Gemma Arenas, 47, from Almagro in Ciudad Real, is Spain's 100-kilometre road record-holder and a 2026 world bronze medallist. El Mundo ran a portrait on 17 October. The Spanish athletics federation holds the track facts: 7:20:57 in Málaga on 21 March, the national title on her debut at the distance; 7:17:50 in Ames (A Coruña) on 20 September, third at the IAU 100 km World Championship and a W45 world record. The women's team took silver in 22:21:06.

Arenas came from trail. She has world bronze in ultra-trail in 2022, a national marathon title in 2019 and a trail title in 2017. In Ames she passed 25 kilometres in 1:41:59 and was second at 75 kilometres in 5:15:20. Estefanía Unzu finished sixth in 7:22:13, close to the old national record she had held before Málaga. Carmen María Pérez and María Romero completed the team score.

El Mundo's portrait finds her at 47, after a season in which she cut Spain's 100 km record twice. This is not a start-list story for a race tomorrow: it is recognition of a year of road ultra, after a mountain career. Almagro remains her home town; the 2026 training entry, on the RFEA card, is independent.

The 100 km ultra is an endurance distance, not an ordinary marathon. The W45 record says that, in her age group, nobody had run faster on the day. This is not a training plan and it does not tell anyone to run 100 kilometres. The performance is hers, on certified courses, with federation timing.

The next target is not named in the material consulted. What can be held is the season: two races, two national records, a world bronze, a team silver, at 47. The rest — motives, diet, the „secret of longevity” — stays in the newspaper portrait, not in the results report.

Image: Angel Aroca Escamez, Almagro, Ciudad Real, 2009, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons; her home town, archive, not the Ames finish.

Sources consulted: Gemma Arenas, ultra runner - El Mundo; Gemma Arenas world bronze and women's team silver - RFEA.