Oxfam Trailwalker in the Costa Brava

When it comes to personal bucket lists, we are all very different. You may want to travel around the world, go bungee jumping, finish reading The War and Peace. Some of us, partial to hiking and running, may cross off a big one from their lists by participating in the annual race Oxfam Trailwalker, taking place in the Costa Brava every March/April.

The premise of the race is simple: take two towns in the Costa Brava, Olot and Sant Feliu de Guíxols, and give participants 32 hours to cover the distance between the two. You may run, walk or crawl, take breaks for food and rest whenever you want, break for the night or keep going till the end — each team (four people required) has its own strategy and tactics. Some of the teams fight for victory, but they are a minority: most others just have the goal to endure, persevere and complete the race in time.

The route from Olot, the centre of the volcanic zone of Garrotxa, to Sant Feliu de Guíxols, a popular Costa Brava resort, runs along Vía Verde del Carrilet, one of several Greenways in Spain. It's a former railway corridor now remade into a hiking and cycling trail.

The race is organized by Oxfam, an Oxford-based international charity organization founded in 1942 to combat poverty and social injustice. Trailwalker along the Greenways in Girona first took place in 2011. In 2014, Oxfam organized Trailwalker in Lozoya Valley in the Community of Madrid, and in May 2017 the race was held in the Basque Country for the first time.

You may register your team online on the official website of Trailwalker. The registration fee is 200€¹, but paying it is only the first step: in order to receive a race number and be allowed to take part in the race, each team must find sponsors and raise at least 1500€ in pledges. In addition to four racers, each team must also have a support vehicle with two additional team members on board.

¹⁾Based on the Trailwalker 2020-2021 registration rules.