Lisbon Half Marathon

3/9/2025

Mark has been running with friends here in Tavira for over a year, and in late 2024, a few of them decided to run the Lisbon Half Marathon, scheduled for March 2025. Mark hasn't run any race of this distance for over 40 years but decided to give it a go with the simple goals of having fun and finishing without injury.

For 3-4 months, training consisted of 15-20 miles per week of mostly slow running to build a solid physical base. A bit of speedwork was thrown in, mostly just to get an occasional endorphin rush. Sore knees were iced, and lots of ibuprofen was taken.  As race day approached, the rainy weather which had covered much of Portugal for several weeks was increasingly a concern.

Mark's friends, Agnieszka and Beth, were running the race as well, and we all traveled to Lisbon the day before the race to pick up our race bibs and get a good night's rest. The rain continued through Saturday and early on race day Sunday.

Carbo loading at dinner the night before the race

The Lisbon Half Marathon has an amazing start for the 20,000 runners who were competing. It begins on the April 25 bridge which runs for two miles from Almada (south of Lisbon) across the Tagus River and into Lisbon itself. To get to the starting line, we had to take a train to Almada then walk onto the bridge, and it was raining the entire time.

A little entertainment at the train station near the start

Once onto the bridge, we were afforded wonderful views of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Almada and the Lisbon skyline.

But what should happen once we got to the start line? The rain stopped, and the skies started to clear. It was amazing, and totally unexpected.

It ended up being a wonderfully sunny day, though the rain did start again about 30 minutes after the race ended. Everyone completed the race, and Mark finished in 2:02 with no injuries or issues, which made for a fantastic day.