10K, first race in Spain

Today I ran in my first international race. It was a 10K here in Alcala de Henares, it was free to enter, and there were about 2,000 runners. You could tell it was a Spanish race because of two things: 1) it didn't start until 11:30am, whereas in the States races start at 6am or 8am. 2) along with water they handed out Coke at the finish line. The start of the race was also a bit strange as there was a speaker projecting Spanish pop songs (always interesting), but no one making announcements or telling people where to go, etc. About 5 min before the start of the race people started lining up behind the start line, so we joined them. Then there was no gun shot, no buzz, nothing to signify the start of the race, we just started running. We ran through Alcala, so it was good to get to see more of the city. The course was really flat except for the hill we had to go up/down to cross a bridge. While I was running across the bridge there were 2 fighter jets that flew overhead. They were really loud & everyone in the race turned and watched them head towards Madrid. Maybe there's an air force base around here or something? We do hear jets all the time as the airport's close, but in the morning every now & then we do hear really loud jets, so I bet these were the ones we hear all the time. There was a water station at about 5.3 K, where they were handing out water bottles (as opposed to plastic cups w/ water in the US) and I reached the station 23min into the run. The other main difference I noticed was that in the US there are ALL kinds/types/sizes/etc of people running races, no matter what the race and everyone settles into his/her pace after a bit & then there's not much passing. Well there is passing, but it's not herds of people like the beginning of the race. Here most everyone was really fit & intense. There were a few people who weren't quite so fit, but no one was out of shape/running with a little excess. Also they tended to speed up throughout the race. I passed people in the beginning, like the first 2 or 3 K, but then I got settled into my pace, but people kept passing me the entire way until about 150yrds from the finish! It was really bizarre and a bit depressing mentally. It was like everyone kept speeding up as the race went on, really strange. I of course sprinted the last part and therefore passed people at the end to come in with a time of 50minutes, not shabby at all considering the fact that I haven't trained at all for the race! It was also interesting that there was no official time clock- so the time I have I kept on my watch, but there wasn't anything at the start or finish to indicate the time. Because it's Europe there are lots of random clocks/temperature displays around the city so I would look at those as we ran, but there wasn't one at the finish. After the finish you could get water and then Coke if you so desired- something I've never seen before! We stayed to watch the podium presentations then headed out. Luckily the weather was almost perfect, and had cooled down a lot. Normally during mid-day here it's in the 80s, but today the high was in the low 70s and I think it was only in the 60s while we were running. It was also overcast/cloudy with a bit of wind, so no sun to heat things up. On the way back from the race there was a group of percussionists walking/playing in the street. I stopped to watch them for a bit as they were really good! All in all it wasn't what I was expecting, but it was still a really fun experience and motivation to train more! Plus now I can say I've run a race in Spain!!