Leisure Activity: Barcelona Half-Marathon

I joined the running club in the beginning of the semester, and at the first session, this girl Sierra and I decided we wanted to run the Barcelona half marathon, so we signed up and did it. I've never done anything like it before, but I was so excited! The atmosphere was so surreal. The runners and the crowd were so supportive, which was so helpful. If it weren't for the push from all of people, there is no way I would have been able to finish the race. So the actual race:  The first 6-8 miles were a breeze for me. Probably because that's what I was used to running. Then miles 9-12 were really difficult for me. My body was getting tired, and I kept playing mind games with myself, which made me mentally exhausted. I think that worse than my body being tired. But I kept pushing myself to each KM marker (which by the way absolutely sucked because you know how much you still need to run!) Every 5 KM they had a water stop, which was great. Towards the end, I could tell my sugar levels were getting low, because my hands started to shake. So I was hoping at the next water stop, I could get powerade, but they were completely out of them. So I was dying! At one point, I said whatever, and I grabbed one off of the ground and drank it. I needed it! Finally, I was getting closer and closer to the finish line! But before I reached that point, I decided to walk for 30 seconds, and this guy behind me yelled and waved me on, which definitely motivated me to keep running. Ugh! So challenging. Finally, the last KM, I pushed through all of the pain and finished! It was such a great feeling of accomplishment! I ran it in 1 hour 53 minutes and 53 seconds! I was so happy with that time, because I didn't train for it at all! I literally ran 3 times in the past month before that, because I was getting so acclimated to Barcelona! I still can't believe I ran it! I think it's an amazing feeling to say, "Oh, when I was abroad, I ran a half marathon in Barcelona."  After the race, I literally didn't do anything the rest of the day. My body was so exhausted, and my knees killed!

Deciding to run the half-marathon has been the one of the greatest accomplishments for me in Spain. I got to experience it with thousands of people from all over the world. Running the marathon also gave me a sense of belonging to the city, itself. Hundreds of locals were at different markets cheering the runners on, and the runners, themselves, were cheering other runners on. It was such a rewarding experience, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.