Barcelona Marathon 2013

jebuz

ac20 wrote: »

Im headin to the Nou Camp Sunday night myself. Great weekend in store. Anyone who hasnt run this marathon yet are in for a treat, its a really great marathon. Flying out Saturday morning back Monday evening.

Heading to the match too and we're sitting up with the gods, I think you have the climb the whole way :rolleyes:

Starting to get excited about it now, weather conditions still looking good

sideswipe

Booked tickets for the match ages ago and went to print them off this morning only to get a 'purchase cancelled' message:mad:

ac20

sideswipe wrote: »

Booked tickets for the match ages ago and went to print them off this morning only to get a 'purchase cancelled' message:mad:

when I went to print them off on Monday I got the same message, however this morning I am not getting the message. But what it is saying is that the time and date of the match are not confirmed??

The cost of the ticket was not returned to me so Im assuming the puchase has not been cancelled. If I cant print them off prior to departure Im going to head to the ticket office at the Nou Camp on Saturday with my confirmation email.

sideswipe

ac20 wrote: »

when I went to print them off on Monday I got the same message, however this morning I am not getting the message. But what it is saying is that the time and date of the match are not confirmed??

The cost of the ticket was not returned to me so Im assuming the puchase has not been cancelled. If I cant print them off prior to departure Im going to head to the ticket office at the Nou Camp on Saturday with my confirmation email.

Yep, got 'Time and Date Not Confirmed' message, then a 'Cancelled' message and now a 'No Booking Exists With this Card' when I put in my credit card details. I'll call to the ticket office anyway just in case before starting a charge back with my bank. TBH I would mind too much if it was cancelled so long as I get my money back- this will be myself and Mrs Swipe's first child free trip away over a year so she thinks it's a romantic weekend:o
I've been informed that running a marathon + watching a football match + going to the pub = not romantic

neilc

sideswipe wrote: »

I've been informed that running a marathon + watching a football match + going to the pub = not romantic

I hear ya, took me a while to persuade my mrs how much she'd enjoy this match

monthehoops

You shouldn't have any problems getting a ticket for the Camp Nou unless it's a Madrid game. On the day just get to the stadium early and you'll see a line of touts outside the ticket office. Breeze by them and buy official tickets.

monthehoops

Also my missus liked it there and she's not into soccer at all. If you want to curry some favour before hand, spend the few hours before it on the open top bus before heading to the game. The bus would stop out there too.

Jmcmen

Heading over Friday evening till Monday night. looking forward to it now. last wee run this am. Feel ok but not sure about what pace to run at. Guess thats just the good old nerves. See how I am in the morning.
Route Looks Hilly enough.

Looking forward to a well deserved few beers after and a bit of relaxing.

Good Luck to all

sideswipe

Jmcmen wrote: »

Heading over Friday evening till Monday night. looking forward to it now. last wee run this am. Feel ok but not sure about what pace to run at. Guess thats just the good old nerves. See how I am in the morning.
Route Looks Hilly enough.

Looking forward to a well deserved few beers after and a bit of relaxing.

Good Luck to all

Just looking at the elevation map yesterday, I don't think it looks too bad actually, bit of a drag for the first 5K and the last few, but apart from that it looks pretty good.

liamo123

Have run this a couple of times.. Signed up again but unfortunately injured so not running but still travelling over...... little elevation at the start but nothing to worry about... Overall a great course.

Something small to bear in mind ; coming up to halfway there's an out and back section where runners are seperated by cones. I always found this section tough as its a little offputting looking across at the gang 10 or so minutes ahead . Other than that happy days so enjoy !!!


Best of luck to all running and c ye in George Payne Sunday ( or in Temple bar pub Sat night if anyone fancied a drink to calm the nerves )

pgmcpq

Jmcmen wrote: »

Heading over Friday evening till Monday night. looking forward to it now. last wee run this am. Feel ok but not sure about what pace to run at. Guess thats just the good old nerves. See how I am in the morning.
Route Looks Hilly enough.

Looking forward to a well deserved few beers after and a bit of relaxing.

Good Luck to all

Best of luck to all. Ran this two years ago - brilliant event. Beware the final three miles is a gentle uphill -- looks innocent enough but it's decpetively tough at that stage in the race.

Jimh

I will be on the 06:50 Aer Lingus flight in the morning - good luck to everybody
At least I have a few days to recover - not back until Wednesday

calabi yau

Best of luck to anyone participating in this

sideswipe

All done in 3:23. Happy enough as I nearly pulled out because I'd been sick all week. Decided to do it and take it easy but felt better the longer the race went on so it turned into a progression run!! Was disappointed I didn't go harder at the start but didn't want to crash and burn before Conn. Nice cool weather too!

neilc

3:10:28 happy enough. On the beer since in the George Payne and a place called Scobies :-) Camp Nou now and back to Scobies layer :-) Happy fu*king days.

jebuz

2:54:46. Everything just seemed to go right on the day, felt really good the whole way through and finished very strongly. Great course, great conditions, great support and a great great hangover today too thanks to George Payne himself, worth it all Hope you all had a good race.

sideswipe

jebuz wrote: »

2:54:46. Everything just seemed to go right on the day, felt really good the whole way through and finished very strongly. Great course, great conditions, great support and a great great hangover today too thanks to George Payne himself, worth it all Hope you all had a good race.

You forgot to mention first Irish man home! Well done.

RacoonQueen

jebuz wrote: »

2:54:46. Everything just seemed to go right on the day, felt really good the whole way through and finished very strongly. Great course, great conditions, great support and a great great hangover today too thanks to George Payne himself, worth it all Hope you all had a good race.

Well done C. Flying the Donore flag nicely!

happygoose

Link to results anyone?

Jimh

Someone has to be negative so it may as well be me

There were not enough toilets at the start - I stood in line for over 20 minutes and gave up in the end as I thought I would miss the start of the race and that came back to haunt me at the 30Km mark where I had to spend quite some time in one of the chemical toilets - I never really recovered and struggled to the finish.

I thought the course was quite dangerous - I saw 4 people crash to the ground tripped by other runners because it was just too crowded ( unless it was just everyone was running the same pace as me) - Trying to get water at the water stations was particularly dangerous because it was so congested and there were numerous bottle necks on the course even near the end. I also had two near misses with pedestrians trying to run across the road.

I think a number of factors affected my performance on the day, firstly I think I had pushed myself too hard two weeks before doing a 1:45 half marathon, secondly was the toilet issue above, third was the lack of sleep (early flight Saturday up early Sunday).

I followed the 3:45 pacers and even though the pace was well inside what I was capable of I never felt comfortable. I started to fall a little behind at 30Km and knew I could not keep up the pace but then the emergency toilet stop kicked in - I then had to walk a number of times to reach the end - I matched my Dublin time even with the problems I had but I dropped 14 minutes in the last 12k.

Lessons to be learned - Don't race too close to the main event - Make sure you get that final toilet visit before the start- Get some sleep. This is the worst I have felt after any marathon in terms of pain and stiffness - I also looked like I had been shot by a sniper as both nipples got destroyed with a combination of sweat, rain and rubbing of the shirt.

Back to the drawing board
Real time: 03:58:59 10 km time: 00:52:45 1/2 Marathon time: 01:51:59 30 km time: 02:40:21

neilc

Some valid points there Jimh, I didn't have any problems with the water stations but there were very few toilets at the start alright and quite a lot of spectators crossing in front of runners.

sideswipe

Sorry to hear you had a less than pleasurable experience Jim. Sometimes things just don't go the way you hope, I think we've all been there before. Those 'lessons learned' you speck of will stand to you next time I'm sure, personally I've learned more form bad days than good ones.

estariol

Have to echo those sentiments, toilet facilities were sdaly lacking and the pedestrians crossing the course was ridiculous. In general I didn't think it was very well run, hard to tie down exactly why but there were a lot of little things that detracted from fully enjoying the event. That said I would do it again, and found the course fairly good.