Lisbon Half Marathon

Race report by Lorraine T

Mick, Annette and I ran the Lisbon Half on 9th March. John ran the 10K.

It’s a beautiful city (despite the torrential rain) but the course itself is pretty dull.

Collecting our numbers from the expo was probably the best bit! It was an enjoyable experience where we collected our numbers and t-shirts, and there were lots of freebies. Finding the expo was not straight forward though. There was little signage and so we followed people that looked like runners, and you had to go through a shopping centre to get to the expo on the water’s edge.

We had heard rumours that previous races had been chaos at the start and finish, and we were not denied this experience. You can only arrive at the start on designated, time slotted trains. Fortunately, we were encouraged to travel earlier than our designated train which helped because the trains were full and it is quite a schlep from the station to the start of the race. We got caught in torrential rain walking from the station to the start and began the race with squelchy feet!

We had arrived early so it was quite pleasant at that point but as the other 20,000 runners arrived the space got very busy and quite scary, and where the chaos really came into its own. It is not for the faint hearted because the area became very crowded and movement of people a little disconcerting with a mob of people corralled into another pen which I was caught up in and where I lost Annette. Once in the other pen there was relief of more space, and soon we were off.

The race begins the other side of the Tagus River on the side of Cristo Rei (resembling Christ the Redeemer in Rio) and you run the full length of the bridge which is surprisingly over a mile long. The road is closed and so both lanes are used. This was probably the nicest part of the run because you could look out across the water. The rest was flat and boring with the second half a tortuous 3 miles out and 3 miles back. Because I finished with a lot of people it was hard to see where the finish line actually was because the balloon arch was further ahead, and people were taking photos as if that was the finish, so I stopped and started my watch a few times really confused! However, it's a flat course for pbs and I got my best time since 2012. Result!

The finishing area was confusing and chaotic with the finishing funnel snaking round where we received a lovely medal, next a bottle of water, next an ice cream and then mobs of people. Fortunately, there were meeting point balloons which made it easy to meet people, if you had your bag. Those who checked bags in were very annoyed at the chaos of getting their bag back. It took Annette 40 minutes to get her bag in the pouring rain. I managed to find Mick, hurrah! He had a good run too. Getting back to the centre of Lisbon was carnage. There were no signs telling you where the train station was, so we hopped on a tram only for it to throw everyone off a few stops down the line and we had no clue where we were. We walked for a bit as buses full of people past us by, and exhausted by this time, we used Bolt to get a car back to our hotel.

It was chaos but a strangely enjoyable experience so I wouldn't let it put you off! Knowing it was likely to be hectic prepared us and made it quite funny. The additional biblical weather made it hysterical at times.

Lisbon is included in the 6 SuperHalfs series if you want to receive a giant medal for completing all 6: Lisbon, Cardiff, Copenhagen, Prague, Berlin, Valencia.

https://www.superhalfs.com/en/