Barcelona marathon 2026: the stats I chose for my print are: •3:08:14 official time •15th in my category •9/63 – this comes in as my 9th fastest time, out of my now 63 marathons. (You can have this style print with any gpx route, and choose the 3 stats which are most meaningful to you). The 2026 course is fairly but not totally flat. The first half has more inclines, but you do get to recover and go faster on some downhills too. There's a bit of an up to 40km which you feel at that point. I liked the wave starts which meant plenty of room to run in. I found it less congested than other marathons, although you do have to concentrate on what I came to think of as the Spanish spectator road crossing championships (!) which constantly pop up to test you. Although it was a sunny day, most of the route was shaded by buildings which I really appreciated to keep it cooler. It was a bit windy but that was also cooling. I thought there were fewer spectators than other marathons and less vocal. There were some fun more lively hotspots, but I found I enjoyed the calm this created.

Barcelona – I had a 95% great marathon. I wasn’t sure what pace to run at, as we haven’t done any races recently, but a fairly even pace just popped out and I felt good aerobically the whole way. It was great to run a bit faster than I have for a while, and enjoy it. On the other 5%, I had a calf issue which caused me to have 2 weeks off training a month ago, but not a whisper since. Unfortunately it decided to come back during the race. I nearly coaxed it round, but had to walk a bit in the final couple of km, even on the finish mat, but at least it didn't give up completely earlier. For more about the course, my time & stats, see next post, displayed in my new print design, where you can have any gpx route with stats you choose.

👍 Big kudos to everyone who's mapped out 26.2 miles of effort across Tokyo today 🇯🇵 🗾 Some maps are too good to live only in an app, so I've made this if you'd like to display yours. ✨ Celebrate & recover well

That feeling when the run nearly beats you… but you make it. Although judging by the “Are you starting or finishing?” at the bakery, that relief must’ve made me look fresher than I felt 😅 Know the feeling?!

Welcome to what I call the year of the marathon: 2026.2 Dreamed up in 2025, running all through 2026, with a nod to Chinese Lunar New Year today, which inspired the design. Sorry km runners… it's a long wait 😜 Also a reminder you can get my designs across lots of products -choose 'Custom' in the shop, or shout if you can’t find what you’re after.

💙 Matchmaking the person to the card 💙 You may spot more than one person in your life who you could give these to!

Multifunctional mountains in the wild, winter edition. These are quite new, so it's great to have pics of them on training adventures. Featuring Trevor @trevstow22 braving Canadian snow & cold, and me on a recent snowy UK day.

Tracking level: 💯 Loving how you’re using your 100 trackers in your training journals 🙌 Great ideas what to track & making it look fab here. Are you going to use any of these ideas? What do you track? See mine in the comments.