day, but to train you five months before it is cold, wind, heat, it rains, you want or not. We are five who have finished all the marathons of Seville and it is curious because it would be normal for some year to be bad, sick with flu, it would simply give you laziness, you would not feel like it or say that I am already very old. I could not give them an explanation of why I’m still running.
-You have never been injured.
-No, never, never. It is a genetic component. Popular corridors, in the end, are almost experts in sports traumatology. We know the entire range of plantar fasciitis injuries. When they ask me why I have never injured myself, I suppose some genetic component will have. I have also been very prudent. I think the body sends you a sign and what I do is cancel that training. Or I do it softer or do something else. There is a gray line there among the laziness and that the body is sending you a signal so that you do not make a series of two thousand because you are going to injure yourself.
-Have you care more about your diet over the years?
-The truth is that I really like natural feeding regardless of whether sports or not. I like carbohydrates, pasta, rice, fruit, vegetables … I have always been in favor of Mediterranean food. I have not disciplined in eating to run, but I have eaten what I liked. I also like a montadito of Pringá or some chicharrones because no, you don’t have to be too demanding. We are popular athletes. I also like to enjoy life.
-Not everyone can say that he has reached the finish line at the Cartuja stadium and have sung the happy birthday. It was a special and familiar moment, right?
-Yes, yes, I fulfill years on February 14 and, curiously, of the 39 editions of the Seville Marathon, only in one coincided on my birthday with the race. I have many friends and many brothers in Seville. Each one lives in one place: one in the polygon, another in Nervión, another for José Laguillo … and always go down to see me. And that year, which was also my 50th birthday, there was none. And I, thinking, you have to see what badges my brothers who do not see any today on the street. I took the surprise at the stadium. The ‘Born to Run’ by Bruce Springsteen sounded taking advantage of the fact that he had played in Seville a little months ago. And they sang my birthday for megafonía. They were all waiting on the finish line. It was very exciting, an anecdote worth remembering.
-Cove us how your persecution goes to Johnny Kelley.
-I have always had long -term challenges. I started running in the military service in Ceuta. There were few things to have fun and in the afternoon I started running. There I took the habit. Then I came to Seville and the following year it was already the first marathon. I ran it and I liked it. I kept running the successive years and even started running in Madrid. It ran those of Seville and Madrid and in October we did one abroad. After ten years, I found that I had 30 marathons and set out to add as many marathons as years. I got it with 43 years. There had already been 43 marathons. When I reached 44, I was a bit empty. I had to invent another goal and that was the 100 marathons, which seemed crazy. I lacked a lot, 56, many more than I had, but I reached 100 in 2020 doing three or four every year. The last long -term challenge is to overcome Johnny Kelley’s record, an Boston elite athlete who ran the 1936 Berlin games and won the Boston marathon twice. He is famous there, he has a very large statue that people go after the race, because he ran 58 Boston marathons in a row. He is the man who has run the same marathon in the world. I have made my accounts. If I run 19 more editions of the Seville Marathon, I will have made 59 editions of the same marathon and will snatch the record to Kelley. In addition, the last edition with 83 years would run, the same age with which he ran his 58th Boston Marathon. You have to motivate yourself. The statue is beautiful because they are two natural size athletes. They go hand in hand, one is young and the other, old man, but the two are the same person. One when he won and the other, in his last marathon.
-What age can a marathon run?
-There is no age for a marathon. Of the five teammates who have run them all, Eduardo Silva is 80 years old and there have been people with 90 years who have finished a marathon. It is not normal, but it is not strange either. Obviously, the benefits are descending. There are many older people who run with 70, 75 and 80 years.
-What brand difference is between Julio Molina del 85 and the current one?
-I have preserved a little demanding at a level. Of my 123 marathons, I have made 20 marathons below three hours and I have three below 2:50. My record is 2:47. Last year I made 3:19. I stay between 3:15 and 3:30, although it costs more and more work. It is a fight against the biological clock.
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