10 Things I Think About Running

10 Things I Think About The Barcelona Half Marathon

1. Two Flights Good

I think that two flights from Cork is better than one from Dublin. There’s no Cork Barcelona flight for some strange reason. You can fly to Gdańsk from Cork but you can’t fly to Barcelona. Air France via Paris works, I like landing and taking off anyway it’s fun, especially in wind.

2. Musik

I think that you should never book a hotel with the words musik and boutique in the name. I normally use AirBnB but I couldn’t find a cheap one close to the start. The hotel Musik gets 9.1 on booking, you’d think it would be good. Unfortunately there was a nightclub in the abandoned adjoining building next to my room on the Friday night. I rang reception and went down to complain but they could do nothing. They gave me a free breakfast as compensation. At least they didn’t have bed bugs.

3. Approved by El Gato

I think that I needed a massage yesterday. I felt terrible on the run on Saturday morning. My left calf niggle was really bad and my back was rotten from the terrible bed in the hotel. I googled a sports massage and booked one online. The place was a little unusual. There was a white cat at reception that you had to be approved by. I have no Spanish so I had to point at the tight bits. Everything was perfect this morning so it must have worked.

4. Harry Clarke

I think that a good walking tour the day before a race is essential. The one I went on was given by an Irish guy called Brendan. He used to be a stained glass artist but gave up and moved to Barcelona to paint stuff instead. It was an excellent tour, absolutely no Gaudi and plenty of politics. John Meade would have loved it. I think that I’d like to be a walking tour guide eventually, in Spain.

5. Sin Alcohol

I think that the key to my slight improvements in running has been to stop drinking as much. I only had wine once since Seville and absolutely no beer. I replaced it with the Blood Orange San Pellegrino and Heineken Zero Zero. I miss wine especially wine in Seville.

6. Dos Croissants, Seis Cafés

I think that the key to my slight improvement in running was the free breakfast that I had in the Hotel Musik this morning. I had six coffees and two croissants. The only good thing about the Hotel Musik is that it is 500m from the start so I could drink my six coffees, go for a 10 minute jog to get things going and return to the hotel once the coffee had taken effect. Perfect preparation, very light.

7. Plan

I think that I had a good plan today. I met Damian Kenneally at the start and told him my plan. My plan was to find the elite women and once I started recognizing names to try and stay with them. I ran with Duarte, Marta, McGlynn, Samuels, Barlow and Nesbitt. They all beat me except Duarte, I think I beat her.

8. Chronomentrophobia

I think I’m developing a fear of watches and clocks. I don’t want to know what pace I’m running at in race because my stupid brain will start thinking that it’s too fast. I didn’t look at any clocks all race until I saw the one at the end. Instead I tried to think how simple running is, cadence and stride length, that’s it, if they don’t change you don’t slow down. They changed but not much, perhaps I’ll change my Garmin to display those inside, then I can look at it.

9. When is It Going to Get Bad

I think that even on a good day it always gets bad eventually. I was going really well until about 17k, really good, nothing was wrong, I wasn’t even getting annoyed by other runners making noises. There were always people around to pass and be passed by. It got quite bad at 19k, I had major doubts, lots of people passing, then it got ok again.

10. Flame Rouge

I think that the only bad thing about this race is the finish, there’s nothing wrong with the finish, it’s just that there are about 20 inflatable gantries in the last 500m, the finish seems so far away, it’s horrible until it’s over. Everything else is perfect, weather, route, length, numbers, Spain, everything, perfect.