Karen writes: Zaragosa

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The diabetes conference in Barcelona is over, it was a great experience but now it is time for another of the important things in life, running.

I am now in Zaragosa after an excellent train trip, who would think you could cover over 350 km in less than 2 hours?  Zaragosa from what I have seen so far  is quite different from Barcelona, first thing is the temperature is 31 degrees, but it seems much more open and fresh and quite a pretty city in the middle of very harsh looking landscapes.

As usual I have laid out my running gear in the hotel room and come to the conclusion that everything is there (too bad if it isn't at this stage) and it is now time to go on the hunt for food.  The supermarkets are fascinating, food is quite cheap by kiwi standards but I’m getting a bit tired of the bread based products, preserved meat, and cheese (not so much the cheese of course). I have really been looking for a steak, perhaps I might find somewhere that serves such an alien food item while I am out wandering this evening. Then I am going to walk over to find the run start which is apparently 10 minutes away.  After that it will be time for a rest, having covered between 15-30km per day (3.5km walk each way to the conference venue x 2/day plus food shopping and exploration and the occasional run) for the last 6 days my legs are rather in need of a rest.  This is not the recommended preparation for a marathon but since when have Kate or me actually followed instructions?  All that exercise did give me the excuse to indulge in some of the gorgeous icecream around here though, definitely cant be in Calorie deficit now can I?

Thankyou for your good wishes Kate, it is always strange when you aren't here at the startline with me.  The run you put up on Facebook sounds amazing, I wish I could be doing that too but that's just greedy on my part!  Only two sleeps to go now...

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