Barcelona Marathon

2 members of Grantham Running Club travelled to Spain last weekend to take part in the Barcelona Marathon. The race starts and finishes at Plaça d'Espanya, at the foot of Montjuïc between the ‘Magic Fountain’ and the imposing Venetian Towers. It passes Camp Nou (the home of Barcelona FC) then goes back to Plaça d'Espanya, past Sagrada Família, along the beach in the northeast, around the old city, back to the shore and back to Plaça d'Espanya for a spectacular finish.

The route feels flat but surprisingly has just under 800 feet of climbing which is somewhat offset by some very long, gradual downhill sections. Weather conditions on the day were far from ideal for running. Whilst relatively cool for the 8.30am start, temperatures crept above 20 degrees by 10.30am meaning a tough finish to the race for everyone taking part.

First to finish for GRC was Gav Meadows who was running this race for the second time after setting his current personal best (3:07:00) three years previously in 2016. He said ‘I had 2 reasons for returning - a beautiful city & a magnificent race! The course, atmosphere & pure adrenaline is unlike anything I’ve experienced to date & I was hoping it would inspire me to another PB.’

Based on recent form his target of around 3:06 was ambitious but he said afterwards that he approached the race with a ‘might as well go for it’ attitude. His pacing was spot on for the first 13 miles & he crossed halfway in 1:33:55. Unfortunately things started to go slightly wrong at mile 16 as the heat began to take it’s toll although he managed to stay comfortably faster than 8 minutes per mile until mile 20.

Miles 22 and 23 proved to be the toughest part of the race for Gav where he really got into difficulties. He said ‘By mile 16 I knew that a PB wasn’t on but at miles 22 and 23 my pace plummeted & I began to think that I might struggle to finish! However, after giving myself a stern talking to, I managed to dig deep and pick the pace back up again for the last 5K to achieve a respectable time.’ Gav crossed the finish line in 3:17:46 - his fastest marathon time for almost 2 years.

Following Gav over the finish line was veteran Rob Howbrook who’s race unfolded in a very similar way. He was hoping to better his PB of 3:20:39 set at the 2017 Manchester Marathon. This was Rob’s first race abroad & he said after the race ‘This was a fantastic experience. Barcelona is a beautiful city and some of the sights along the course were breathtaking. The atmosphere was something special too with music and noise from the crowd at nearly every point along the route.’

Rob managed to get slightly further into the race than Gav before he encountered difficulties. Up to mile 18 he ran a perfectly paced race and was on target for around 3:19. Inevitably though, the heat took it’s toll and his pace gradually slowed from this point until he reached the finish line. Luckily for him he had his family on the course to give him a boost when he needed it most.

Rob just snuck under the 3:30 barrier finishing in a time of 3:29:52. Although 10 minutes slower than his target he was happy with the result overall. He said ‘The heat made things very difficult in the second half of the race. I’m still relatively new to marathon running compared to other distances & it’s a very difficult thing to master. Considering all this I’m satisfied with this performance & was very happy to break 3:30 on the day.’