Barcelona woke up this Sunday, May 10, with the kind of atmosphere only major mass-participation races can create. Early in the morning, some streets were still half empty and caf\u00e9s were just opening, but around Avinguda Diagonal thousands of runners were already gathering with race bibs pinned to technical shirts, light jackets tied around their waists and that familiar mix of nerves and excitement that always surrounds an important race morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 46th Cursa El Corte Ingl\u00e9s<\/strong> once again turned the city into one huge shared running experience. And it did so by confirming something very few popular races manage to preserve after so many decades: the ability to attract everyone at once. Fast runners, first-timers, families, groups of friends, people walking sections of the course and athletes fighting to break the 30-minute barrier all coexisted within the same event, in a morning that Barcelona seemed to embrace as its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The public response was massive once again. After the initial 40,000 race bibs<\/strong> sold out, organisers expanded the limit to 50,000 entries<\/strong>, reinforcing the scale of an event that continues to hold a unique place in Barcelona\u2019s sporting calendar thanks to its free registration model and strong connection with the city itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The race began at 9:00 a.m. on Avinguda Diagonal<\/strong>, directly in front of El Corte Ingl\u00e9s Diagonal, but the atmosphere had already started building long before the gun went off. Runners warmed up beside the barriers, groups stopped to take photos before entering their corrals, music echoed near the start arch and thousands of people slowly moved toward the line with the sense that they were stepping into something bigger than a simple 10K.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The weather helped too. After Saturday\u2019s rain, Barcelona welcomed the race with much friendlier conditions and temperatures that gradually rose as the morning progressed. The course remained the officially certified 10-kilometre urban circuit<\/strong> approved by the Federaci\u00f3 Catalana d\u2019Atletisme<\/strong>, starting on Diagonal and finishing in Pla\u00e7a Catalunya<\/strong> after passing through some of the city\u2019s best-known streets, including Passeig de Gr\u00e0cia<\/strong>, Arag\u00f3<\/strong>, Gran Via<\/strong>, Passeig de Sant Joan<\/strong> and Ronda Sant Pere<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than its speed, though, the course once again delivered something else: the feeling of running through Barcelona from the inside. For several hours, the streets stopped functioning as traffic arteries and became a shared space occupied by tens of thousands of runners moving together toward Pla\u00e7a Catalunya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the popular dimension of La Cursa often dominates the conversation, there was also serious racing at the front. From the opening kilometres the pace was extremely fast, and it quickly became clear that both races would be decided by very small margins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the men\u2019s race, Pol Espinosa<\/strong> took victory in 29:44<\/strong> after a very aggressive and tightly contested battle until the final metres. Mourad Mounim<\/strong> crossed the line only three seconds later in 29:47<\/strong>, while Marc Fern\u00e1ndez<\/strong> completed the podium with 29:52<\/strong>. All three runners broke the 30-minute barrier in one of the closest finishes of the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\nA huge start line and a city fully involved from the first kilometre<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Pol Espinosa and Sandra Sancho led the competitive side of the morning<\/h2>\n\n\n\n