With no sign of Spring appearing in Scotland, I decided on a visit to my sister’s Yoga Retreat near Casares in Spain for a week of warm weather training.
Handily the pilot of the Malalga bound flight was happy to make a stop at Barcelona to drop me off for the Ultra Trail Barcelona Races. John Ryan had hitched his way there, and we were lucky to find accommodation in the pretty village of Collbató, underneath the local church. The bell chiming every 15 minutes really didn’t bother us.
The races are held in the Sant Llorenç de Munt Natural Park, in the modestly high (600m) Bages mountain range, an hour from Barcelona. This would be a good test of our fitness levels before the summer racing season, and we chose the longest race of 61km, with 2,100m of ascent/descent.
With a not-too-early start of 7.00am we were running through the cool part of the day on gentle undulating trails through mixed pine forest with smells of rosemary and thyme. The small field of 126 meant I was soon running on my own as the well-marked route threaded its way east up the dry gorge of the Torrent del Gaul through the village of Talamanca. John had gone off with a fast group of around eight, and I finally caught up with them around the 27km mark, after a quick chat I eased past the group one by one, only to lose the markers and stop before someone spotted the turn I had missed. Embarrassingly I then passed them again, head down, working hard to the high point of the race at 680m. A fast-meandering descent led us back down the other side of the valley’s outward route, through Talamanca again, and a very welcome aid station as the heat of the day reached its maximum. I found the last hour a battle to keep my heart rate down, and my slowing pace meant I lost half a dozen places. Back at the finish, there was the biggest traditional Catalonian Paella dish, with ample beers and drinks to wash it down, followed by cake. A top day out.
The only dampener was the disappearance of our hire car the following morning. We had inadvertently parked it on the site of the Sunday farmer’s market, and it had been towed to the local Police Station. Luckily the Police work on a Sunday in Spain, so they were happy to release the wheel clamp in exchange for 125 Euros.
Race Info: https://ultratrailbcn.com/en/home/
Results: https://ultratrailbcn.com/en/results/
Graham Nash