Susana Blanco

Happy birthday to Venezuela’s distance runner Susana Blanco, a national champion over 5000m who trains at half past five in the morning on roads and dirt because that is what is available, and who says out loud that she intends to be a world champion.

Susana’s bests are 1:27 for the half marathon, 39:18 for 10km and 18:15 for 5km. She has been Venezuelan national champion at 5000m and a national bronze medallist over 1500m, and she reads the range the way distance runners do: semi fondo y fondo, the middle and the long. Her own description of the project is turning discipline into speed.

The training detail is the one that stays with you. No track, no floodlights, no squad of pacers. Roads and dirt, before dawn, most days, for years. That is how the overwhelming majority of the world’s serious distance runners actually train, and almost nobody ever writes about it.

She studies anthropology at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, she is from Charallave, and the athlete she names as her inspiration is Yulimar Rojas, which tells you she is not aiming at a national podium. She is aiming past it.

¡Feliz cumpleaños, Susana! Que cumplas muchos más, con mucha salud y mucha alegría, y que hoy te canten esa noche tan preciosa que sólo se canta en Venezuela. ¡Épale, qué chévere! 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇻🇪