It’s safe to say The Barcelona Marathon was a 10/10 race for the Curious Runners. 10 of us signed up and, against all odds, 10 returned with shiny personal bests, but we’ll get to that later.
It began, as all our ideas do, with a chat over a beer at The Curious Brewery. Inspired by last year’s Paris Marathon, which saw Coach Luke lead five marathon newcomers over the finish line at the Arc de Triomphe, four more Curious Runners were ready to take on an international marathon challenge. We settled on Barcelona for its promise of sun, atmosphere and low elevation, and with Christmas music still ringing in our ears, we began our marathon training plans.
After months of long runs and early morning interval sessions, we made it to the big weekend. Arriving at Heathrow for our 7:20am flight, we discussed our expectations for the race and our experiences over the last few weeks. The training block had been tough, with first timers Ali and Melissa overcoming injury and nerves to make it to the start line, Luke and Joe each fighting to defeat their white whales, and the rest of us just determinedly working towards our own PBs.
The next couple of days were a flash of sun, great food, NA beers and an open top bus tour through the city, and then before we knew it we were lacing up our shoes and heading to Plaça Catalunya for the start line.
Weather-wise we couldn’t have hoped for more – still and sunny, we had the perfect conditions to undertake a PB push. While the course itself circled through the city centre, giving us sightings of Sagrada Familia, Torre Glòries and Port Olimpic, it was the crowd that really made the race. When the 20-mile wall beckoned, cheers and music carried us through, and our very own support crew, Poppy and Caroline, made it to a whopping six locations to inspire and rally the team to the finish line.
In the run up to the race, the organisers of The Zurich Barcelona Marathon repeated the same line, “It hits different,” and as we each rounded the final corner to see the magnificent Arc de Triomf and the finish line just beyond, we could see why.
As each Curious crew member made it through the finishers’ funnel, our group became more and more joyous until, beer in hand, we celebrated our incredible team victory.
10 finishers and 10 PBs – Barcelona, it hits different.
