Ole!

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The first weekend in March I took a trip by myself to Barcelona. This was the weekend of Carnival (same concept of Mardi Gras), so most people were staying in Alicante to celebrate, but I wanted to go run the marathon =)

First off, Barcelona absolutely has to be one of the most aesthetically pleasing cities I have ever been to. The architect Antoni Gaudi designed a number of the buildings, and even has an entire park that is chock full of his architectural marvels. He died building his masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia, which is an intricate mass of complication and definite head turner. I spend about 8 hours a day on both Friday and Saturday just wondering the city and exploring museums. Definitely a city that I would like to return to when I have more time since I didn't get a chance to visit all of the museums or enjoy any typical foods of the area.

I did however get to enjoy an entire loaf of grocery store bread and water/sports drink. I know this doesn't sound that appealing, but as far as bread goes, it blows almost anything you can buy in the states out of the water, and was only 60 cents. It definitely did the job as far as topping off my carbo-loading period in preparation for Sunday morning's marathon.

The marathon was absolutely fantastic. Without a doubt, the second marathon is about a million times easier than the first. I finished in a PR 4:24:03, just about 2hours 40 minutes faster than my previous (although this had no hills and the first had bigger hills than I could imagine). The atmosphere was exciting and very motivating. The night before the race, I had met an Irish group that were staying in the same hostel. Most of the were veteran marathoners, and I really enjoyed their company. They had formed a team and called themselves the "Screaming Nipples", and I got inducted =). After the race we found each other and had a few drinks to relax before I had to run (more like drag myself) to catch my train home.

Running for 26.2 miles + walking around for 2 entire days prior + taking a 5 hour train ride home right after in a car full of screaming pre-teen girls can definitely take a lot out of you. I definitely missed class the next day, not because I didn't want to go, but because my legs said no, we're not moving because you were a jerk to us. Either way, still totally worth it.

Running has become quite an important part of my life over here. It is just something that I really enjoy, and helps to get me out of the house on lazy days. It definitely helps that the scenery makes me feel like I am running in a dream, but that is just a crazy good bonus. So far I have completed 3 half marathons, 1 local race up to the top of the local castle (Santa Barbara), and have another half scheduled for less than a week from today. It's such a great hobby over here since races are cheap. I pay approximately 15 euros for a race, which includes everything from the timing chip and entrance, to food, to technical t-shirts, bags, hats, and other gifts, and the prizes, not the prices, only get better when the race is more famous/bigger. In the states something like this would run you a good $50-60 bucks probably. Whatever the case, I'm definitely expecting to continue running at home.

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Photos

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coolest fountain ever.

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view of the city

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night time water show to spanish Disney songs

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in Guell park, designed by Gaudi

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sagrada familia

screaming nips
luck of the irish?