Barcelona Marathon - 3:37:24.

Sunday, 16th March 2014 – 42.9km Barcelona Marathon (5:04/km)

Myself and Ronan beforehand

Build-up:

A reasonable sleep meant that I was awake 5 mins before the alarm clock this morning. My plan was to head over to my friend Ronan’s hotel (which was conveniently located across from the starting area) to get breakfast. This worked out well and with half an hour to race start we were making our way to the corrals. I’d arranged to run the first section with another Irish runner so we were in position by about 8:20am. ‘Barcelona’ unsurprisingly belted out while the first wave (Sub 3:30) set-off. A brief pause of two minutes and our wave were released to the sounds of ‘The Final Countdown’. By the time I passed over the start line there was about 8mins on the clock.

Placa d'Espanya - Startline is between those two pillars in the background.

First Half:

The provisional plan was to match Helen’s goal pace of 5:04/km and see how I felt by halfway. This worked fine for the first 5km where we went though in 25:43. A little time lost to slight gradients and also the course appeared to be measuring long on my GPS which resulted in my actual pace being a little slower than my Garmin pace.

By now we were circling around Camp Nou and it was somewhere around here that Helen and I started to drift away from each other. I think all my pre-race advice to her to take it easy in the first half may have frightened her into being overly cautious! The next section to 10km was uneventful apart from a nice stretch of downhill and led to a split of 25:10.

The next section brought us back into the city centre along Gran Via and past Placa Catalunya & La Pedrera. The support along these parts was really strong and the architecture was a nice distraction. Still feeling nice and easy and this split was 25:26.

Sagrada Familia appeared around the 16km mark and before we knew it we were hitting the first of the two out & back segments along Meridiana. Somewhere along here I passed Fergal with whom I exchanged a few words. He mentioned how much he was looking forward to the second half with the heat already having an effect. I’m pretty sure Fergal enjoys a sarcastic sense of humour or is simply an out and out masochist! I crossed the halfway mark along here with a 15-20km split of 25:06 and a HM split of 1:46:54.

Second Half:

The next 10km was through a non-descript part of town and saw me turn up the pace a little as the plan was to run the second half a bit quicker. This saw my fastest split so far coming in at 24:40 followed by a 25:21.

Just after the 30km marker we hit the coast with a nice section running along the road near the beach. Unfortunately we didn’t really get a seaview but the temperature was heating up along this section and I was now pouring a cup of water over myself at every water station. We were also treated to a temporary shower which was a real pleasure, regardless that we were dried out again within seconds!

By now I was using the giant Mapfre tower and it’s buddy as a marker knowing that once I was past them I’d be close to the zoo and then the city centre and therefore the finish wouldn’t be too far away. Another decent split of 25:32 meant I was keeping a reasonable pace and thankfully things weren’t too difficult. I was passing lots of runners as ever and people were really beginning to fade now with the heat. I certainly wouldn’t have fancied to be racing on a day like today.

Caught off-guard for a photo opp at the Arc de Triompf!

Roisin was positioned at the Arc de Triompf at the Northern end of Parc de la Cituadella and I was almost past her when I heard her call out. That proved a welcome distraction. I was now back in the city centre and in need of a toilet break so at the 38km marker I managed to locate an empty portaloo at the water station. I took my time here and walked past the station when taking the water on board. I also took the opportunity to rinse my legs with water to cool them and keep any potential muscle spasms at bay. I probably wasted 90-120 seconds around here but I wasn’t too bothered, after all this was just a training run and prevention is better than injury! All this added to my split time of 28:20 for the final full 5km section.

The final 2km along Avinguda Paral-lel were mostly up an incline with a slight detour to gain an extra few metres, which also helped ease the psychological pressure from a very long straight uphill road! I dug in over this section and was passing lots yet again as they struggled up the incline. I see from the race data I appear to have overtaken approximately 400 people during this 12 minutes! This was a sure sign that although my time was nothing special it was still a good run in the conditions. I managed to finish strong all the way across the line and nab a time of 3:37:24 for what was my 4th fastest marathon time.

Race Splits & Summary

Finish area - Montjuic palace

Summary:

After the finish I felt pretty good and could have done a few more kms without much issue. No real niggles but my stomach had been playing up over the final 15 minutes and took a while to return to normal. It’s an ongoing issue which I’ve yet to sort out and when racing marathons am basically ignoring it as long as possible until it strikes. Not the best tactic but I even struggled with the old reliable orange segments this time round. What to do, what to do…

Helen ended up finishing in 3:41 so just a few minutes behind me for a great debut performance and Ronan who had only ever before ran one 4 mile race (In Mayo at Christmas) finished in 4:51, so very well done to the pair of them!

Myself and Ronan afterwards

Also, the distance for the run measured 42.9km according to my Garmin. I would expect anything up to 42.5km but this seems a little excessive! Not sure what other people measured it at but I noticed that the extra distance build-up was happening consistently over the length of the route. I'm hoping Düsseldorf measures up better.

Week 9 Summary:

RTW: 7 from 7 days

DTW: 103.0km

DTY: 1063.2km