A quick first line I will later expand into the full story. Rather warm but still a good race and happy with 3h28m53s. The first 30k I was running quite ok, but the last 10k though I never "hit the wall" were far more slow, but nothing unexpected, since I had never run more than 1 hour since january.
On a warm and sunny sunday morning I went down to Plaça Espanya to join the 18000 runners that would run the marathon of Barcelona today. Once again things had changed in dropping your bag, though this time changing outside was no problem at all because of the high temperatures. After dropping my bag I went to the warming up area to run a few rounds and go to the toilet a few times. This time I did bring a small water bottle so I could drink until just before the start because we would need every ounce of fluid possible today. When I arrived at the start area my box was already very full, so I squeezed my way in and at the notes of We will rock you by Queen and Vertigo by U2 we waited to be shot away around 8h30.
The start was very crowded so I just ran an easy pace and much to my suprise the first kilometer went by in 4m30, just about the pace I wanted to run. Once the group stretched out a bit the 3 hour pacemakers went by, though actually I was going more or less their pace at that moment. We winded through the Sants neighbourhood and I passed the 5k mark in 21m30 running steady and easy with the 3hour pacemakers very slowly pulling away, but with the lack of training I knew I more had to gamble on 3 hours 30 and so far I was feeling ok. Normally I would not drink anything yet here, but this year I drank almost the whole bottle to assure sufficient liquids in the body. We passed the Camp Nou footballstadium and climbed up to the Gran Via, a first slightly more difficult part. Onwards to the 1st 10k the course was flat or going down and I passed the 10k mark in 23m running a very regular pace so far. I took my first sportsgel with 2 bottles of water here, which is not easy drinking a lot and running fast, but becoming dehydrated is worse.
On we went going up Passeig de Gracia and then passed the Sagrada Familia onto the Meridiana where we would turn at the end just about where the 20k mark is. I passed there well under 1h30 and ran the half marathon in 1h32m41s, so 5 minutes faster than a month ago, and holding back ofcourse for the other half still to go. The 10k split was 44m21 over a minute slower than the first 10k but the most important was I the fact I was still running well. I kept drinking a lot of water and cooling my head, neck and arms, since the sun was out in full force though many parts of the course we enjoyed shadow and a little breeze from time to time. On to the 30k mark I was slowing down, but I still felt ok. The 10k split dropped to 49m06, but my head was clear and after swallowing a last sports gel around the 32k mark with only 10 left it was only a matter of holding on and trying to run in good form and with a high turnover. Just about when I passed the 40 mark I phoned my family to inform them of my progress. My 10k split had dropped to 58m56 now but I felt good and this year just wanted to finish and not injure myself. Soon after I had my picture taken by Emma, Jordi jumped onto the course, and with a few quick see-you-soon kisses for Montse the two of us continued to the finish-line with Jordi being able to run much much faster than me at that moment, since I was going at 6m/k pace. But finishing under 3h30 this time was a big success and I am very happy with it. Also afterwards I felt good, tired but not exhausted, and apart from some small aches I was pretty much ok.
