The Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon series are seen across different countries such as America, Philippines, Mexico and most recently Madrid, Spain ! The 48th edition took place this Sunday April 26th in Madrid with 47,000 runners participating in the Marathon, half marathon and 10k. As part of my Madrid experience I had spontaneously decided to sign up and run the half marathon which comes to a total of 21.1 km through to beautiful city of Madrid.
This year there were 13969 men running the half compared to only 9173 women. The fastest men’s time finishing was 01:01:45 and women’s was Isabel Barreiro Garcia from Spain in 01:12:25. It was hard for me to imagine what running a half marathon would be like from the logistic stand point to physically being able to. However the experience exceeded all possible imaginations and expectations.
For someone who simply hated running and never saw the point in it, this is not something I ever though or even wanted to accomplish despite it being a rise in popularity especially amongst younger people and my generation with many friends training for such sport events. Yet, after having achieved it I can understand the appeal, it is not just pushing you physically, more than anything it’s a mental test for yourself. There comes a point when your body feels tired and you need to only push through mentally, you notice once your mind starts giving up and your mentality changes your body gives out much quicker even if you physically still have energy.
Now, what was a very uplifting and almost spiritual aspect of running during the half marathon, was simply the amount of people around you all striving for the same goal, all wanting to push themselves is an incredibly inspirational presence yet that’s not only, the fans that are standing and cheering on their friends, family or even just strangers shows that inspire of all the negativity, hatred and hurt we see everyday in the world, unrequited support and courage does still exist.
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