The day before…….!!

We arrived in Barça on Friday night, travelling up on the Med Express train from Alicante. A 4 1/2 hour journey, most of which i spent in the bar drinking vino tinto……..not the best preparation for a Marathon.
Saturday was registration day, so Steve and i walked to plaça Espanya, the starting and finishing point of the race, and picked up our race bibs, t -shirts, and race bags etc., savouring the air of anticipation, expectation and excitement, with all the other competitors. Considering there were almost 12000 entrants, the whole thing ran like clockwork….very impressively organised. It was a cold, but sunny day, so we sat outside and ate carbs, drank coffee, and lots of water for hydration. There was a large expo hall full of stands from various manufacturers, and we both bought sunglasses, T shirts, and bracelets to help combat positive ions in the body & help with balance…..bit worrying really as the woman we bought them off, had a huge graze on her chin, and a black eye……..and she was wearing two!!……..not a great advert for them, but she convinced us. We also bought a selection of energy gels……..small tubes of gel, high in carbohydrate to take during the run, when energy levels drop. One of them was called jeu de fouer, which i was advised to take, just before i was about to hit ´the wall`…… a term used to describe that moment when your feet literally go from under you, and you feel you couldn´t run another step…………..might be useful on a night out in benidorm too.
We had a quiet evening……….nice little restaurant in Born, booked by our friend Sara who lives in the city. She had 2 other friends in from the UK to do the race. One a fun runner, the other quite serious…….He had eaten pasta all day, and was safely tucked up in bed @ 9pm…….and Steve & I had felt so smug…drinking water with the meal, and heading off home @ 11.30pm. Being in bed before midnight in one of the party capitals of Europe took some serious mental persuasion, particularly when there was a Dj in our funky bar playing some old skool tunes……but duty called, and we duly took ourselves off to get some kip before the big day!!

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