Tales of the Unexpected (Running) - Barcelona 10k

For a wee change this summer we decided to forego the usual two weeks lazing around in Mallorca and instead took the car all the way from Glasgow to Barcelona, with a few stops in France on the way there and back. Out of curiosity I checked to see if there were any running events in the places we would be on the trip. Lo and behold, there was indeed a 10k event scheduled in Barcelona on a Sunday morning during our stay there. The event (which also included a 5k) was called 'Unexpected Running', which was an intriguing title given its semantics and the fact that it was in English.

Race Entry

The first challenge was working out how to enter the event! The web site was in both Catalan and Spanish, but as I understand neither it was over to Google Translate for help.

La Maquinista

After much copying and pasting I was able to negotiate the entry process and could now pack my running gear in with the other holiday apparel. 

Unexpected Goody Bag

The day before the event I had to go and pick up my shirt, number, and chip timer from the La Maquinista shopping mall, where the race would start and finish. I took the L1 metro to the Torras i Bagas station in the north part of Barcelona, where the mall was situated. When I got there I could tell that it was one of the city's better malls. Well, it had an Apple Store, which is a reasonable measure in my book!

On picking up my race 'goody bag' I found a mixture of items, some expected and some that were unusual offerings for these types of event.

• Expected stuff 
• Race number
• Special edition orange 'Unexpected Running' t-shirt
• An 'Unexpected Running' orange wrist band 
• Electronic chip timer

• Unexpected stuff
• A can of non-alcoholic beer
• A bottle of Aloe Vera drink which had big globules in it that looked like frog spawn
• A packet of microwaveable muffin mix 
• A packet of crystallised cherries
• A musical birthday cake candle 
• Multipurpose orange 'Unexpected Running' fabric 'tube' which, according to the diagram on the packet, could be used in one of 6 ways...
• A Hairband 
• Another style of Hairband
• A Bandana
• A Pirate type thing
• A Scarf?!!
• A Snood?!!!!

In the end I restricted myself to wearing the t-shirt (too damn hot for a snood), and the only edible item I tried was the frog spawn drink, which actually wasn't too bad.

Race Morning

Unless you've got an early flight to catch on your day of departure, it's highly unusual to set an alarm for 6.30am when you're on holiday, especially on a Sunday. I managed to get up and get ready without disturbing anyone else except Clare (sorry, honey!), and then made my way in the car towards the race location. I have to say that driving in Bareclona at 7.30am on a Sunday was much less of a challenge than when we arrived in the city during the Wednesday rush hour. 

I got to the venue a good hour before the start, however it was already 23C at 8am, and I resolved to remain in the shade as much as possible before the run. This was an approach I was to adopt with varied success throughout the whole event.

Pre-Race

When I lined up the start it became even more apparent that this was a very well organised event, even if there were only a couple of thousand runners taking part. One example of this was the presence of Pacemakers, the slowest of which was for 50 mins, which also indicated the generally high calibre of the runners taking part.

In the adjacent photo you will see Antonio, who is the guy with the beard and the 5min/km pace flag attached to him. Antonio was the reason for a particularly bad choice I made at the start of the race, the consequences of which will unfold in the rest of this post!

The Race

Thankfully the queue behind the start line was in the shopping mall, so this minimised the time spent in the intense heat (but not by much). At the gun we all ran across the timing pads, which detected our timing chips and gave reassuring beeps to tell us they had done so, and I quickly tucked in behind Antonio, the 50 minute pacer. If I finished anywhere near Antonio I'd probably take at least a minute off my 10k Personal Best.

As far as I'm aware there are four basic methods you can use for pacing yourself in a distance race, and every runner usually has one that suits them best. I've tried them all, but below is my order of preference.

1. Run at generally the same pace for the entire distance.
2. Run at a slower pace for the first part of the race and then pick up the pace later
3. Run an alternate fast and slow pace at 1K or 1 Mile intervals
4. Run at a faster pace during the first part of the race and then slow down (if you have to)

Method 4 actually did work for me once (and only once) when I PB'd at the Scottish Half Marathon in September 2014. Any other time I've tried it (usually running alongside my pal Chris, because it works very well for him), I have typically burnt myself out after a while, and then struggled for the remaining distance. 

As my (bad) luck would have it, Antonio was very much a method 4 kind of bloke.

After about only thirty seconds I realised that Antonio was bombing along at a pace that was faster than what I'm comfortable with at 5k, never mind 10k. However, I resolved to keep up with him, as perhaps he was a method 3 runner, and I could look forward to a gentler second kilometre and recover a wee bit. Not a chance. He actually ran the second kilometre faster than the first! I still wasn't done yet though, but it wouldn't be long. 

I hit the wall at 3km, which is embarrassingly early for an event which is more than three times that distance. The combination of the fast pace and the now searing heat had taken its toll, and I was now going to need a lot of will power to get me around the rest of the course without packing it in.

Shade
This part of the post is dedicated to shade, because for the remaining 7k it became, for me, the most precious commodity available, and I also became a bit obsessive about it. There were some parts of the course where full shade was provided by buildings or trees, but these were rare. (Carrer de Concepcion Arenal, you will remain forever in my heart). However, it was possible to engineer some partial and temporary shade on occasion, even if it was only from a hedgerow or a parked van, so I started earnestly seeking out opportunities like this in the route ahead. At one stage it got ridiculous when I considered how much benefit I would get from the shade of a lamp post! This is the type of daft stuff that goes through your head when distance running.

There was a problem with the 'shade hunting' approach though, in that I sometimes had to run off the 'racing line' in order to benefit from the partial shade, and this was a dilemma. Do I shorten the distance but be almost constantly in the blazing sun, or run a bit further and get momentary relief from the sun? Ultimately I decided to go for the latter option, as the heat would definitely do more damage than the extra distance. As a result I ran an extra 120 metres, so not too bad.

Time
Clearly my misguided PB strategy was in tatters at the 3k mark, and usually I would set myself a new target while 'in flight'. To be honest, though, I felt so bad so early on in the race that I just didn't care about the time any more. I just wanted to finish, if possible. However, it was at around about the 8k mark that I started becoming time aware again, and it dawned on me that if I put in a reasonable amount of effort over the remaining distance, I had a chance of completing the event in under an hour, and at least salvage something from the whole debacle! So, I put my head down, stopped my 'shade hunting' antics, and targeted the finish line.

I finally completed the 10k in a time of 59mins 25secs. Yay......!

Aftermath
On completing the race I felt I had heat stroke (I hadn't) so was delighted that the queue for post run goody bags was under cover. Typically you would expect a nice bottle of water to be presented to you on finishing an event like this, but these guys chose Coke(!), along with some healthy post run snacks. I managed to obtain some ice from the big bins containing the Coke cans, and this helped considerably with my imaginary heat stroke.

It was great to run in Barcelona again, albeit in very, very different conditions from the last time, and without the same pre-run self inflicted physical abuse, and in-run incidents that occurred during the February 2014 Half Marathon.

I wonder what unexpected running opportunities might avail themselves during next summer's holidays?!

COMING UP NEXT.......

... a long overdue post on Q2 of the Half Marathon a Month Challenge !