Barcelona Marathon 2027

Ah… Barcelona! 🤤 The capital of Catalonia may not be that of Spain 🇪🇸, but it’s clearly the one in our hearts! ♥️ The city 🌆, of exceptional beauty, needs no introduction. On the other hand, the Barcelona Marathon, or Zurich Marató Barcelona 🤌, its official name, is never talked up enough! And yet it’s one of Europe’s must-run marathons 🇪🇺 and one of the most popular. It’s next March that you’ll have the chance to run this iconic race, where the atmosphere is completely wild 😝 and where performers from all over the world gather every year 📍. Alright, enough chit-chat— it’s time to tell you everything about the course, its specifics, its strengths, its icons and its monuments👇. 

Before we start, we’re offering you a little warm-up 🤸‍♀️. For that, there’s only one song allowed: « El Cant del Barça » 🎶. The anthem of FC Barcelona ⚽️ will surely get you fired up to prepare for this urban race that’s made for the best times ⏱️. So this is the perfect moment to try to beat the time of Tesfaye Deriba (2 h 04 min 13 s) 🤴 and Fotyen Tesfay (2 h 10 min 53 s) 👸! The task will be all the easier because you’ll benefit from your loved ones’ support for almost the entire course 🛣️. If you take a look at the marathon’s layout, you’ll see it focuses on the city center, which makes things easy for supporters 📣 who want to follow how your race is going 📸. Metro stations 🚇 serve both the finish line 🏁 and the start, and the streets allow loved ones to reach several points of the course quickly. So call your wife, your husband, your kids, and your cousins—you’ve got an itinerary to plan! They can easily come to watch the start of the race, then meet you at km 3, km 6, and km 15. Same for those who want to help you face the 30 km wall: they’ll be able to see you at km 28, 38, and at the finish, located under the Arc de Triomf, or at km 30 and 32 🤷‍♂️.

Speaking of that famous 30 km wall, let’s talk about it! 👉 The Barcelona Marathon 2027, entirely urban, gives you the chance to take a breath of fresh sea air 🌬️ thanks to the stretch of road along the seafront, from km 26 to km 30. It’ll blow your mind 😍 and do wonders for your morale, but it also adds a major difficulty: there isn’t a shred of shade, so you’ll be under the sun! 🌞 You’ll need to remember to hydrate well to keep going. The good news is the same: there’s no elevation gain, which should already make this section less painful 😮‍💨. 

In addition to having no elevation gain, the Zurich Barcelona Marathon was designed for performance 🕺. You’ll be a real rocket on race day thanks to a course similar to a Formula 1 🏎️ circuit. If you look closer at the route, you’ll see that the first 19 kilometers take place along 6 long straightaways, broken up by a few 90° turns 📐. You’ll also be able to keep up your sprint after halfway, since the course stays flat 👏. 6 more long straightaways will be waiting for you before you reach the finish line. In the meantime, you’ll have gone to the east of the city along the seafront, and also north up to Torre Glòries 🗼 (the colorful twin of the famous London “gherkin” skyscraper 🏙️). In total, more than 30 km of your marathon will be made up of long straightaways! What’s more, it’s worth noting you’ll never be hindered when overtaking, since the organizers deliberately chose major avenues in the city 😌. This means you won’t have the opportunity to go through the historic center of the city. 

On the other hand, this detour has the advantage of taking you past the beautiful Marina ⚓ of the Catalan capital, before bringing you to Parc de la Ciutadella 🌳, which you’ll run alongside. You’ll see enough to make you want to come back and visit this green lung after the event, just like the famous Las Ramblas street, which you won’t cross, but only glimpse on either side 👀. But don’t think you won’t see anything! 🙅‍♀️ This urban marathon takes you through the city’s typical neighborhoods and will allow you to dive into the everyday places where Barcelonians live, notably in the Sant Antoni neighborhood, popular with tourists, or Poble-Sec, more typical and working-class 🍻. Just a few strides away, you’ll also spot the gigantic Christopher Columbus column ⛵. And what would a marathon in Barcelona be without the traditional pass at the foot of the Sagrada Familia? 🤔 The basilica will be waiting for you, basket feet firmly planted, at km 14, to your great delight 🥹. 

You’ll also see that Barcelonians themselves will be over the moon, as the event is so eagerly awaited and loved! A great Latin vibe 💃 should accompany you along the course, backed by entertainment 🎭, orchestras 🥁 and a cheering crowd 🤪. Don’t forget: every year, more than 27,000 runners come for the occasion, and an audience of 60,000 people! 🥳 Runners from all over the world jostle to get a bib 🎽 for this race! The most fun spots will be at the city’s main landmarks: at the Sagrada Familia, at Torre Glòries, the unexpected highlight of this new edition 💫, and at the Arc de Triomf, where the crowd is expected to be extremely dense. No doubt this overall excitement will give you the energy you need to push yourself… and probably make you live through one of the best running experiences of your life! 🫶

To unwind after your race and immerse yourself even more in the local culture, we recommend visiting the places the race won’t cover: Camp Nou 🏟️ for football fans, to follow in the footsteps of Messi, Ronaldinho and other Cruyff who made this club legendary; the Cathedral of the Holy Cross ✝️; the mythical Plaça Catalunya; then the splendid buildings of Antoni Gaudí 🎨 such as Casa Batlló and the magnificent Parc Güell. After exploring (almost) every inch of the majestic city of Barcelona, we suggest you indulge in the joys of local gastronomy 😋. On the menu: Iberian ham (jamón Ibérico for the bilingual 🗣️), Escalivada or some good tapas paired with a delicious wine from the Penedès region 🍷—and you’ll leave with your head and taste buds full of memories! 🤤

Come and tortilla yourself over a 42.195 km in the Catalan capital 💃, vamos chicos, vamos! 

Pssssst 🤫, if you want even more running in the Ciudad de Gaudí, you can come do the Barcelona half marathon in February! 😉

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