18 Mar 2014

Barcelona Marathon 2014!


The night before the marathon was a little different than usual.


I had a lovely meal of codfish and tomato salad. It tasted delicious :-) However at around 9pm my stomach wasn't feeling so good! By 10:30pm I realised that I probably had food poisoning from the codfish and if I didn't do something about it I could be very ill on marathon morning. So I did the only thing I could think to do and stuck my fingers down my throat to make myself sick!! Oh yummy, what fun that was! I went to sleep worrying but with my stomach feeling a little better.

The next morning I was a little hungry but otherwise felt great!! Yes, I was marathon ready!


I decided to try everything to help my legs recover quickly so they would be good for Rome marathon on Sunday and bought myself some CEP calf sleeves from the marathon expo, in bright pink of course :-)

I wore them walking around all day Saturday and they were wonderful so I decided to chance it and wear them for the marathon too! I figured if they annoyed me I'd just take them off and put them into my hydration pack. Yes, I ran with a 2 litre Nathan hydration pack and it was one of the best race decisions I have ever made! Because it was so hot for the marathon, it was wonderful to be able to take a little sip of water whenever I wanted to.





 Barcelona marathon start was the best I have ever experienced so far :-) I, once again, started chatting to a local person at the start line and ended up running the first 12k with him. Normally when the marathon starts all the little coloured bits of paper confetti goes into the air and by the time I get over the start line I'm just running on bits of sticky paper. This race was different. Each start group had a different bib colour depending on their predicted finish times. And as each group got ready to begin the race and cross the start line, confetti in the colour of the group starting falling from the sky! This was a great touch and it made all the runners feel special :-)






 The race course changed from 'very exciting' passing Camp Nou, running the Gothic Area and by the beach, and running past Sagrada Familia to 'quite boring' with many long straight roads and a couple of very long out and backs! The Spanish crowd were just as FANTASTIC as always and that's why I LOVE my Spanish races.





I ran much faster than I was planning to as I just felt so good! At 30k I was still flying along so decided to take a walking break so I could save my legs a little. I took another walking break for the same reason at around 37k.
I also stopped four times for the toilet just to have some more breaks. I was always thinking 'I must save my legs for Rome'! This became like a little race chant for me.




 The last 10k was a little hard because it was so hot but I just threw more water over my head and drank loads of water and still felt good. If I had actually just gone for it I think I would have got a new PB!






 The finish line was great as you turn a corner and then you see it maybe 150 metres away so that was a relief that it was just there.





Why do I think this marathon seemed easy? There are a few reasons for this:-

1: I trained consistently for the 10 weeks before the marathon and already had a great fitness level beforehand.
2: I ate the right nutrition for the 2 weeks before the marathon.
3: I used a hydration pack which meant I could drink water whenever I wanted.
4: I believe the CEP calf sleeves actually helped my legs feel stronger.




As soon as I'd finished running I put Ice Power gel on my calf and thigh muscles to help reduce my recovery time. I also put my CEP calf sleeves back on after my shower and also wore them again on the plane home. Today (2 days after the marathon) I can hardly feel that I have run one and I'm sure by tomorrow I will be back to normal again. I, of course, know that this doesn't mean I am ready to go out and run another marathon and my plan for Rome on Sunday is to pretty much run slow/walk some/run slow/walk some all the way round.

Would I run this marathon again? Yes I would as I think I could get a new personal best here and it's BARCELONA!!!

5 comments:

  1. Fantastic Race and photos!!!... Congratulations!

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    1. Thanks Pancho :-) I'm planning to run it again next year as I loved it! Maybe see you there?

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  2. What an awesome race in contrast with the Rome Marathon. Spain never lets you down! :). I'd be nice to run together again in my beautiful country. Seville Marathon is supposed to be super nice!

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    1. I enjoyed Barcelona marathon very much! My plans for 2015 so far are Barcelona marathon (again) and San Sebastian. You know you want to join me in Barcelona Ciry ;-)

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