Marathon in Madrid

Friday, April 20 – Thursday, April 26 2012

Cool title, huh?  Bet you totally thought after all we've been doing over here that we managed to train and run a marathon to top it off? :) The answer to that question is no, but our good friend Justin Glaser and his girlfriend Marie were brave enough to meet the 26-mile challenge.  If there were ever a motivator to run, it would be to do it in a foreign city.

We coordinated our travel plans several months ago to meet up in Madrid the 3rd weekend in April.  They arrived with their marathon team on Thursday, while we didn't get there until Friday after midnight.  We’ve heard that Madrid doesn't sleep, so when we walked through Puerta del Sol (Madrid’s main square) on our way to the hotel at about 1am, it didn't surprise us that the city was still pumping with life.  We, on the other hand, were exhausted so we called in a night.

We met up with Glaser and Marie (or, "Glasarie" as we came to call them that weekend) around 10am the next morning in Puerta del Sol.  After all of our research, we only found a few things that were must-sees in Madrid (it’s a great city for art-lovers, but we'll spare you our feelings on that matter in this post). :)  We guessed that the majority of our time would be spent wandering the streets and eating delicious tapas!  We tackled a few of those agenda items that first morning and afternoon.

By far the most highly rated site (according to our guidebooks) on our list was the Royal Palace (aka Palacio Real), and fortunately Glasarie hadn't already visited it on Friday.  We suffered through the lengthy queue but it was worth it as the palace was spectacular.  Rick Steves rated it 3rd behind Versailles (Paris) and Schönbrunn (Vienna) as the best palaces in Europe, but as far as variety of elegance and unique rooms we think this one's hard to beat.  Unfortunately there were no pictures allowed inside but you can enjoy the outside shots and know that it's worth your time to see the interior if you ever make it to Madrid.

After an exhaustive audio guide experience at the palace (the information in the last section of the palace seriously went on for 30-45 minutes, which we skipped most of), we needed to get ourselves some tapas.  The Mercado San Miguel food market is the perfect place to taste the local favorites.  We ordered some paella (from a shady guy that tried to short change Glaser and Dave both on separate occasions), some delicious olive concoctions, some fried croquettes (healthy!), some chorizo (of course, we're in Spain after all), and finished with some fresh mozzarella creations.  We'd say that was a pretty good start.

Next to Mercado San Miguel is Plaza Mayor with ancient cobbled streets and some of the most unique street performers we'd ever seen.  Check out this "baby", which is actually a full-grown adult with a 'squeaker' in his mouth, dressed appropriately.  We watched this guy for about 10 minutes as he made people laugh and feel uncomfortable at the same time.  It was hilarious / slightly creepy.

It wasn't just Plaza Mayor that had the best performers though.  Later in the weekend we saw these two guys dressed up like statues and holding completely still for at least the 10 minutes we watched them.  The only way to tell if statues are actually real people around this city is to see if their eyes blink and if there is a money tray in front of them. :)  Also, check out the "headless" guy below - there were a bunch of these guys walking around the city.  But the most impressive was perhaps this guy who played crystal glasses.  Instead of describing it, it's much easy just to show you a couple songs...

After we left Plaza Mayor we headed up toward Glasarie's hotel for dinner that evening with the marathon team.  On the way, however, we had a couple hours to kill so Glaser and the two of us decided to take the Real Madrid stadium tour.  Real Madrid is the most decorated sports franchise in all of Europe.  They are known best for their football (soccer) club that is world class nearly every year.  We admit to not knowing a whole lot about European soccer leagues but after this visit it's safe to say we understand the draw a little bit more.

The tour took us from an upper level view of the stadium, through the trophy rooms, down near the pitch (aka field), into the presidential box (nice seats here), through the player’s dugout (nicer seats here), through the players tunnel and into the pressroom to answer some fake news questions. :)  Of course the tour ended in the merchandise shop and we decided to take a little piece of Real Madrid home with us in the form of a mini soccer ball.  Who's a true fan now? :)

What was even more exciting is that Real Madrid and FC Barcelona (who is equally as good of a team) had a match that evening!  Unfortunately the game was in Barcelona but we insisted on watching the match with the locals.  It was hard to find a place that had room to watch (we should have known that), but when we finally settled down we caught most of the second half.  We saw two goals (one for each side) and the crowd reacted appropriately from each fan base.  What impressed us is that even with such a heated rivalry (it's hard to compare this to US sports... maybe Yankees vs. Redsox but on a much bigger scale), there were no negative feelings that we sensed between the two fan groups.  It was just a great atmosphere all around and a great chance for us to immerse ourselves in the local sports scene.

Back to the dinner - we had little idea what we were getting ourselves into when Glaser asked if we wanted to attend their marathon team dinner on Saturday night.  We are so glad we went though as it was very inspiring to see the hundreds of runners on their "Team in Training" squad (the name of their organization raising money to fight cancer).  One particularly moving story was a guy named Chuck who lost his wife to cancer last year.  He managed to raise over $50,000 alone and gave a touching speech that pulled a few tears out from everyone in the room and also certainly pumped the runners up for the challenge the next day (at least it should have, the two of us were about to strap our shoes on for the race!).  This experience really helped us fell like a part of the team, even if we were just in the support role.

The next morning was race day and we eagerly set out to cheer on the runners before the gun shot at 9am.  On our walk from the hotel we could feel the buzz on the streets and it was exciting to see people with numbers on their chests scurrying to the starting line.  When we arrived it was hard to believe how many people where there - over 20,000 runners in total!  Somehow we miraculously picked out Glasarie from the crowd and gave them a shout as they set off.  On a side note, we were surprised to see how much clothing was abandoned by the runners - we saw several people searching through the piles to see if they could score a nice second-hand outfit.

The marathon officially lasts about 6 hours, at which point they close down the track.  Glasarie had a goal to complete the race in the range of 4 hours 30 minutes to 4 hours and 45 minutes.  Because we knew this and we had a map of the course we were able to calculate what times to try and meet them at a few different stages.  Surprisingly they were always within 5-10 minutes of their expected time.  It was a really fun progression to see, we'll share a little bit with you...

18 km in and they were still feeling great...

This is after 25 km, surprisingly still in good spirits and holding hands the entire time! (Not really, that was an inside joke)...

This was towards the very end at 39 km.  Glaser told us later that he pretty much hated his life at this point.  Marie was a great encourager but after 4.5 hours of running we can't blame him for his utter exhaustion.

This is right before they crossed the finish line.  We're pretty sure Glaser still hated his life but knowing that they finished almost in line with their 4 hour 45 minute time must have been pretty encouraging.  We're sure that our sign helped them out as well! ;)

After the race finished we joined Glasarie in their TNT (“Team in Training”) cool-down section, which was located right before the finish line of the marathon.  It was really great to see all the purple people finishing the race and getting cheers from their TNT section.  Throughout the day, even though we didn't know any of the TNT members it was really fun to yell "Go Team" (their motto) and show off our purple TNT sign—it was clear they appreciated the encouragement.

Another thing we liked about the marathon is that it was a great way for us to see different parts of the city as we ran around to the checkpoints to see Glasarie run by. 

Something unique about this marathon (titled the "Rock 'n Roll Marathon") is that there were several bands set up throughout the entire race course, which add to the excitement and were great motivators for the runners.

While the highlight of our day was the marathon, we did manage to take a pit stop at the El Rastro flea market.  Supposedly this one was notorious for pickpockets (then again, what market isn't in Europe?), but it didn't feel any less "safe" than any other market we've been to.  It was packed though, so we kept alert as we squeezed through the crowd and found a couple treasures to take home.

By the time we left the marathon area, we were staving - time for tapas!  The marathon ended in El Retiro park so on our way back to the town center we took a brief stroll around the impressive grounds.  This pond is the highlight - you can rent rowboats and relax the day away in front of an impressive monument if you wish.  We also stopped to listen to this great mariachi band.

For tapas we headed to one of the recommended areas south of Plaza Mayor.  Unfortunately this turned into a frustrating experience at first because we really wanted to get off our feet but also find a popular place with lots of people (popularity in our minds indicates that it is a good place to eat).  We searched for over 20 minutes and all we could find was either a packed house with no seating, or a place that was completely dead.  About to give up hope and settle on any open place, we were approached by someone handing out ads for a place called "Que No Te Lo Cuenten?"  The flyer looked a little touristy but we were desperate at this point - we are glad we followed through because it turned out to be our favorite tapas bar of the entire trip.

That evening we met up with Glaserie and a few of their TNT teammates for some drinks and more tapas.  Surprisingly they were all up, walking and not too exhausted considering they had each run 26 miles just hours earlier (well, they almost all lasted, see below). :)  We all then decided to dabble more in the Spanish culture and see a Flamenco show.  Flamenco is a music-and-dance show that has its roots in Gypsy and Moorish cultures.  While the dancing was really impressive (some of the quickest feet we've ever seen), the best part was the three guys wailing the melodies in the background.  Overall it was a little overly dramatic but still enjoyable.

We were on our own on Monday because Glasarie were flying to Switzerland early in the afternoon (we would meet up with them again in a couple days).  There wasn't much left on our list so we were able to take it somewhat easy.  We first stopped at San Gines Churreria, to get some famous churros that you dip in chocolate.  The churros and chocolate sauce were rich and delicious (good enough to drink!) :) but the service was a little grumpy.  Not to rag on Madrid, but this was kind of a theme that we found over the weekend.

Next we wandered north toward the Royal Palace, stopping at the Almudena Cathedral.  This cathedral was unique compared to others that we've visited in that it was completed less than 10 years ago.  Apparently there is still a market for extravagant cathedrals in Europe. :)

Our next stop was just north of the cathedral, in Parque del Oeste.  Madrid's parks are a nice feature throughout the city and this particular park has something very rare – a 2^nd century B.C. Egyptian temple!  While this sounds interesting, it's not quite as cool as you'd think because this wasn't the original home of the temple - it was given to Spain by the Egyptian government in 1968 in appreciation to Spain’s dictator, Franco, for helping rescue other ancient artifacts from the rising waters of the Nile River.  Overlooking part of the city, the setup of this modern day relocation looks really nice.  The only thing we couldn't figure out is why it was closed?  (We had heard that normally it is open to the public to go inside.)  It was pretty small temple and there were two guards hanging out inside the monument making sure nobody went in, so why not just open it?  Oh well, it was impressive enough just from the outside.

We took the subway south toward the Prado Museum (the most famous art museum in Madrid, if not all of Spain), not to actually visit the Prado but to get a look at a vertical garden on the outside of the Caixa Forum Museum.  We'd never seen one before so we wanted to check it out.  It's pretty much what the photo looks like - a bunch of greenery growing out the side of a building.  Interesting, but we'll pass on adding it as a feature to our future home. :)

The last thing we wanted to do was enjoy some more tapas!  This time we sprung for the extra cost to enjoy them on Plaza Mayor in order to see more street entertainers and enjoy some people watching.  Our primary entertainment of the afternoon was 'rotund spiderman'.  We watched him go through the same routine with each 'customer': he would make them do an attack pose, followed by flexing, then he’d pick them up by their collars (kind of), and finally they performed a "sexy" pose (his words, not ours).  It was pretty entertaining to say the least.

After tapas it was off to the airport and back to Geneva. 

A couple of days later, on Wednesday, Glasarie stayed with us for the evening.  We celebrated Dave's 29^th birthday the next day with a trip to Gruyeres, one of our favorite Swiss daytrips.  Of course we did the cheese and chocolate factories, and ventured up to the medieval town and castle.  It was a perfect day to see the amazing views we love so much about this region.

We also took them to see the Chateau de Chillon in Montreux.  If you recognize the name that’s because it’s come up in a few of our posts over the last 2 years: most recently when Dave took his family there back in October.  The setting is just perfect, allowing some amazing photo ops.  We’ll spare you more history and just show you the goods!  Sadly, this would be our last visit to the castle but we hope to come back one day to say hello again.

We dropped Glasarie off at the Monteux train station around 7:30pm so they could travel to Milan, and off to Florence the next morning.  What a fun time to see a good friend and also make a new one in Marie!