Marathon Barcelona 2008 was my second attepmt to finish alive 42 km (about 26 miles) of running. My first marathon happened last year where I ran from Predeal to Poiana Brasov with the final time: 4h:25min (www.maratondhl.ro). This time I was hopping to finish under 4h...but for some reasons that didn't happened! Maybe next time.
Anyway, my friends and I from "Cetatea Brasovului Asociation" took the plane from Bucharest to Barcelona on Wednesday night. We were 9 but only five of us were going to run on Sunday ( from left to right): Razvan,( me), Ade, Dadi, Codrut. They all have much more experience in endurance sports than me, so it was a challenge to stay as much as I could closer to them ... for anyone who may think... NO! I'm not the massage guy.
Marathon EXPO is a big hall with many sport brands booths and the place athletes take the chips and numbers for the race. It is also a good place to meet and talk with interesting people mostly about the equipment, training and of course the race...and of course girls, I don't know exactly why, but the subject always suddenly appears (spring is in the air).
7:30 AM preparing for the start...basicly that means to make photos at Start, it's good to be in the picture at Start at least, I was thinking...you never know about the Finish pics...
...and a last big smile
8:20 AM Espania Square, rock legend Queen singing the great song "Barcelona"
8:30 AM
Ready , Stady, GOOO!!! No, no wait!! the kenians first! Please anyone step aside allow the skinny guys do their job, this is their job: marathons. So after almost 5 minutes Ade, Razvan and I hit the road, Dadi and Codrut being in front trying to catch the black cheetahs.
After 10 km, next to a Berlin Marathon survivor dude! (for brighter teeths click here)
who's the fhashion guy in white new shoes, black socks, black shorts, red t-shirt, grey thing on left hand and white bandanna?
21 km , happy to see Patza our photographer
The race route was going nearby the most important tourist attractions: Sagrada Familia, Camp Nou Stadion, Columb Statue, Tore Agbar...but for me at that time they looked much more unattractive compared with the architecture of a bottle with some fresh water.
30km to 40km another step another auch!
The last kilometer is always the coolest, the pain suddenly disappears and I start smiling out of the blue. My friends who already finished the race (yeah! I didn't came first...what did you expect??? giz...) are grouped together next to a red banner and cheer my name all the way( video here). As any hero I start running faster thinking that the damn finish line would be right next to them.
Yeah!! who's the man now!?! Huh! I caaan't hear you!!!!
I'm sooo gonna finish this!... just 5 more steps...
Ahh! I hope Patza is taking me some nice pictures...
probably i should dance like Michael Jackson, you know, the moonwalking...
After 42km of running I really don't feel like running back home so I decide to stop. That was the time when my friends stopped clapping hands and start screaming at me: "You idiot. Don't stop, this ain't the finish! 200 more meters, retard! THAT way! No, not that way, THAT way!" Right. Typically me, finishing too early :). Damn Spain! Confused for a moment, I take the time to notice that everyone else keeps running (yeah, even the lame Berlin marathon guy) but me. C'mon people, is there any prize or something? Let's have a sip of water, chill out, you know. Stop, damn it. AAA. Ok, stop? No, really. Stop. No reason to start arguing so I rejoin the pack and start running again.
Incredibly as it seems, I really *don't* hold that guy's hand. Really.
After the corner the BIG RED REAL finish line was waiting for me for 4h:28 minutes.
1:00 PM The finish!!!
from left to right: Serban( 3:51), Dadi, the iron man(3:08), Ade, the girl (3:50), Codrut(3:13), Razvan(4:08) and of course the last but not the...oh never mind... me( 4:28)..."bloody" asics!!! Congratulations guys, everybody did an amazing job!!!
It was a great race even though I couldn't manage to finish under 4hours and now after two weeks I still have some injury on my right foot( I could barely write this blog with it:)). Don't even thing about running a marathon in new shoes!
And the thanks!
Thanks to the dream team from Barcelona, I enjoyed a lot the time with you there!
Special thanks to Tibi, Simona, Ovi, Amo and the production designers team for a great support. :D
...next time under 4 Cosmin, ok?
