Nostalgia: Couch to 5K in Madrid

During the summer of 2007 I was out of shape and a smoker.  Most Americans lose weight when they spend some time in Europe because overall the European lifestyle tends to be healthier - more walking, smaller portion sizes, and so forth. But being the contrarian that I am, I gained 30 pounds during the first 9 months that I lived in Madrid. I was doing lots of walking, but I wasn't going to the gym 5-6 days a week and biking about an hour on a daily basis like I did before my move across the Atlantic. While I absolutely loved Madrid, I was also going through an emotional low point in my personal life and I took solace in patatas bravas, manchego cheese, and cañas (small glasses of beer).

During the previous year I had tried to go for a couple of short runs. Running in Madrid was always sort of surreal to me. If I took to the streets in my neighborhood, I would often draw the side eye from ladies in heels and furs. Plus, unless it was incredibly early in the morning, there was so much pedestrian traffic that it got annoying quickly to have to constantly play frogger. But there weren't that many runners in the parks either, and the ones I saw were all of the fast and furious type.

Even so at the beginning of the summer I decided that I wanted to get to where I could run a 5K again, and I googled the Couch to 5K program. Knowing that it was less than ideal to run on the sidewalks, I took my work outs to Retiro Park. As I ran and walked my intervals, I dreamed of being able to consider myself a runner. Over the course of those next couple of months I built up from running 60 seconds to running for 30 minutes. During the day I would go to the archives and in the evenings before going out with friends for dinner or drinks I would either do yoga in the tiny living room of my flat or go for a run in the park. As the summer progressed, I lost some of the weight that I had gained, but much more importantly I rekindled my love of running.  Although I didn't start really running many miles for another year, I had become active again and wanting to get better at running (among other things) prompted me to try to quit smoking and eventually to succeed at dropping that nasty habit.

The sunset at the lake at Retiro Park

I don't miss a lot of things about my life in 2006 and 2007, but I do miss Madrid. And I miss running in Retiro Park - even though I rarely saw other runners there and those that I did see tended to be male and super serious.

Boats on the Lake

One of the things that I love about America is the flourishing communities of runners that you can find in just about any town. I like being part of that, but Madrid will always be an important part of my running history.