There are several ways you can see the city of Barcelona in its entirety from Mt. Tibidabo – the mountain that borders the city on the northwest side. You can take the metro and then board the funicular, take a tour bus or drive up the steep roads.

Yet the mountain is also an example of a place where runners have an advantage over the average traveler. I love to run. I love the feeling of the wind blowing in my hair and the sound of my feet pounding on the ground.

Before I arrived in Barcelona in January, I had heard running on the streets wasn’t as popular in Spain as it is in the United States. Within the first couple days, I realized why this might be true: narrow sidewalks and a city overrun by pedestrians and motos – a cross between a moped and a motorcycle – doesn’t exactly create an ideal running situation. But as any true running fan knows, sometimes the best routes are just happened upon.

The first day I put on my running shoes and left my apartment in Sarria – a neighborhood partway up Mt. Tibidabo – I stepped off the sidewalk to avoid a couple walking hand in hand and narrowly avoided being run over by a moto. I decided that running down a main street probably wasn’t the wisest decision, so I headed up the mountain.

I spent months training for the Chicago Marathon and consider myself in good shape – but a lifetime of running on flat Midwest roads doesn’t exactly prepare a girl for mountains. About a half mile up I was drenched in sweat and could feel the tingling in my muscles that tells me I’m going to be feeling it later. Then I turned around and looked toward the sea and saw “it”: the entire city of Barcelona – often referred to as the “utopian city” by urban planners and historians alike. “It” also included the Mediterranean Sea, sparkling in the distance and seeming to extend endlessly into the distance, and Montjuic, the mountain rising on the other side of the city. “It” showed the exceptional graffiti that Barcelona is famous for on many buildings. “It” was so beautiful and awe-inspiring that I didn’t care about the blisters and muscle cramps I had the next day.

My mom likes to remind me to take mental, in addition to physical, pictures of every place I see while traveling. I never realized how powerful her advice was until I had the views from Mt. Tibidabo burned into my memory.

Countless travelers have seen everything from the Grand Canyon and Mt. Kilimanjaro to the Eiffel Tower and Buckingham Palace. Fewer people have seen the less traveled – though just as spectacular – places runners have seen. It’s runners – with nothing holding them back but their stamina and individual sense of adventure – who have seen the small towns in Africa overflowing with women in beautiful dresses carrying jars of water on their heads. Runners can venture off the beaten path and see what others only imagine.

We climb mountains to earn a view of the earth or water extending for miles in every direction. We explore parks and forests to gaze at the plants and wildlife that normally avoid the eyes of tourists with a camera, map, watch and agenda.

And it’s one very lucky runner who has sweated her way up a mountain to see the gorgeous panoramic view of the city she’s dreamed of visiting for as long as she can remember.