A week in Madrid...

This has been a very exciting and busy week! We didn't go on a trip this week, but we had lots to do here in Madrid. One of the things we spend the most time on is called: Madrid walks. We just walk around Madrid with a paper telling us where to go and what to see. Then afterward we write about it and get graded for it. It's kinda nice to get graded just for going sightseeing. The people we talk to are always surprised at how well we know the city. Its my first time living in a city where I have to take buses metros and trains everyday. Here are a few pictures of what we see everyday:

The most exciting part of the week by far was the half-marathon on Saturday. On Friday night we decided to splurge and go to a place where they give out huge rations of food. Of course this was necessary preparation for the half-marathon:

Yeah we were there for awhile. I couldn't quite finish it but I was proud of how close I did get. Throughout the past month we have gone running a lot, but we didn't really officially train. So my goal was just to finish and to not stop running the whole time. When I got there I didn't understand why a few were surprised that my first race ever would be this half-marathon.  I understand now. Here are a few pictures before the race:

As you can see we were all pretty excited for the race. Soon after this picture was taken it started raining. Which made us even more excited. The cool rained just made it seem way more fun. Just before we started all 250 of us runners got out of shelter and out on the wet pavement. In the pouring rain waiting for the race to start everyone started to scream and jump up and down. So I joined in on the screaming. With my adrenaline pumped so high I had no doubts about the finish line. So we all started running. I started off nice and smooth like everyone had advised me to. After a while we got off the pavement and onto the mud. I'm not sure if you've ever run in heavy mud before but it's like running with snowshoes on. My feet got really heavy with just a few steps and we had lots more to go through. Before this moment I wasn't exactly sure how to swear in Spanish but all the old guys around used words in ways I had never heard before. At this point we were about 3 miles in and I thought "There is no way I'm finishing this thing!". Somehow I just kept carrying myself on and didn't stop running. About halfway through the sun went down and it got dark. That's when I realized that not one of us had brought a flashlight. So I had to stick with other runners the rest of the way through. After about an hour and half in I felt like I had been running for 10 years and that it was never going to end. I finally realized that I had gotten back to the start line two hours and four minutes after we had all started running. I was dead. My whole body was covered with mud and I was thirsty. They only had three stations of water throughout the whole race. I was surprised to see that out of the 250 I placed 103! A lot of people got to the super muddy part and turned right around. I was impressed with myself I not only finished it I hadn't stopped running either. Two hours was a pretty long time but in those circumstances it wasn't too bad. One of the girls in our group took third place out of all the girls and won a trophy! Here are a few pictures after the race:

Even though it was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done it makes me want to run a marathon. Just one with out mud. 

That was pretty much my week. This week were going to Valencia! Which is in Southern Spain it should be a fun trip. We leave on Thursday and get back on Saturday. Have a great week everyone!