I love not marathon training! It was a bit (I imagine) like trying for a baby: worthwhile, and with a great goal in mind, but with a bit of the fun taken out of the process. </end of comparison>
I’ve just been doing 3-5 milers, a few times a week, at the pace I want to do. I like not having to hold back, knowing I have another 18 miles to go in my training run or making myself feel ill on a tempo run. I’m super glad I did my marathon, and I am already getting excited for my next one, but at the same time this post-marathon period is bliss.
Of course, doing my running in Barcelona helped make it enjoyable. I don’t know if it’s Olympic legacy, but the city is just rammed with people running. The parks, the promenade; running groups, people with teeny weeny dogs, Sunday runners, everyone is at it, everywhere.
I ran along the seafront, picking out runners in front of me and trying to catch them up. Another day I went around the Parc de Ciutadella, in the South of the city, which handily has a running route with distance markers round it.
If you fancied it, Go Running Groups even do running tours of the city’s landmarks. They were too expensive for me, but the idea is lovely. Covering far more ground than just walking around and seeing areas I wouldn’t necessarily have seen was wonderful. The best part was feeling like a part of the scenery, one of the locals. A smile and a nod from a fellow runner is an international language, and something I’m so glad I’m a part of, marathon training or no.
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