Oh hi there

Howdy there neighbors!


Well, I'm well into my final week in the US, Madrid-bound on Saturday.  Just returned from a fabulous week in Minneapolis with the lady friend (thanks Jen!) and the Minny-homies.  Minneapolis really isn't that bad...for the few months of the year it isn't covered in snow at least.  Just kidding!  Wuv you Minnesota <3  Anyway, this week is shaping up to be a crazy one.  Took the GRE on tuesday morning, then went straight to work with the old man (http://www.tulsarunner.com/).  After work and a delicious meal at India Palace, I was pretty beat.  I'm starting to wonder how the heck I'm going to muster the true grit necessary to pack my life in a bag by Friday night...

I guess I should take a moment to explain this blog.  So...I'm going to be an English Teaching Assistant in Madrid with the Fulbright program.  Besides updating the bros and bras on my exploits in Espana, I want to use this forum to somehow try to explain my fascination with running and running culture.  My goal is this: besides training to run the Barcelona marathon in late March (yikes), I want to run at least 5 miles in every city I visit.  Maybe I should revise that to 8km to truly attain cultural immersion nirvana...

Whatever the eventual distance turns out to be, I want to see how running in Spain and around Europe compares to running in the States.  I know from my stay in Granada that it's quite a bit different, but training and racing across the pond will hopefully give me a more in-depth look at the Spanish scene.  At this point, I'm planning to race a 10k in Madrid at the end of September, but we'll see if I'm in any kind of shape after a couple weeks of vino, jamon, and tortilla de patata.  yum.  Well I should probably get back to work, but I'll try to keep this thing reasonably updated.  And who knows?  Maybe I'll find a way to make it not boring!  Bringing a camera on my runs, perhaps?  We'll see.  Until next time!