La Mercè Race yesterday and today

Common wisdom has it that , in 1900, sporting events began to be held at La Mercè Festival as part of the programme of Barcelona's town festival (Festa Major): first a bicycle race, and later a 500-meter foot race in the Ciutadella Park in which six athletes participated. That may be the forerunner of La Mercè Race today, although the first one in its current guise was held on 24 September 1979.

That edition, Just like the ones that have followed, was promoted by the first democratic Town Hall with the aim of encouraging people to participate in sport. The first year and the two following years, three races were held: a 15K race, a 10K race and a 5K race, each starting from different places. The 15K race started from Plaça Catalunya and went down the Ramblas to Subida de Miramar, and then the participants joined the 10K race by Montjuïc Stadium. It was followed by Plaza España, Paralelo and the Rondas until reaching Plaza Universidad. Then, the runners of the 5k race were added, and from there, following the other Rondas and Ciutadella Park, they all continued to the finish line in Plaça Catalunya.

That was a time when running in the streets was unheard of. In fact, it had been half banned by the dictatorship: only federated athletes did it once a year, at the Jean Bouin. This La Mercè Race in 1979, and the El Corte Inglés Race four months earlier, along with the 1980 marathon, opened up the possibility of being able to take to the streets doing sport, at least one morning a year. This was unusual at a time when running was called footing. A time when many of us started running in tennis shoes. So casual was the first La Mercè Race that there were neither results nor a classification. Everyone got a certificate and filled in their own name and time.

Therefore, it is difficult to know how many people participated in and finished it. For the second race the following year, the newspapers reported 10,000 runners. It may seem a lot for the time, but the truth is that being able to run through the streets of Barcelona after long years of prohibitions was a blessing which people rushed to joinAs the race became more established, variations were introduced. For example, with the idea of encouraging children and adolescents to run in it, in 1981 a race was created for children under the age of 15. There was also another one exclusively for federated athletes, and another for adult runners.

Years later, everyone would run together in the same race. In the first ones, probably due to the lack of athletic culture, there were frequent scares and quarrels at the starting line. Some people would leave before the shot, and nobody could stop them. That happened several times, specifically in 1982, 1983 and especially 1984, where renowned athletes did that. A summary of what happened is provided by the journalist Carlos R. Galindo in Marathon magazine:

"The start was at Avenida de María Cristina Avenue, next to Plaza España. The participants, some occasional athletes for a day, were lined up when Mayor Maragall fired the shot. But he was unable to do so because the gun did not work. The man, resourcefully, called out “Go!” And everyone went out to conquer the race’s 11K. Suddenly, screams began to be heard: “You’ve got no right!!! This is a people’s race, not an Olympic one!!!” Some people had positioned themselves a few metres ahead of the starting line, including well-known figures such as Wilmot and Catalán. The advantage gained by the two athletes was insurmountable for Amado Hernández, who was in third place. The large crowd at the finish line on Avenida Maria Cristina applauded enthusiastically as Wilmot entered the finish line in a time of 33'40" to take first place. A few meters behind him, Domingo Catalán came in second with 33'42", while Amado Hernández, who was in third place, covered the last meters with a very eloquent gesture: he raised his index finger as if to say that he is the real winner. As soon as he crossed the finish line, he turned to the referee and berated him. An amateur provides a Polaroid photograph and everything becomes clear. The loudspeakers announced that the winner of the sixth edition of La Mercè Race was Amado Hernández.’ ". The truth is that heated words were exchanged between the three friends and lifelong companions. But it didn’t amount to much and they remained close friends. That year, the first woman was María Tió, from Sant Pol de Mar, a standout basketball player who had started running three months before the race. She was the mother of four children, the smallest of whom was just five months old.

In those early years, and until chips were adopted, no one knew how many participants finished the races, La Mercè and all the others. The press sometimes said there were 10,000 and the following year 7,000, only to return later to 11,000. The truth is that the first running boom had exploded, and many people were enthralled by a new way of doing sport. Like the 15,000 reported in 1989, the year in which the top woman was Elisenda Pucurull and the male winner was, Joan Viudes. It should be said that this athlete came in first four times and has the honour of being the person who has won La Mercè Race the most times so far. The second in this ranking of winners, with three victories, is Fernando Díaz, as well as Carles Castillejo. And in the women's category, Nuria Pastor won no fewer than seven races. Behind her with six victories is the Moroccan-born runner Hasna Bahom, who lives in Catalonia.

Over time, La Mercè Race has had various lengths, between 8 and 11 kilometres, and different routes. The hardest were the early years until the mid-1990s, when runners had to climb up and down Montjuïc. At the beginning of the race, it was all fun and good vibes, but when you reached the Subida de Miramar, there was suddenly no more talking to the person next to you. Until you got to the Fundación Miró, some people were struggling just to get a breath. It was common, in those years, to see how instead of going around the stadium from behind and looking for Plaça de Sant Jordi, some participants would turn right looking for Pueblo Español, to break free and reach Avinguda de Maria Cristina satisfied. In other words, ‘shortcutters’ (cheaters who shorten the course in races to get a good time) are a species that has been around for a long time.

The race had always been held on the day of La Mercè, which is a public holiday in Barcelona, whatever day of the week it fell on. But since 1997 it has been held on a Sunday in September so that runners from outside the city can join it.

In 1999, La Mercè Race was run for the first time with a chip, a curious device attached to the shoes to time the time of the participants. Now it seems like the most normal thing in the world, but 20 years ago, knowing exactly what time you had made, regardless of how long it took to cross the finish line, was still science fiction.

In 2001, 2002 and 2003, La Mercè Race, then 10.5 kilometres long, was held at the same time as the Barcelona half-marathon. Gone were the days of running without training. People were already training and participating in races of a certain distance, and the option of doing so two ways was appealing. Even so, almost the same number of runners registered in both races, and La Mercè Race turned out to be blurred in the other (in 2003 only 3,000 runners did it), so they stopped being combined..

Lots of high-level runners, many of them track runners, participated in La Mercè Race in the early years. This still holds true and served and still serves to make the race prominent, in addition to the fact that most of us anonymous runners enjoy participating in the same race as the celebrated figures. The list is exhaustive. To name a few, I would highlight Domingo Catalán and Teresa Palacio in their day, and Benito Ojeda, Roger Roca, Txell Calduch, Hasna Bahom and Carles Castillejo more recently.

Some renowned athletes also run the race. Luis Enrique is one of them. In 2004, a group of anonymous runners, hurt by the announcement that the marathon had been cancelled, demanded that it be revived with yellow paper signs hanging on their backs with the slogan ‘We want the Marathon in Barcelona’. One of those who joined the protest was Luis Enrique. The next day the newspapers were talking. We cannot thank then enough.

The current route of the race is the same as it was in 2004. Since then, it may have had some minor changes due to street work, but none of them was significant. Apart from the last kilometre along the Parallel, the route is very flat. That’s a good move. And another big one is that in 2007, the race, which was still free, started donating the proceeds to charity. Each chip given back at the finish meant a donation of 80 cents to the Casal de Niños del Raval, an organisation that works with families and children at risk of social exclusion. La Mercè was one of the first races to combine running with charity. IA registration fee was paid for the first time in 2009. It cost 5 euros and the proceeds went to Unicef to promote athletics in schools in Senegal. Since then, it has been a humanitarian cause and the proceeds from each year's event are donated to different charities..

The fact that the race is one of the events in the city's Festa Major always makes it a festive event, but it's still about competition for those who like to win. It has been part of the Challenge BCN 10K since 2010. This is a competition in the guise of a league that groups together 16 of the most important 10K races in Barcelona, in which accumulative points are awarded to each participant, with trophies for the first in each age category.

In 2013, Carles Castillejo won for the second time out of three, and 2014 witnessed the highest number of finishers to date: 13,041 and 14,010 respectively, which proves how rooted La Mercè Race is in this world of popular races, as well as the loyalty of us regulars. This is considerable participation, given that the number of runners in the races had started to decrease even in its early years, due to the sheer number of races.

In 2017, the race was special for several reasons. It dovetailed with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Barcelona Olympics and paid tribute to the event. All of us who ran the race wore a white t-shirt with illustrations about the Olympics, reminiscent of those worn the volunteers in 1992. In addition, a prize was awarded to the first runner born in 1992 to cross the finish line. Furthermore, the winners, Mourad El Banmouri in the male category at 29'24" and Lidia Rodriguez in the female category at 34'12", beat the records of the race that had been held on the same course for a long time: 12 and 13 years, respectively.

I shall end this sketch of La Mercè Race with a paragraph from an article published in the newspaper Ara by the writer and journalist Empar Moliner. It came out two years ago Who better than her, a running enthusiast, to reflect the essence of the event?.

"Inside La Mercè Race. (...) We start. Excitement. Barefoot runner with chip holder with Spanish flag on the ankle talking to a friend. He is happy because it will drop below fifty. A group of friends with a Catalan independence flag pushing a boy in a wheelchair. “Come on, keep going! It's downhill at the end!”, he says. I smile and tell them: “Right?” And they call: “You see? Do you see it?” A boyfriend asks me: “What will your time be?” “I'd like to get below 50, but I don't know if I can.” On Gran Vía, a pigeon pecks at vomit. A pale girl in evening dress, still with a glass in her hand, swaying like a reed, cries out: “You are the best!” And we applauded her. On the asphalt I see the blue line of the marathon, half erased. Kilometre 37 on the ground. I remember what I feel when I do it, the marathon, and I come this way. And when I do, I will remember this race. The freshness he carried in his body. I like long runs better because I don't have to go fast. “Chair, chair, there’s a curve!” a boy squeals to warn those with the wheelchair. I come in gasping for breath and see that I haven't dropped below 50 by 30 seconds. I walk to get the water and see that the flyer delivery people (other races) are no longer only students, as they were before. There are ladies, grandparents... To my right a woman with cafe-au-lait skin kisses a girl (her daughter) while a man (hers) holds a bouquet of flowers for her. She is Janet Becerra, the third ranked. I salute her. She is Bolivian and lives in Sabadell. We chatted for a while. “Journalists always get my nationality wrong”, she tells me. And she tells me that she can't train as much as she would like to, because she works all day and has a baby girl. I ask her about her time. “I haven’t looked. Thirty-six and a bit...” She has no club and no coach; she is just a woman who runs, who came here on her own to work in 2006. I congratulate her, she congratulates me and we end up talking about Bolivian restaurants. I tell her that I have been to Las Brujas in Sabadell, and then she recommends La Panchita. I'm walking away with my bib on, full of optimism, thinking about eating some pacumutos".

As an epilogue, I would like to point out that La Mercè Race, the second oldest of the 66 races held in Barcelona, is one where the phenomenon of more women runners has become clear. In the early years there were very few, very unlike today. The proportion of women over total race participants (the ratio, they call it) is growing steadily. Suffice it to say that while in the early years, there were only a handful of women runners, in 2005 they accounted for 15% and now, in the last year, it was 30%.

Miquel Pucurull
26/07/2018