Running in Madrid: from the airport...

Ok, fair enough, there are much better places to stay and run from in Madrid than the airport! But, in case you are stuck there, the trick is to get on Calle de Alcala to get downtown. And it may be tricky as there are several highways in the airport area but there are also a few overpasses for pedestrians. While there are many cars in Madrid, the city is also well designed for pedestrians with an extensive metro networks (including a stop at the airport!), sidewalks in good conditions and these overpasses to cross the main arteries around the city. It was interesting to run both on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. On Saturday, late afternoon, the Alcala street was very busy, with people shopping around. On Sunday, I ran between noon and 5 pm and the street were deserted in comparison. At least that made running on the sidewalk much easier on the second day!

Being on the East side and having landed in the morning, I went for a shorter run on Saturday (18.5 miles), to the "Parque del Retiro" near the famous Prado Museum. This is a large urban and historical park whose circumference is close to 3 miles when you stay on the outer alleys.

In the South part of the park, don't miss a botanic garden hosting at least a dozen of peacocks:

On Sunday, I went all the way to the West side of the city to visit one of my sister's friends whom I hadn't seen since 1972 when she visited us in Normandy, 40 years ago! That gave me the opportunity to go across the huge park Casa de Campo, similar to Paris' Bois de Boulogne (and much larger than Central Park which I heard someone comparing it to, just before we boarded at Newark). Including a few wanderings to cross highways on the west side, my run ended up being close to 32 miles, a good training run for the upcoming Ruth Anderson race in one week.

More pictures (48) in my Picasa photo album.

Certainly, if you have the opportunity to stay downtown, and you are looking for a few miles of trails, Casa de Campo is the place to go!