Back to Barcelona!

If you remember, the last time we visited this excellent running location back in March, I (for some still unknown reason) did not bring my running stuff. Well, I did not make that mistake this time. We arrived on Wednesday night and I decided to waste no time and knock out a long-ish run Thursday morning. With the cruise beginning on Saturday, I thought it would be good to get a good 1hr plus run. The cruise ship has a good size track (for a ship!), but at 5 laps per mile, I figured it would get boring for a long run.

Morning runs on the beach (Thursday and Saturday)

This nearly 7 mile run begins on the famous street named “Las Ramblas” which is one of the main tourist centers here in Barcelona. Las Ramblas is a .75 mile street with a wide pedestrian walkway down the middle. It is filled with artists and other stores and restaurants. I was long done with the run when I took this pic of Dana and Maria, so the street was relatively quiet when I started. The side streets contain tons of hotels, restaurants and shops. Las Ramblas is situated less than a mile from the ’92 Olympic stadium to the west and the Olympic village near the beach to the east. Some major $$ went in to this area for the Olympics, and it shows.

From the Ramblas, I headed towards the beach located in front of the neighborhood called Barcelonetta. Barcelonetta was a slum that was totally “made over” around the time of the Olympics. The second pic shows the run along the marina, looking east towards the hill where the Olympic stadium is located. My run would be nearly flat, but there is plenty of hill training potential close by.

The 3^rd pic shows the beach, approaching the Olympic Village. Notice all the room!!!!! This beach is excellent for running or cycling. You can run along the boardwalk at beach level (right of photo), or run on the upper level (left of photo). You can spend time looking out into the Med or you can look inland toward the city and its eclectic blend of architecture (who knew I was capable of using the word eclectic in a sentence? Impressive eh?) . Unlike Bucharest, every surface I ran on (from stone to asphalt to gravel to boards) was smooth! There was also actual order to all the traffic making it easy to cross any streets. It’s amazing was a little less anarchy will do.

I liked this run so much, I did it twice. After the kayak cross training session with the family on Friday, I ran again on Saturday. It was a little cloudy on Saturday and that’s when I took most of these pics, so I apologize.

Post run fueling, Barcelona style

My post run snack of choice was fresh fruit followed by these neat little sandwiches called bocadillos. They are basically a half-long baguette with meet and cheese inside. I guess you also can do it the hard way too. “If you can catch a chicken Rocky, you can catch greased lighting!” (excuse the in-exact movie quote)

Anyone have an axe?

Word of warning

Maybe it’s my conservative nature, but I’d though I’d let you know about these European beaches. On most of these beaches, going topless is pretty common. And the more private the beach, the less clothes you will find, ON ANYONE!!! The kayak cross training trip was full evidence of that!

Just focus on the running Steve – focus!