Where to run
Running in Barcelona
Barcelona is a city between a ridge and the sea, and running here means choosing one of them. The beach promenade is flat and social; the Collserola hillside above the city is dirt, quiet and, in one famous case, perfectly level.
The ground
What running in Barcelona is actually like
The city tilts. It slopes gently from the foot of the Collserola ridge down to the Mediterranean, so almost every street run has a bias one way and a payback the other.
Behind the city, the Serra de Collserola is a large natural park with Tibidabo at 512 metres at its eastern end. To the south-west, Montjuïc rises to about 173 metres above the port, carrying the Olympic ring, the castle and a lot of gardens. Between them, the Eixample grid is dense, hot in summer, and interrupted by traffic lights every hundred and thirty metres.
Which is why the two runs that define the city are both linear and both car-free: the sea front and the Carretera de les Aigües.
Routes
Runs worth knowing in Barcelona
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The Carretera de les Aigües
The best known run in Barcelona. A broad dirt track that contours the Collserola hillside, almost perfectly level because it follows an old water main, with the whole city and the sea laid out below. Reach it by the Vallvidrera funicular from Peu del Funicular, or climb up from Sarrià and earn it.
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The beach front
From Barceloneta north-east past Nova Icària, Bogatell and Mar Bella to the Fòrum, on a promenade beside the sand the whole way. Busy, flat, and the obvious place for a morning session before the heat arrives.
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Montjuïc
Up from the port or from Plaça Espanya through the Olympic ring and the gardens to the castle at the top. Every kind of gradient, several ways up and several ways down, and the closest hard hill session to the centre.
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Collserola and Tibidabo
Above the Carretera the park keeps going: fire roads, singletrack and a long climb to the church on Tibidabo at 512 metres. This is where the city's trail runners actually train.
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Turó de la Rovira
The climb through Gràcia and El Carmel to the old anti-aircraft battery on the hilltop, with a view over everything. Short, sharp and mostly on streets and steps.
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Parc de la Ciutadella
The central park, flat and green and too small for a long run, which makes it exactly right for laps and intervals. Add the Parc del Fòrum or the port for a longer flat block.
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Parc Fluvial del Besòs
A restored river park north-east of the city with a long, uninterrupted flat path beside the water. Unfashionable, empty and very useful for a measured effort.
Season
Hot summers, perfect winters
July and August are hot and humid, and the sea does not cool the nights the way people expect. Training moves to before eight in the morning or after nine in the evening, and drinking fountains become part of the route.
Winter is the good season. It rarely drops near freezing at sea level, and the Carretera de les Aigües on a clear January morning is close to the best running the Mediterranean coast offers. Autumn brings short, heavy downpours that flood a street in ten minutes and are gone in twenty.
The city's own calendar is busy: the Marató de Barcelona in March, and the Cursa dels Nassos on the last day of the year. Both are city-centre road races and both fill up.
The app
How Waypath fits a Barcelona week
Spanish and Catalan trails
Collserola, the Garraf and the Montseny are all in a catalogue built from OpenStreetMap, with terrain and season notes on the regions around the city.
Heat and honesty
Heart-rate zones need a watch or a chest strap, and Waypath will not model them from pace. On a humid August evening that distinction is the difference between a real number and a comforting one.
Share a route, not your front door
Publish an activity and the start is trimmed, so the map does not begin at your flat in Gràcia.
Keep reading
More places, and how the app works
Run it, then share the link.
Free unlimited recording, a trail catalogue that covers Collserola, and a live link for whoever is waiting on the beach.
Requires iPhone. Recording activities is free, with no limit on how many.