Challenge Over Therapy

Therapy wasn't even an option

Barcelona in early March is a little secret of the time-travellers. If you can brave the icy wind to board a plane at your local airport, you will step out in the middle of a warm spring. Gentle sun on your face, the air rich with fresh blooms, and lively chatter from outdoor cafés.

But I did not arrive to sit musing on a bench. I was on a mission. Soon after I stretched my limbs from the confines of the budget airline I went for a run along the seafront. Because on Sunday 16. March I was to meet my challenge: the city's annual marathon.

Two mornings later I was stretching at Plaça de Catalunya, one among the animated crowd of almost thirty thousand runners, counting down to the start. And there we went.

The ambience was thrilling from start to finish — streets lined with people shouting '¡Venga, venga!', '¡Ánimo!', '¡Da lo que puedas!', and even '¡Vamos, Vacilando!'

Little kids, arms stretched far into the street, eager for high fives — however sweaty.

It's amusing to see how people want to interact with you just because you run in the street. One could think to be, for a brief moment, a role model, an example of somebody performing a feat that others only think about. But the reality may be that, for the spectators, we are not more than a curiosity, fools running the asphalt streets for hours in the sun to be rewarded by a generic piece of metal and a banana. One of the posters expressed it well: 'You've paid for this, now run!'

There were many other funny signs. Multiple variants of cardboards with 'Touch this for energy boost!' The tongue-in-cheek 'I trained for months to write this sign!' And of course girls with 'Smile if you think I'm beautiful!'

Most of the time I was too exhausted to produce much of a reaction. Attempts to smile resulting in awkward grins at best. Legs stiff with pain. Even thinking hurt!

But then there was a sign that really got me. A young lady at the side of the road swaying a cardboard sign that said: 'Therapy was an option, too!' I burst out laughing.

Ha, not for me! For as long as I can move, I will prefer the pain and sweat of 42195 metres in a beautiful city like Barcelona over any therapist’s couch :-)

Tomáš Fülöpp

Barcelona, Spain

March 14, 2025 ~ March 17, 2025