Today I ran La Carrera de la Mujer (the women's race) in Madrid. It's a 6.5km race through/around Parque Retiro that supports the fight against breast cancer. Fittingly, the shirts we received earlier at packet pick-up were bright pink, dry-fit tshirts. The race overall was pretty good, and I did it with another assistant who I work with- it was her first race ever and she finished and enjoyed it!! The start, however, was one of the most disorganized I've ever seen. It was basically first come for lining up in corrals, but there were a few ropes dividing sections that had been marked with under 20 & under 30min but no one paid any attention to them, or any of the other race rules really. The race had 20,000 female participants but so many of them were walking the race and still lined up in the front/in the under 20min corral. I had to walk almost the entire 1st kilometer because SO many people were walking that had lined up in front AND because there were lots of people walking with strollers, kids, backpacks, and there were almost as many men walking beside the women. Some of the men had on wigs and skirts just for show, but none of them (obviously) had numbers but were clogging the race path. I knew before starting the race that it was just going to be a fun race (which it was!) and not a PR/good time race, but I was still annoyed at how many slow people I had to navigate through. I did just kinda have to chuckle and say, well it is Spain. One of the reasons why I wasn't really running for a good time is because of my sunburn. It's now in the peeling and itchy phase, sweat just increases the itchiness. So post-race I didn't actually hang around that long (just to see & congratulate my friend) because I really wanted to go home and shower. Note to self: don't ever get sunburned again. Overall it was a really fun race with gorgeous weather! And it goes without saying that it was nice to see so many people up early on a Sunday morning running and joining the fight against breast cancer!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Carrera de la Mujer
Today I ran La Carrera de la Mujer (the women's race) in Madrid. It's a 6.5km race through/around Parque Retiro that supports the fight against breast cancer. Fittingly, the shirts we received earlier at packet pick-up were bright pink, dry-fit tshirts. The race overall was pretty good, and I did it with another assistant who I work with- it was her first race ever and she finished and enjoyed it!! The start, however, was one of the most disorganized I've ever seen. It was basically first come for lining up in corrals, but there were a few ropes dividing sections that had been marked with under 20 & under 30min but no one paid any attention to them, or any of the other race rules really. The race had 20,000 female participants but so many of them were walking the race and still lined up in the front/in the under 20min corral. I had to walk almost the entire 1st kilometer because SO many people were walking that had lined up in front AND because there were lots of people walking with strollers, kids, backpacks, and there were almost as many men walking beside the women. Some of the men had on wigs and skirts just for show, but none of them (obviously) had numbers but were clogging the race path. I knew before starting the race that it was just going to be a fun race (which it was!) and not a PR/good time race, but I was still annoyed at how many slow people I had to navigate through. I did just kinda have to chuckle and say, well it is Spain. One of the reasons why I wasn't really running for a good time is because of my sunburn. It's now in the peeling and itchy phase, sweat just increases the itchiness. So post-race I didn't actually hang around that long (just to see & congratulate my friend) because I really wanted to go home and shower. Note to self: don't ever get sunburned again. Overall it was a really fun race with gorgeous weather! And it goes without saying that it was nice to see so many people up early on a Sunday morning running and joining the fight against breast cancer!
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Are men not allowed to run this race? I know that my fraternity ran the "Race for the Cure" every year, so I find it strange that Spain wouldn't let men run this...
ReplyDeleteI know in the States men can run in Race for the Cure, but during packet pick-up, etc it specifically said "women only". Men could donate/sponsor a woman, but apparently they really just wanted to run too!
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