Running in Spain wasn’t quite the leisurely stroll I saw in my dreams. Two of my long runs for my upcoming half marathon were scheduled for the two weeks I was traveling, which put a little extra pressure on making them happen. I didn’t have high expectations performance-wise for these runs – I was off my usual sleep schedule (ha! understatement) and weighed down by ice cream. A lot of ice cream. I was also buzzing with excitement about exploring a new place on my feet. Turns out running on my trip was easier than I expected… and much harder.

Parque del Retiro, Madrid

My mom kept telling me that running would help with jet-lag. I didn’t really get to try out that theory, because the days it was hitting me the hardest, I was nauseated and zombified. But on my second full day in Spain, I headed out to the Parque del Retiro in Madrid.

It felt so good to be outside, enjoying the stunning park that I didn’t care all that much that my “run” was about 60 percent running and 40 percent walking/ “stopping to take a picture” (also known as “I feel like I’m dying and I want to stand here”). And to think that I told myself that if I felt good I might try for a long run. HA! The 4.25 miles I ran were plenty.

Jardí del Túria, Valencia

By the time we got to Valencia, I was ready for a long run. We stayed in a hotel close to the science park/ the Jardí del Túria, an amazing park that used to be a river running through the city. As soon as we digested lunch a bit on the first day, I grabbed my running shoes, convinced my travel companion to join me on the world’s heaviest bike (sorry!), and set off to conquer my first long run in Spain.

I have never run in such an inspiring place before. Sure the Embarcadero in San Francisco is amazing and I love seeing all of the runners, but it’s nothing compared to the amount of people who were out running in Valencia. The park was packed! There is a special runners’ trail that goes straight down the middle of the park for most of it (9km in each direction).

The best part? Constant distraction! I watched ping pong, roller blading, soccer, boot camp workouts, old men chatting while pretending to work out, adorable dogs, near bike collisions… I didn’t even miss listening to music or a podcast.

Camí de Cavalls, Menorca

This was my big run, and I wasn’t quite sure how to go about it. I didn’t want to run alone, which meant I had to find a place to run that was close to a bike rental. I also had to figure out where, on a tiny island, I could 10 run miles without constantly feeling like I was going to be run over on the narrow roads.

I did some research (on Internet from 1998), and I stumbled across the insane ultra marathon that has participants do a loop around the entire island. The race is focused around the Camí de Cavalls, an old trail that was used as a lookout/defense route. I figured if they could run on it for that long, surely I could do a 10 mile run.

And for the most part that was true. I had some trouble finding the trail… and staying on it. I’m pretty sure at one point I was scrambling through people’s backyards, up against a sheer cliff into the ocean. To be honest, I started to get frustrated. I hadn’t been running regularly during the trip, this was way out of my comfort zone, and 10 miles by itself is challenging enough. Ten miles while trying to figure out where the hell you are and how the hell you get back to where you started was maddening. I was constantly having to stop to try to figure out where the trail was, which sucked all of my motivation and energy. On top of that, the trail was incredibly rough and rocky at some points (and on paved streets on others), which exhausted my unprepared feet an ankles.

(I’m making this face because it’s beautiful and I’m on vacation on an incredible island and part of me is having fun… the rest of me thinks I’m going to die right here.)

Now that I’m not feeling the pain of the run (or the heat!), I’m so glad I did it. I saw some incredible things (The beaches! The color of the water! All of the food I couldn’t eat!). It wasn’t exactly a confidence booster for running a fast half, but it sure was for the budding explorer inside of me.