Days 8-10: Madrid (the food)

As mentioned before we didn't have the best luck with food, but we had a few wins. We ate dinner one night at the Mercado de San Miguel. It was bit of a gourmet market and the food was delicious. 

best thing ever

a little oily and bittery for me

yummmy gelato

fish + toast

calamari sandwiches 

Day 8-10: Madrid (the sites)

Our last stop was Madrid. Not my favorite. It is an International city and was packed with people (maybe more because of the holy week holidays). We also struck out on food a few times and had some rain to deal with. But by the end of our few days there Kendra and I decided that it wasn't so bad after all.

in Plaza Mayor on my Birthday

the royal palace

Parc Retiro

happy windows

fans for sale!

Parc Retiro & Art

Parc Reitro

plaza de sol, the center of Spain 9 am (it was usually packed!)

looking at myself looking at art at museo sofia reina

animal art at museo sofia reina

shoes on the wall at our B&B

Plaza Mayor

Day 6 & 7: Seville (the food)

Most people think of wine when they think of Spain, but Kendra and I decided to taste of few of the beers they had. A fun thing about most of the bars is they only had one beer. So you just ordered a cerveza and they brought you the one kind they had on tap. In Barcelona it was Estrella. In Granada it was Alhambra. They were both delicious. Then we get to Sevilla and while they still served Alhambra at some places, most of the bars were serving Cruzcampo.  Cruzcampo is not good.

my first Cruzcampo, I wish it was my last

Seville had a lot of gelato places. One night we decided to get some and ended up with the fanciest ever.

delicious too

For dinner each night we would get tapas. By our second night in Seville I thought Kendra should try her hand and ordering. She heads to the bar and does her thing. Later the waitress brings us three plates of meat and a plate of cheese. Luckily thats all I wanted to eat in Spain. In both Granada and Seville the meat and cheeses were always served with crackers. They don't look like much but were delicious. They always gave us more than we could eat and I frequently put the extras in my purse for snacking later. Kendra had more class. Also pictured below is a tinto verano aka a red wine with ice and orange or lime soda.

bacon, chorizo, manchango, panchetta

The morning of my birthday we only had a few hours in Seville before catching a train to Madrid. I got up and ran a few miles then we headed out to find breakfast. Up until this point we had been having pretty simple breakfasts. Usually a coffee and croissant. After the run and with a train ride during lunch time I was looking for a little bit more. 

I saw the menu on the wall said huevos y jamon (aka eggs and bacon) and thought that sounded good. Only when the waiter came over I ordered two coffees and jueves y jamon (aka Thursday and bacon), after he stared at me for a bit I realized my mistake and corrected my order. He asked if we wanted to share and by this point we had realized its best to go with the waiter's recommendations, but just in case I made sure it came with bread. 

Then the most delicious plate full came out. Sliced potatoes covered with fried eggs covered with jamon covered with olive oil with a little green pepper garnish. 

we were members of the clean plate club

Day 6 & 7: Seville (the sites)

the kids in robes were the cutest

A quick train ride from Granada we arrived in Seville. We stayed at a Spanish chain hotel that was conveniently located on the edge of the old town area. After dropping our bags we wondered right into holy week activities on the street and it didn't end the entire time we were there. Around every corner we saw people dressed in robes, bands, and floats on display inside churches. Many of the actual processions were canceled due to rain. When we asked if they would be rescheduled they said not till next year! It seemed like a lot of pageantry and planning to cancel for a little rain, but some of the floats are very old and apparently not rain resistant.

Seville men were very clean cut compared to the men in Barcelona 

It seemed like all the bands played the same procession march music, but we all know I don't have the best ear for music.

Other than the general festiveness of Seville we checked out some of the sites including the Alcazar (aka palace).

entry way

inside

interior garden

the bathroom

random wall

The gardens surrounding the Alcazar were very pretty, they had different garden styles and plenty of fountains.

the gardens

Bullfighting season doesn't begin till Easter Sunday (not that we were interested anyway) but we still walked by the stadium.

outside the bullfight arena

Not far from our hotel was a the Plaza de Espana in the Maria Luisa Park. Kendra and I first walked over while it was raining a bit. I ran back to the park on the morning of my birthday for a few miles and a little more exploring.

plaza de espana

trying some camera tricks

The Cathedral of St Mary was built from 1400-1500 on the site of the city's mosque. Its one of the largest cathedrals in the world. When they built the cathedral they left the Giralda, the minaret from the mosque, and converted it into a bell tower. For those of you in Kansas City the tower should look familiar; the Giralda tower on the Country Club Plaza was modeled after this one. 

Also inside the Cathedral is the remains of Christopher Columbus.... or are they? Apparently his remains were moved around quite a bit in the years after his death. So these are his remains or they might still be in the Americas.

We were able to go to the top of the tower walking up ramp after ramp. It was an easy walk, but a little dizzying. 

from the tower

Day 5: Granada

Our train arrived in Granada about two hours later than expected, but that just gave us more gazing out the windows at the Spanish countryside time. Once we arrived we took a cab to the hotel (hey we aren't poor 20 yr olds anymore) checked in and headed out for cafe and croissant. Then we swung by the cathedral. This was the point I was kind of over seeing cathedrals, but while we were waiting in line to get in there was a British couple chatting behind us. I was really listening till he goes "We just need to decide when we are going to Kansas City" and Kendra and I both do a double take. We started chatting and the man had gone to grad school at KU and was going back to visit some friends. 

After getting some bocadillos (sandwiches) we headed up to the Alhambra. It was bit of an overcast and chilly day, but we didn't have any rain while we were touring the Alhambra so it wasn't too bad. 

After several hours touring the Alhambra we headed for the Mirador, a place across the valley from the Alhambra where you can see the Alhambra. Kendra had read that it was President Clinton's favorite spot and had an amazing view. I had read in my tour guide that it was dangerous to go up through the neighborhoods during the siesta. We went up after 5pm but still felt spooked about the warning in my book. On our first two attempts we got lost and ended up back at the bottom of the hill. I looked at the map one last time and we made another attempt, this time success! After a dicey moment with some creepy guys we found the top. There was a good view, people playing music, and people selling jewelry, but we didn't love it.

It started raining as we got back to the main drag. We made a quick pit stop into H&M to buy shorts and tights. EVERYONE was wearing shorts with tights in Barcelona and I wanted to fit in... Only no one was wearing it in Granada so I waited till Madrid to try it out.

As we made it back to our hotel we ran into a Holy Week procession. This was our first encounter with the masks and robes.

We waited around for a bit, but then it really started raining and we were in deep need of our siesta. After a nap we headed out for dinner. Luckily (since it was still raining) our hotel was on a street of a million restaurants. We did a bit of tapa/vino/cerveza hoping that night. All of the places were playing religious procession music and had the procession footage on TV. The second place we went to (which we affectionately called the Jesus Bar) was covered in religious flyers and pictures. We ordered a cerveza and received the best free tapas of the trip. It was sort of a brushetta with crumbled egg on top and some crispy chips on the side.

Kendra's Dad had hooked us up with an awesome room at the Best Western. We had the penthouse which had two balconies. One out of the bedroom and one out of the bathroom. So I took this picture from our bathroom:

yes we had a view of the Alhambra from our bathroom

Nike Women Half Marathon Recap

My alarm rang at 5:30 am. I got dressed, had oatmeal, water, and a bit of coffee. Even though I had everything set out the night before I didn't make it out the door till 6:15. The race schedule said the bag check closed at 6:40 so I hustled the mile or so to the start line. They had a ton of different bag check areas, which made it super easy and quick. Then I headed up the street where there was no wait for the porta potties, another score for nike. 

Then I made my way over to the corrals, which were already pretty stuffed. The first four corrals were pretty close to each other and although I entered at my designated spot (7:30-8:59) I had to duck under the rope for the corral behind mine. We were standing on a plush/clean red carpet and I had a good view of the announcers booth where they had the running celebrities and sang the national anthem. 

Although it was in the low 50's I was fine in my tank top and shorts as the sun was out and there was no wind. 

waiting to start

The gun went off and we headed down Pennsylvania towards 9th street. Then something happened that I wasn't prepared for. I should of known better, I run down 9th street every Tuesday, but I didn't realize that we were running through the underpass that goes under (duh) the National Mall. We had a nice downhill into the tunnel, but then I realized we couldn't see the other side and then had drummers in the tunnel. I guess I have some of my mom's claustrophobia because I didn't like being in the tunnel and I didn't like the drums, they were loud and just sounded like someone pounding on pots and pans. 

But soon we emerged and headed down the ramp and along the southwest side of the mall. There are a few cherry blossoms left, but mostly green trees as we ran towards the Arlington Memorial Bridge. There were lots of people lining the route, but they were SILENT. Seriously it was the quietest crowd ever. I'm thinking there were lots of men cheering for their ladies and aren't as good at cheering as females... haha. There were clever signs though, like "15,000 running women, this is better than Match.com" and lots of "I like fast women" and "I'm single/he's single" signs.

Once across the bridge I saw my coworker/run cluber friend Bob and gave him a scream. He did a little cheer and ran along side of me for a few feet. For the RnR race a month ago this round about was full of people cheering, this time there were just a spattering of people.

Then we headed up Rock Creek Parkway towards the Kennedy Center. This stretch was fun as it was an out and back and we could see the faster runners heading back. After the turnaround I started looking for my other coworker/run cluber friend, Hannah, who was also running the race. Soon I saw her and gave her a quick wave/scream.

As we headed towards Hains Point we could see people still running over the Arlington Bridge, it was pretty amazing. However at this point, around mile five I started having negative thoughts. I was frustrated that my watch was messed up from the tunnel and I felt like I could keep a consistent pace. Usually I find someone around me to pace with (even if they don't know it) but I couldn't seem to find anyone. So I kept running. As always once we reached Hains Point we hit a head wind. Knowing it would only be a mile and half helped, but when we rounded the point I didn't feel the boost I expected from losing the head wind.

Around mile 7 to 10 Nike had put up motivational signs, which were nice, because there weren't many spectators in that area. And having things to read is distracting. At mile 8 I started to eat the Gu I brought with me. The course was serving lunabars at mile 8, which seemed like a hard thing to eat while running. I ran along eating my Gu as we had to run back up the ramp and back through the tunnel with the annoying drums.

When we emerged from the tunnel back on to Pennsylvania there were lots of crowds, cheering and we could kind of see the people approaching the finish line in the other direction. After a loop around the Capitol reflecting pool we headed back down Pennsylvania to the finish. Somewhere around mile 11 I decided to kick it back up a notch, because I hadn't ran so far at the speed I ran to give it away at the end. The 20K sign showed an encouraging 1:4x something time and soon I could see the finish line. Only we could see the finish line from over 3/4 of a mile away, but gradually I began to reel it in.

Since my watch was way off (said I only ran 12.8 miles) I wasn't sure what my time was, but when I saw the finish line clock was under 1:49 I knew it was good, because I started a few seconds after the gun time.

The finish line was extremely well organized. We had a little bit to walk before we got a water then had our bib scanned and we received our Tiffany's necklace from men in Tuxedos serving the little blue boxes on trays. A few steps more and we had luna bars, bananas, fruit cups, and bagels. Then We got a small Tiffany's bag to put our stuff in. A few more steps and we received our finisher dry fit tee. Everyone in the finish area was congratulatory and extremely helpful and happy. 

After the shirt we left the secure area where they then had a Finishers Boutique, stretching area, haircuts for charity, and make-up (not sure who wants make up on a sweaty face). They also had backdrops set up for pictures and a tent to look up your finishing time.

After the bag check mess at RnR I went to grab my stuff. Only there was no line and they found my bag in seconds. Again the bag check people were so excited and friendly.

By the time I got back to the main finish area it had filled up and there were lines for everything. 

I caught the awards ceremony. First place was to Samia Akbar a local runner with a time of 1:19:32.

she received a huge Tiffany's box

So when I made my way over to the results tent I found that I finished in 1:48:49!

Its a 25 second PR, but still a PR. I finished 901 out of about 15,000 and 162 out of 2634. So like top 6% in both!

me in the photo booth

After sitting down and stretching a bit I pulled out my necklace and put it on. I like the words side best. The other side is a woman running through flowers, or as an out of towner pointed out to me later... is a woman running through cherry blossoms (hey! I do that!).

the finisher shirt and both sides of the necklace.

I couldn't find any of my friends so I just headed home after awhile and spent some quality time on the couch as the beautiful morning turned into an overcast gross afternoon.