Race Date: 15 March 2026

Report by Hal Roberts

A sunny weekend in Catalonia saw a welcome return to Steel City’s colours for both myself and Helen, making the trip out to the Barcelona Marathon. Having had a brief loan spell away, it felt fitting to be back in green and gold vests for a race like this.

We’ve both made a habit in the past few years of targeting an early-season European city marathon to keep the motivation high for decent training over winter. Barcelona historically is not regarded as the quickest course out there (although note the time of the women’s winner this year), and was primarily chosen as a good option for a city break with a decent marathon with hopefully good weather to have a crack at.

Training for both of us had been a little truncated – various commitments (including a house move) around Christmas and New Year meant the training could only really start in earnest in mid-January, giving a nine- to ten-week block, including a taper. That said, we were both pleased to get in some decent consistency, including weekly Lactate Threshold training with the Marathon Bus group on Tuesday evenings, interspersed with Thursday night track sessions. Long runs were the traditional diet of steady plodding, with occasional weeks adding in some harder efforts towards the end. For me, a big PB at Dewsbury 10k in early February was a sign things were heading in the right direction.

On arrival in Barcelona on the Friday pre-race, we made a pact not to make the classic mistake of being tourists before the big day, and steps on Saturday were limited to a short shake-out jog, number collection (a bit chaotic at the expo with a massive queue), and a trip to a hardware store to pick up a travel kettle for Sunday’s pre-planned porridge (hotels with kettles in rooms apparently not a thing?). The fact it rained almost non-stop on Saturday certainly dampened any enthusiasm for sightseeing in any event.

Race day arrived to much more pleasant conditions – cool with a slight breeze, but fortunately sunny overhead. A quick metro ride took us to the finish area at the Arc de Triomf to drop our bags, and then a short walk to the start pens at the Plaça de Catalunya. The marathon is a pretty popular one – in excess of 30,000 entrants, but at least towards the front end the start was well organised with fairly strictly colour-coded wave starts based on expected finish times. Both of us were allocated in the “red” pen with the 3-hour pacers.

After an extended rendition by some opera singers of “Barcelona” by Freddie Mercury on the start line, the gun went off. I’ve often made the mistake of either going off too fast or getting frustrated by being stuck in crowds at the start of races like this, but managed to be reasonably disciplined and was soon able to get into a decent rhythm.

For anyone that has visited, they will know Barcelona isn’t the flattest city once you leave the centre/coastal areas, and the organisers were clearly aware of that when they designed the course; the first half consisted of a series of long (up to 4-5 kilometres) runs along straight boulevards, before heading up a block and running back the opposite direction on the next street in the city’s grid system. Contrary to what I was expecting about this getting a bit tiresome, this did mean the route could stay close to the more populated areas of the city, and the crowd support was really good.

Halfway came and went just after passing the towers of the Sagrada Família. The timing check was, if anything, slightly down on the plan as a result of being deliberately conservative, but I was still feeling pretty strong at this point. The route then headed back towards the start/finish area before looping down to the seafront for a change of scenery. The wind was slightly more noticeable during this section but never unmanageable, and helpfully for Brits coming out of a wet, cold winter, kept temperatures fairly low. Effort remained controlled through 30 – 35km, managing to keep on with the fuelling plan of a gel every 25 minutes. 35km passed and the legs were still feeling OK, and the pace remained on track in contrast to the drop-offs I’ve had in my last few marathons.

The final 5km required the usual resolve, and a couple of kilometres passed, 10 seconds or so was lost through legs feeling heavier and navigating a twistier part of the course, but the drop-off felt manageable. The crowds lining the closing stretch gave a welcome lift, and there was just enough left to push through the finish and stop the clock.

The outcome for me: a 20-second PB and my fastest marathon time in three years. For Helen: a PB closer to 5 minutes, but agonisingly short of the sub-3-hour time which remains tantalising but elusive for now.

Post-race, celebrations were shared in the sunshine, with both of us reflecting on a strong return to Steel Cty colours and a training block that delivered when it mattered. Monday involved some hobbling around, some slightly half-baked sightseeing, and eating as much delicious Spanish food at as regular intervals as possible.

As a review – Barcelona is recommended as a well-organised race in a cool city. The course is quicker than a lot of people give it credit for, and the crowd support is probably second only to London in terms of races either of us have done in Europe.