Sunday, October 18, 2009

vino, jamon y mas vino!




It's obvious that futbol rules above all here in Spain. It can pretty much consume people's lives - presidence over work, family obligations even food and drinks! But alas I decided to join my town's running team, which consists of a lot of younger children and a couple older kids like myself. We meet three times a week here in Tarrega and then on Friday's I go to the atletismo and track in Lleida where I train with another group. The people that I train with in Lleida are extremely talented, kind individuals who I really love to be around. Most of them are older then me..well actually all of them are! One girl is currently ranked number one in Spain in the 400m for her age of 23 and then another girl who is 17 is second in the 200m. In my workouts I run with a group of guys who range in age from 16-23 and they are extremely fit and fast! It's been very challenging but I feel that I'm up for that challenge and I enjoy the workouts so it's good. Keeps me in shape and so far has been keeping off the weight I should be gaining because of all the olive oil, bread and chocolate I've been consuming here!! So today was my first official race in Spain! It was a 7km road race in Mollerussa, which is a town about 20km away from Tarrega. Unlike before most races today I was very calm and really had no worries about how I would do, place or anything. I had stayed out the night before with friends and was looking forward to a nice run the next day! It was a gorgeous, brisk morning! The sky was clear but the sun was shining so brightly...I went through the usual routine: warming up, stretching, granola for breakfast and for some reason wasen't really bothered by the 300people that were running around me! Although more then half were running the half marathon. The gun went off, loud music blaring and 300 runners all in spandex (did I mention all runners here in Spain have an obsession with spandex? I think I was the only runner, for real, in actual shorts) took off. I felt really good, kept a good pace and when the 7km runners peeled away from the half marathoners I felt like I was in a good position, but honestly wasen't really worried at all about the actual race! Just on finishing! I ended up finishing with a time of 35min which I was super excited about and also surprised - even more surprised when Sabina told me I was the 4th woman! I was the youngest woman entrant so I really had no idea what to expect so my morning was blissful. When I ran through the shoot and received my 'goody bag' I also got a bottle of wine which I thought was just so Spanish and fantastic! Then when they had awards I got even more wine! 3 aged bottles from around the country to be more specific! The winner got a haunch of ham and then the others got more wine. What awesome prizes, right? I thought so! To top of an already amazing day my family and I went to another Espanyol futbol game in Barcelona and Espanyol won! My first time to see our team score a goal and boy, the energy in that stadium was just pulsating! I spilt my water when we scored because I even jumped up right away to wave my scarf!! A great Sunday here in Spain..too bad tomorrow I have escuela :(

3 comments:

  1. oh my gosh so classic. kayla i love imagining this, love you! you and your wine collection :)

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  2. oh patrick. it was definitly my kind of race ;)

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