Personal best!

Last Sunday I ran my first race of 2015. As I have done for the past years, I started the year running the Cursa of Sant Antoni. I will say it was my first race since I took running as a serious activity. I remember that the first time I didn’t know where to put the chip and I didn’t get the official time. It was a mistake I have never repeated again.

I was very confident to perform well, because I felt fit. On previous races I had improved my marks and during my training I felt very comfortable. The only thing that worried me was that the night before I went late to bed because of work and I didn’t get enough rest as I should have. However, everything turned out quite well.

Even though every year there are more participants in the race, I was lucky enough to start in the third box. It was very good for me because I didn’t have many people in front and I didn’t have to spend the first minutes avoiding other runners. I think this one was one of the clues for my performance.

My last race with this running shoes

  

I started very well and during the first kilometers I went at a good pace. So good that, for first the time, I past the five kilometer point in less than 22 minutes. I felt so strong then, that I even thought it would be possible to go under 44 minutes. However, the second part of the race didn’t go so well and I started to realize my margin was decreasing, and then tried to reach the finish under 45'.

Despite it didn’t go so well, I was able to keep a good pace and complete the second part in 22.36; that is very good for me. I have to admit that I was really happy when I finished the race because everything turned out very well and I was able to improve my mark. Now in my mind I have the aim to finish under 1h 40 min in the half marathon of Barcelona. Nearly a month to finish my training and arrive in the best conditions.

Free museums

Jéssica has always wanted to visit the Museu Nacioanl d’Art de Catalunua (MNAC) which is in Montjuïc and is one of the most famous museums in Barcelona. I remember I visited once when I was younger and yesterday I realized that I shouldn’t wait so much to go back.

 

After thinking about IT and finding out the prices of the MNAC, we decided to go this past Sunday. First Sundays of each month some museums in Barcelona are ticket free so we thought it would be a good idea. Doing sightseeing in your own city it is not very usual and I think we should do it more often.

After going up all the stairs and having a view of the city from the top (Barcelona looks really nice) we went into the Museum. The first surprise was that there wasn’t any queue to go in. I honestly thought we were going to have to wait a few minutes and I even thought that maybe we wouldn’t be able to go in. I was absolutely wrong.  

About this issue there are two things I want to point out: first of all, in a way, I was happy not to queue up because I wasn’t in a mood to stay long time in the sun. However, it is a bit disappointing that having the opportunity of visiting one of our most famous museums nearly nobody was there. I am the first one to think that culture is too expensive, but yesterday it was free and it is a good opportunity. It is true I don’t usually take advantage of these offers but I will try now.

The visit around the museum was good. I really liked the first part of the Medieval Romanesque art because some of the pieces of art are quite known here in Catalonia and I remember them when I studied history of art. The painting in the churches of Santa Maria de Taüll and Sant Climent of Taüll, for example, are well known and deserve the visit to the museum. 

Rest of paintings, photos… are nice but after being in some of the bests museums in the world I wasn’t that impressed. However, I wouldn’t mind going back in the future because it is always nice to have a look and see some of our best pieces of art. After finishing the visit I felt really happy. First of all because it was an interesting activity to do in a Sunday morning and, secondly, because I think it is important to learn our history, to go through time and see what our predecessors were able to do hundreds of years ago. Keep learning is something absolutely important for us.