Fraser's fables: Barthalona

It was early morning start that even Dad would be proud of - up at 3:20am to catch a train to the airport for my Saturday morning flight to Barcelona. Julia flew in from Liverpool and we arrived in Barcelona at about the same time so we caught a taxi to our hotel rather than wasting time interpreting the public transport system. Already I was sweating in my trackpants and jersey, the weather in Barcelona was spectacular all weekend, low to mid 20's which was perfect.

We met Chris and Sarah and headed into town to pick up race numbers for the marathon the next day. We had planned to breeze in and pick up our numbers and catch a train to Montserrat for the afternoon but after standing in line for our numbers for over an hour it was a 50/50 call. We decided to go for it and only just made the train but it was well worth it. Montserrat is a monastery set high on a rock face 40 km out of Barcelona. (It was a bit worrying to think that the distance to Montserrat was the same as the distance we would be running the following day and as the minutes ticked by on the train my legs were getting sore already.) You might ask why the crazy Monks built a monastery high on the hill - well it has something to do with an image of the virgin Mary found in a cave and rumours about the Holy Grail - either way it clearly had special significance. These days it is a bit touristy and you can even drive up from the other side but we took the cable car which was a highlight in itself.......

To get to the top of the hill we had to catch a funicular to the top which was basically a steep cable car. We had a wander round the hills, called in at the chapel to view the image of the virgin Mary and rushed to get the cable car back down so we could catch our train back to Barcelona. It would have been nice to spend longer there to walk around the hills as it was so quiet and relaxing, and of course the weather was perfect.

Looking back down the funicular tracks to the monastery.

Chris and Sara at the top of the hill.

Looking back towards the monastery.

The entrance to the chapel.

Candles outside the Chapel.

It was another early start on Sunday morning for the marathon. We didn't have too much time to spare so there wasn't much time for any last minute doubts. We started along with 6,500 others, fortunately the field was split into estimated time slots all colour coded which was relief because even non Spanish speakers could understand.

The course was fantastic, quite flat and it hit a lot of the big sights in Barcelona. We started and finished at Pace d'Espanya and ran past Camp Nou (Barcelona Football Stadium), Sagrada Familia, the Ramblas, Arc de Triomf, Catalunya Government grounds, Casa Batlio and a big building that looked like the London Gherkin. Not that we had much time to take this all in of course!

Chris and Sara met me at the 25km and 30km mark with some flat coke and some much needed words of encouragement, the most motivating coming from Chris when he told me I was the wrong colour to be running marathons - a fair point after they had witnessed 3 skinny Africans clear out from the rest of the field.

I was happy with my race, I flew through the first 30km in an average time of 3:49 per km but then faded in the heat over the last 10km to finish in 2:49:40 which was good enough for 97th place. This was my best time by about 8 minutes so I was pretty satisfied. Julia also ran her best time of 3hrs 50 so we'd had a pretty successful race. However, our efforts pale in comparison to the winner who smoked it in 2hr 12. Absolutely incredible.

Me....

...and some real runners

Me absolutely buggered but at least I look like I have energy in my tasty highlighter yellow!

These photos are at taken at the finish of the race. The Spaniards clearly love their water features.

After the race we headed out for lunch and a well earned beer, followed by a very slow stroll around town. By this stage we were starting to pick up the odd Spanish word. My favourite was 'Ringa ringa' which is what all the supporters would shout out when you were running, but I have no idea what it means. We were also discovering that to be good at Spanish, a Jamie Oliver lisp was essential as 'Gracias' (thank-you) was pronounced 'Grathias' so it followed that 'Barcelona' should be pronounced Barthelona'. As some of you know I am already considered an expert in Spanish so finding out that a lisp was required was a bit of a shock, but we handled it well.

Chris and Sara went flew back to London on Sunday night (only just after taking the wrong train to the airport). Julia and I didn't have too much energy left at this stage so Sunday night, and all of Monday was pretty low key but we walked around a bit more of of the city, went back for a decent look at the Sagrada Famila and taste tested the local Sangria which was very good. I got home at 1:30 in the morning on Monday night, very tired but very happy after a brilliant weekend and I'd go back in a flash.

Gaudi's creations - the unfinished Sagrada Familia.....