Staying in the centre of Barcelona city, in the midst of the action, has its advantages but a quiet night’s sleep is not one of them. Then the next day on Sunday morning we woke to waves of cheers and hoorays. After half an hour or so I decided sleep was no longer a possibility so we dragged ourselves out the door to investigate the commotion. Much to out delight we found crowds of people outside our street watching 100’s of people running along the road – it was the Barcelona Marathon right on our doorstep! What a great atmosphere.

The crowds were eager to encourage the runners; some were dressed up in costumes, some playing instruments, there were various groups playing bongo-type drums, a rock band, and even a gym exercise glass outside setup on exercycles.

I had wanted to go for a run but wondered how I could possibility make myself do it – it seems this was the solution to my poor motivation! I raced back to the apartment, got my running gear on and joined it. Fortunately I joined in the tail end of the run so I wasn’t in anybody’s way, although I did feel a little guilty feeling so good when everyone else had run about 17 km by this stage. It was awesome! I only ran 6 or 7 km of the marathon but it was the most enjoyable run I have done since leaving New Zealand.