When I signed up to UTBCN, aka Ultra trail Barcelona with 100km and 4,500m of ascent, I did not expect it to be too hard or too taxing. Don’t get me wrong I did not think it was going to be a walk in the park either. I respect the distance and I know that no race is easy. But having said that, when compared with other challenges Laureda and I have lined up for the rest of the year, UTBCN definitely fell into the “easiest” category and I went into it thinking that it would feel easy.

 

Well, I am now officially reversing this position. It was hard! The race was technical, gnarly and even though this is not huge in term of elevation it was constantly up and down. The heat and humidity did not help either making it feel any better. Now hard does not mean bad but the point is that it took a lot more out of me than I thought it would. However, I also thought it would be beautiful to run at the heart of the national park of Garraf and oh boy it was!

 

 

 

The first thought that crossed my mind when the alarm rang on April 25^th Saturday morning at 4.30am was “ I don’t want to run. I want to stay in bed!”. I felt exhausted and had very little desire to get ready, let alone running 100kms. Having been ill after SDW50 had left me depleted and tired – not the best condition to be in.

If it had been a race in the UK I think I would have gave it a pass, but we did not go all the way to Barcelona to come back empty handed. Laureda frantically prepared a huge breakfast with eggs, avocados, beefsteak and vegetables before we drove to the start.

 

After spending more than 30 minutes looking for pins to attach our bib number we finally got some at the kit check, before getting into the staring area. Time seemed to be flying by and before we knew it we were on our way.

 

 

Laureda had decided to try to keep up with me as she wanted to attempt to finish it around 14 hours – which was what I thought achievable (looking at last year times).

Although we both started in the front pack, we quickly found ourselves falling back to the point where we were literally running in the last group. The pace was not quick though. But it felt real hard work just to plod along. I was rapidly out of breath, with no peps in the legs and again thinking I would rather be in bed. Laureda was silent and from the look of it felt exactly the way I did. A French guy was running alongside us and was rather chatty. I tried to make a bit of conversation with him, mostly to be polite as frankly I did not want to talk! Anyway it didn't take long before for the guy to drop us.

 

The first 6kms were mostly on Jeep tracks. I parted with Laureda not wanting her to redline so early on. We then reached a single track. I was surprised how technical and rocky it was. I had seen picture prior to the race but running it somewhat felt much more difficult than the deceptive photos. That will teach me!

The technicality suited me though as I started pulling back a few runners – or they started slowing down. But either way, I was making my way up the field and more importantly I was starting having fun going downhill. In more than one occasion, I cursed myself for wearing the sense-lab as I could feel sharp rocks stabbing my feet. Although I can't complain too much as my feet did not feel battered by the end of the race - but I still think that a sense-pro would have provided a bit more protection and comfort.

 

 

 

After CP2, around kilometre 20,  a runner blasted through like she was just starting out of the gate. The stride and silhouette looked familiar – and after a few back and forth I finally recognised her as the girl I ran the last part of TGC in 2014. A French speaker living in Barcelona.  I could not remember her name but started chatting with her anyway. It was her indeed- Djaina. She was blasting the flat and down but slowing down on the ups. She has been plagued with back pain for a while now and this was quite literally ruining her race. The back and forth game lasted until 55kms mark – which I enjoyed a lot as this was the opportunity to talk to someone beyond my limited 15 Spanish words.

Having learned my lessons from TGC, I made sure I was staying on the top of my hydration and nutrition. I didn’t want to piss blood nor did I want to blow up. I think I did a good job at carrying one Salomon flask with water and another one with energy drink (alternating Aquarius and Powerade). Food wise, I was mixing it up too between real food (fruits, bars) and energy gels. I complemented these with a few cups of coke at CPs and a soup (that totally hit the spot!) at the last CP.

 

 

 

Alright, enough said about eating and drinking. This is not a culinary blog after all! 

The course is made of one big loop of 70k, which happens to be one the little sister race called LTBCN and one smaller loop of 30k. The last 30k were hard. Especially that before heading back out for the smaller loop we literally passed by the finish line in Begues. A lot of people actually dropped there – very handy to just call it a day.

So what was I saying? Yes the last 30k…there were hard. Hard – I have been using this word a lot and after all it’s no freaking surprise! Everything starts feeling hard after 70k anyway. The feeling wasn't help with the fact that my right Achilles tendon had been aching since kilometer 40 and was now hurting significantly more. I kept pushing anyway from CP to CP. None were very far away from each other although that did not necessarily reflected in the time to cover this ground. With 16kms to go after having climbed one of the steepest hill of the day, I was running down the subsequent steepest downhill of the day and as I was thinking to myself that I still had good legs, I slid on my butt and managed to soften the blow using my hand. However, because the trail gods had decided otherwise that day, I landed on a very sharp rock right on my coccyx…Oh gosh that hurt! I screamed in pain and got back up praying it had not been broken. The first few steps sent shock-waves to the area but I knew I had not damaged it bad (as I assume I would have not been able to run). I must say that, as I write this 2 weeks later, my coccyx still hurts J

 

With a painful Achilles tendon and butt tail bone, I wanted to finish this asap. I pushed on for the last few miles catching up a few runners along the way. Each time I stick to them for a couple of kms to make time go by faster. I always love to get to know people when they are tired and stripped out from their ‘social’ face.

At the last CP I felt very moody when I was told that there was 3km left going uphill and then another 3,  all downhill, to the end. Somehow, I had imagined that the last 6kms would be done and dusted in no time. Well, I charged the last uphill and it felt so long. I was swearing every time I started going downhill only to find out that it was going back up straight away. But all good (and bad) things have an end. After a final descent to Begues, a few twist and turns into the village and boom I was (again) at the finish line but this time I knew I would cross it rather than going on the side for another 30k loop J

 

I finished in 13h17, 24^th overall. I was pleased with the this time as I had expected to do 14hish. I went to sit down in one of the chair before going to get some food. I then waited for Laureda. Unfortunately my phone had died so I could not see online where she was and have to bugger people to check for me on their phone. She finished in 15h18. When I turned my phone back on the first message that came through was hers saying ‘I quit!’. Obviously she didn’t.

 

UTBCN was an epic race. The ultra course remains relatively low key which I love. More runners took part into the shorter distance events. Not running in a huge crowd is a massive plus to enjoy the experience. Being able to run alone in the vast park of Garraff is an amazing feeling. The race was well organised and the Catalans know how to make you feel welcome. I will definitely go back!