It’s been three years since we last visited our friends in Chinchón and three years since we ran our last street marathon, also in Madrid. As usual we arrived at Madrid-Barajas T4 and picked up our rental car in T1, and then drove about 50km south to Chinchón.

On our first morning we headed out for a run to Colmenar de Oreja, about 3.5km south of Chinchón. We toured the old town and tried to take a longer route back, but got lost — if one really can get lost on those fields. Anyway, we hit a dead end and had to turn back. That made our prospective 8K-run a 11K-run.

Since we had a whole day to spare we got on the road again and drove south to see some old windmills. First we visited Santuario de la Santísima Virgen de Criptana, near Campo de Criptana. Even in the bright sunlight the place on the top of a hill was really spooky. We were there alone, and didn’t see anyone, but still had the eerie feeling that there might have been someone around. The toilets were open, well kept, and clean. The air on the hill was dry and hot.

Next we stopped at Sierra de los Molinos in Campo de Criptana, where there used to be from 30 to 40 windmills (according to Cervantes). It was even warmer on that hill. However, as we continued our trip on the route of Don Quixote further West to Consuegra, the sky got cloudier and the air chillier.

On our last morning before the marathon we made a quick early morning run around sleepy and chilly Chinchón. Then it was time to move to Madrid, first to pick up the race package, and then to have a proper dinner and a good night’s rest. The weather so far had been quite nice, but the race day opened cold and drizzly. And that’s what it was for the whole day, only that the rain grew gradually heavier and the wind chillier, and we got wetter and colder. The worst part was walking from the finish line to our hotel: we were absolutely frozen. The other runners did not look much happier, either.

Before traveling home, we had another whole day to recuperate from the marathon. We made a road trip to Ávila. When we left Chinchón the weather was quite nice but it turned increasingly bad as we approached Ávila, at 1130 meters above sea level. We were freezing when we reached there and pretty much accepted lunch at the first place offered in this (at this time of the year) sleepy town: Restaurante Tres Siglos. We had their recommended menu for two: Degustacion Tradicional: Judias del Barco, Patatas revolconas, Crema Sta. Teresa; Degustation de Tapas Populares: “some greasy deep fried stuff”; and then finally Gran Chuletón de Ávila (con patatas y ensalada), a 750g t-bone steak that is a specialty of this town.

Before flying back home, we had half a day to spend in Chinchón. As usual, we used that for shopping some olive oil and taking a two-hour walk on nearby hills and olive tree gardens. We saw a lot of rabbits (none of them pictured below though); which ever direction we turned our eyes, there were several of them haring off.