A new Tuesday routine?

While I was originally bummed about my schedule for this year and having to work Fridays, I'm actually really liking it so far. Last week, I got Yolanda to change it so that I don't start til 10:30 on Thursday (I can take the bus if I want an extra hour of sleep or I can get there early and work on other stuff) and I finish at 11:30 on Tuesday.

Today being my first Tuesday to work this new modified schedule, I had to figure out how I was gonna get back to Almería so as to take advantage of the 2 and a half hours of free time I don't normally have. The bus schedule says that the bus passes through Rioja at 11:35, however I learned last year that what the schedule says is rarely true. Instead of sitting at the bus stop and waiting to see if it would actually come at that time, if it would come later, or if it had already passed me, I decided to kill two birds with one stone. I would run from Rioja to Almería...get in my exercise for the day and not waste my precious free time!

A couple of teachers told me I was crazy and I just avoided telling the rest of them to avoid the same reaction. I snuck out at around 11:45 and took off. Seemed like a great idea at first and I was proud of myself for having thought of such an efficient way to use my time. However, about 2 minutes into the run when I got off of Rioja's main road, I realized, oh yeah, this whole entire road is really narrow, hilly, and curvy. Maybe I should've thought of that before? Oh well, too late now!

And I went on.

The map of my route, but in reverse
Feels a hell of a lot shorter in the morning by car

Basically, I spent the following hour and a half playing a real life version of Frogger (sorry to steal your comparison Chris!) which, luckily for me, had much fewer cars. Every time the miniscule shoulder narrowed to an almost non-existent one, I would wait for the cars to pass and quickly jet to the other side of the road or I would get as close to the edge as I could without running into the wall or guard rail. Every time the road curved a different way, I would get on the outside of the curve so the oncoming cars had a better chance of seeing me. On several occasions the drivers coming at me felt the need to honk like right as they were passing me. I'm still unsure as to whether the majority were "hey good-lookin'" honks or "hey idiot, get out of the road" honks. Either way, they were so loud that every time I just about fell off the road and into one of the many greenhouses that lines the route.

Aside from a few scratches from running through brush, I made it to Almería unscathed. I completed what Google told me was a 16.2 km route, the equivalente of 10 miles, in an hour and 25 minutes. Not too shabby considering that the route was totally unfamiliar and very clearly not intended for running.

From this experience, I have drawn one conclusion and I'm just gonna go ahead and call this one ahead of time. The first injury that I sustain in Spain will be from getting hit by a car. Let's face it, me getting hit bit a moving vehicle has been a long time coming. Since Italy, right Lumphead? ;) Haha totally kidding (Mom...haha). I'm actually really careful and safe when I run. I promise!

Now that I've done it once and I've got an idea of what it's like, we'll see if I make it a permanent part of the Tuesday routine. I'm thinking that next week I'll take the much less stressful option of waiting it out at the bus stop to see what time the bus actually comes so that I have 2 choices the following week.