Iván Penalba

Getting to know Iván Penalba a little

Iván Penalba (Alfafar, 6 October 1991) is a one-of-a-kind athlete. His head, his legs and his heart are forged for feats and records that the vast majority of running lovers would never even consider. Running ultra distances on a track, on a loop course or in extreme races is his passion and, as he puts it himself, what gives his life meaning. Since 2018 he has been part of the world elite of ultra-distance running.

Personal sporting achievements…

Iván Penalba grinds out kilometres, piling up more than 10,000 km a year over his last 6 seasons, and records too. He currently has more than 85 ultramarathons in 30 countries behind him and holds several Spanish ultra-distance records, among them: 24 hours on the track (274.330 km), 12 hours on the road (158.631 km) and 100 miles on the road (until recently he also held the 6-hour and 50-mile records). One extraordinary fact: he has never dropped out of an ultra-distance race, always finishing with his trademark smile.
His name appears in the Guinness World Records book as holder of the world record for 12 hours on a treadmill (155.080 km), set during the pandemic at his home in Alfafar. But his sporting record also holds other milestones that make him a unique athlete, such as:

• 48-hour world champion in the M30 category.
• First Spaniard (2nd European and 18th in the world) to complete the three most extreme ultra-distance races in the world, and in the same year at that (only the 2nd athlete in history to do so): Badwater 135 (running in over 55 degrees), Arrowhead 135 (running in minus 50 degrees) and Brazil 135 (running in maximum humidity).
• First athlete to complete the world’s two most extreme heat races in the same year: Badwater 135 and Marathon des Sables, in 2024.
• First Spaniard on the podium of Badwater 135, the most extreme race in the world (2nd in 2022 and 2025, and 3rd in 2024, as well as 12th in 2023).
• Top 3 in the world in timed ultra-distance running in 2016-17-18-19-20-21-22-23-24-25 (source: DUV Statistics).
• Winner of the 24 hours on the track at Soochow International University in Taipei (Taiwan) in 2018 and 2025.
• Best result by a Spaniard at the Spartathlon (2025), the most legendary road ultra-distance race, held in Greece.
• 5th at the 2019 24 Hours World Championships (Albi, France), the best result (270.1 km) and placing by a Spaniard at a World Championships.
• 4th at the 2022 24 Hours European Championships (Verona, Italy), the best result (273.4 km) by a Spaniard at a European Championships.

What you might not know about Iván…

Iván Penalba grew up thinking his sport was football, but at 20 a lower-back injury forced him to forget about the ball, and that is when he started running. In 2013 he ran his first half marathon, in 2016 he made his marathon debut and that same year he took part in a charity challenge in Barcelona that made him fall in love with ultra-distance running. “It was a charity challenge: being part of a team of four amateur runners who had to complete 48 hours (12 hours each) to raise money to buy toys for children. I had never considered running 12 hours straight before, but I took the challenge on”; he won the 12-hour race and set the best Spanish mark of 2016. From that moment on, ultra-distance running settled into his life and became his therapy when the monster of Alzheimer’s took his mother from him little by little. In his twenties he devoted himself body and soul to caring for her. “It was a very hard time and running was my therapy, it was what helped me so that I could help her. I spent many hours looking after her at home and I would go out running before dawn, which was what let me recharge with hope so I could come back to her side with a smile on my face”.

The day Alzheimer’s took his mother for good, Iván was already one of the best track ultra-distance runners in Spain, but from that moment on he set out to be one of the best in the world, so that he could dedicate each and every one of his successes to his two “princesses”: his late mother and his grandmother, who has always been by his side as grandmother, mother and number 1 fan. “I have always said that to take up ultra-distance running you need a reason that pushes you to disconnect from the world. Most of the ultra runners I know started because of some family or personal problem, because it is a sport that lets you isolate yourself and disconnect from the world for a few hours; in my case it was my mother’s illness. I think it is hard for someone with a normal life to take up ultra-distance running”, says Iván.