Barcelona Marathon, 13 March 2010
Craig Dixon reports on the long weekend in Catalonia.
With Anthony running Paris last year and me running Prague a few years
ago we were both keen on another European city marathon. Barcelona
seemed a good choice and it didn’t take long to get the easily persuaded
Pete onboard. We booked Ryanair flights and a cheap apartment in the
centre of town which was at the 41km point of the marathon route. Only
two problems, one I was going snowboarding three days before, and two
Claire and Donna (Pete’s wife) wanted to come!
We all met up on the Friday with the usual array of excuses for why
Sunday was not going to be a good run and decided the free organised
breakfast run would be a good leg loosener. It was a pre-race 4km run
around the end of the 1992 Olympic Marathon route after which we were
given drinks, muffins and pancakes, brilliant start to the weekend.
Later we headed to the Expo to pick up our numbers and other goodies.
The sensible thing to do now would be to go and rest but instead we made
the most of the Barcelona sunshine and wandered around the streets and
harbour for the rest of the day with several coffee, water and sangria
stops. Sensibly we got the bus back and did get an early night.
The day of the race and all three of us were quite quiet. We had a bowl
of porridge and walked to the start to drop off our bags and get into
our pens. There were 12,000 runners starting along a fountain-lined
street leading up to the Placa Espanya. At 8.30 we started on the
42.195km route which was to take us past the Nou Camp down the seafront
and La Rambla.
I started steady as I got stuck behind slower runners and had to work
hard to pass the 3.30 then 3.15 pacers. I went past Pete at 3 miles,
wished him luck and carried on at around 7 min miles (too fast). While
we were running, Claire and Donna were racing around town on the Metro
to see us at various points. The crowds were really noisy in places and
people were shouting ‘Vamos’ and ‘Venga’, which I guess means get a move
on! I saw Anthony as we ran on opposite sides of the road and after
that the race followed its normal pattern for me....feeling good until
20 miles and then having nothing left and clinging on until the end.
The last few miles were hard and I finished in 3:11, which was just
outside a PB. Anthony had finished by this point and was probably
already having his post race massage (an advantage of running quick is
beating the queues). He finished in just under 2:57, crucially just
outside of Jerry’s PB although he does claim this is purely a training
run for London so Jerry beware! Pete had been struggling with a leg
injury but did well to finish in 3:27. We all met up and got a text from
Nicki to say she had seen as all cross the line from the UK as it was
being streamed live over the internet...amazing. We had a post race
dinner of crisps, pizza, burger and chips in a sports bar in town whilst
watching Chelsea vs Stoke.
The next day we left in plenty of time to get to the airport and were
looking forward to getting home. On the way a few specks of snow started
to appear and by the time we got to the airport it was a little heavier
but we didn’t think much of it. Next thing we knew there was a blizzard
sweeping across Barcelona and we were in the biggest snow storm in
Barcelona for 50 years. Our flights were cancelled four hours after we
were meant to take off. It took another four hours to queue to get a
re-scheduled flight for Wednesday (48 hours later) and by this time we
were snowed into the airport with no way in or out. 2,000 people were
affected and we all spent the night on the airport floor sleeping on
cardboard boxes!
The next day Anthony, Claire and me managed to get a coach out of the
airport and 7 hours after leaving we checked into a 4 star hotel in town
with sauna and jacuzzi. Pete and Donna decided to stick it out at the
airport rather than trek around town with no guarantees of accommodation
or making it back. The weather passed, and by Wednesday we were all
back at the airport and 48 hours late we landed at Bournemouth.
Despite the weather I think we all had a brilliant but long weekend. It
has whetted our appetites for more city marathons abroad and can’t wait
to Berlin in September and even Rome the following year.
Anthony Clark – 2:56:50 – 401/10242
Craig Dixon – 3:11:43 – 1228/10242
Pete Lemon – 3:27:49 – 2853/10242
