Day 61 – EU – Spain [Mataro to Lloret De Mar]

04/02/20

45.3km

  From Mataro (Spain) to Lloret De Mar (Spain)

Europe

Last day on the Spanish coast, dealing with the remnants of Storm Gloria damages

I set out this morning for what was supposed to be a “standard” 42km run. In the first half of the run, I blew it! Planning my route, I saw that the National Road was the easiest way from A to B. But I also saw that many places had the alternative option of running on the seafront promenades. And I was keen to chance it. Anything but running by the side of fast cars!

I had checked precisely from which point to which point I could escape the National Road (NR), find a tunnel to go under the NR and under the train tracks, join the promenade – and then, when I was supposed to find another tunnel to return back to the NR.

That was without counting on the aftermath of Storm Gloria! It seemed the further away I got from Barcelona, the less advanced the cleaning actions were underway. Many tunnels were blocked with sand or water. The thing is, everytime I encountered an “uncrossable” tunnel, I had to backtrack until I found a suitable one. I went through 2 failures before I eventually gave up. I would run the rest of the run on the NR. There was simply no way to tell what would or would not work. And I was already going through a 45km+ run day!

Further up the road, I encountered another disappointment as a road I had elected to run on was again closed to traffic. I would have normally tried my luck… but the Guardia Civil on duty at the roadblock gave me a look that unequivocally told me trying my luck was not an option. I carried on on another road…

Anyway – that was still another good day of running under the warm Spanish sun! Looking forward to tomorrow, where I will meet my folks after the run and get to spend the next 5 days with them! (but still running).

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: