52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons A personal challenge APF

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 1

A personal challenge

At 53 years old, after running 1000 miles in 2023, I set up a goal of running 52 half marathons in 2024. This will be my logbook. I will share the routes with some photos and information about the spots that I run by.

As per Murphy’s Law, I caught influenza type A at the beginning of the year so I was out for the first two weeks.

My 1st run was on the 20th of January, slowly coming back to pace.

I live in Portugal, so that’s where 99% of my runs will happen.

Photos are taken as I run with my iPhone, so don’t expect top quality as I normally don’t stop to take them.

For a quick overview of the routes you can check out the website 52W52HM

Run 1 — Cascais

Start date/time: January 20th, 7:32 AM

_Starting

Stage 1 - The beginning 831 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 2

Stage 2 - Sintra I

JAN 27, 2024

The weekend could not arrive fast enough for my second stage. On the day before a planned run I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve - excited, but usually that means I don’t sleep as much as I should.

Today’s run took place in the Sintra mountain range. Unfortunately I botched my turnaround point, so I had to cover some extra distance on my way back.

Interesting fact, I run with Nike Run Club (RNC) on Apple Watch and use Strava on my iPhone. Strava always shows a greater distance covered than the Apple Watch. In this case it was a lot. NRC clocked 21.1 km while Strava showed 22.11 km. Quite a difference! I guide myself by the most conservative one, in this case, NRC on the Apple Watch, but I will provide the route details from the Strava APP.

Run 2 — Sintra

Start date/time: January 27th, 7:14 AM

I try to start around civil sunrise so that I get to watch the sunrise and have sufficient daylight for safety

Stage 2 - Sintra I 1,382 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 3

Stage 3 - Carcavelos - Lisbon

What was I thinking?

For many years in our early lives, we are guided by milestones with well-defined goals: the first years in school, high school, college, learning to swim, soccer, football, basketball, and other “expected skills” that society, family, and local cultures slowly built over the course of many years. After these milestones, hopefully, comes work, then family, and eventually a routine, which by no means should be considered lesser. However, sometimes, for some, it feels as though we are missing some kind of beacon, a finish line to cross, until the next race begins. And that is how I feel.

Last year was all about beating my previous record for total kilometers ran in one year. This year, I came up with the 52/52 challenge. What was I thinking?

Run 3 - Carcavelos - Lisbon

February 3rd, 7:40 am (2 minutes before sunrise)

The story of this run began the night before, celebrating one of my sister’s 5

Stage 3 - Carcavelos - Lisbon 2,438 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 4

Stage 4 - Cascais - Carcavelos - Cascais

February 10th, 7:10 am

Another major test of my willpower. I’ve felt terrible during the week, with a sore throat, runny nose, clogged ears, and constant coughing. The cherry on top of the cake is that last night I attended another birthday party, of my older sister (happy birthday K!), and ate too much, drank too much, and again, slept too little. During the whole week, the weather has been atrocious, cold, windy, and heavy rain. I had a helping hand, as my running window brought some sunshine and the wind was not too bad. The rain came right after I finished the run. No excuses!

With this route, I completed the whole coastline from Cascais to Lisbon (runs 1, 3, and 4).

The route starts again (see run 1), at the Cascais market, early in the morn

Stage 4 - Cascais - Carcavelos - Cascais 1,379 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 5

Run 5 - Lisbon - Inner "beltway"

February 18th, 7:09 am

What can I say, this beginning of the year is putting me to a test. I felt terrible all week long, coughing as if my lungs were coming out through my mouth. Poor sleep and no training at all except for a shy 5k run on Friday. Today’s run was initially planned for Saturday but the “bear” cough was too rough, so I had to postpone it for today. Early in the morning I was not feeling stellar but it was good enough for going out. The weather, again, was quite friendly. I had to use a Jedi mind concentration to try and keep that coughing at bay. It worked.

The run starts downtown Lisbon. Parking is free on Sundays, and this early in the morning there is no traffic at all. It was a breeze to drive to the start line.

Tourism in Lisbon, for good and for bad, has been growing steadily up to the annoying point. The fact that there were so many people in the streets, this early, walking their trolleys is

Stage 5 - Lisbon - Inner "beltway" 1,980 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 6

Madrid. Olé!

February 24th, 6:35 am

Madrid, 657 m altitude (2155 feet), 2 degrees Celsius cold, with a mild wind that cuts like a knife.

The run started too early, at the notorious Gran Via, with quite a few roaming “borrachos” from last night. A surprising number of cars, of which many are taxis, cruise the streets of this magnificent avenue.

It is very cold but since the weather is dry it does not pinch too hard, except when the avenues open up as wind canyons. The sidewalks are wide and perfectly paved so I head down to Paseo de Recoletos at a happy pace

Palacio de Cibeles

When I get to the spectacular Cibeles that’s where it hits me. The “hidden” mountains of Madrid’s avenues. The streets are so wide that when you are walking you really don’t pay that much attention

Stage 6 - Madrid. Olé! 1,843 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 7

Sintra’s spinal cord

March, 2nd, 7:07 am

The moderate distance of half-marathons makes it hard to come up with unique routes. I have several planned, that unfortunately require me driving for a reasonable amount of time, which means that I will have to stay the night before - regrettably, I don’t have that luxury of time, but they will happen. Another aspect resulting from the distance, and duration, is that in several circumstances it is long enough that one can experience substantially different weather patterns - as I did today.

The route today is what Stage 2 was meant to be but I cut it short because I was coming back from a flu. I call it Sintra’s spinal cord because we run along the peaks of the mountain range.

I started approximately 1km from the Aldi supermarket from State 1 to aim for the 21.1 km. It’s inside what looks to be a closed gate condo area, but in reality, it is served by public roads and provides easy parking.

If you were

Stage 7 - Sintra’s spinal cord 1,820 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 8

Lisbon Hills

March 9th, 7:05 am

It has been a stormy week and the forecast for the day was not painting a pretty picture. Luck of the fool, around sunrise my phone gave me hope that I would be able run without the lifejacket on. I plotted a ring as close as possible to downtown which meant that I would have to face the dreaded seven hills of Lisbon.

I picked the Amoreiras area as the starting point since it is my closest entrance to Lisbon. That little extra time in the comfort of my bed translates into a climbing punishment at the end of the run. Amoreiras is on the list of the highest points in Lisbon - I like climbing.

Amoreiras, Dallas towers

Amoreiras towers are know for the Dallas-inspired architecture, back then when JR Ewing was a thing. Nowadays I would say they are i

Stage 8 - Lisbon Hills 2,942 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 9

Train by the Train - Lisbon suburbs

March 16th, 6:36 AM

As it should be, for this time of the year, we had a week of rain, fog and cold weather. Still, not the rigorous kind of winter that lingers in my memory, from when I was a kid. Indeed, there is some terribly worrying data about the average temperatures of the oceans for the beginning of this year, following what was already a grim record set in 2023.

I am not doing Earth a favour with my runs. I gulp up so much oxygen to stay alive during my punishing climbs…

Today’s route was a travel back in time deep into my youngest memories. The route goes through some of the most important suburban municipalities of Lisbon. This is where I grew up and where a lot of my family lived and still lives.

I had a few checkpoints that I wanted to cross. Following the train track from Cascais to Lisbon seemed like an interesting choice. Train by the train.

Good news, I fiddled with Komoot the night befo

Stage 9 - Train by the Train - Lisbon suburbs 3,865 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 10

Washing the Sahara sands in Sintra Quinta do Pisão

March 26th, 6:11 AM

It’s interesting how many TIL moments we go through in our lives about things that in fact we should have learned years (or decades) ago. Last weekend I had to postpone stage 10, twice, because of dangerous weather conditions. It was raining… dust. Dust from the Sahara desert. Air quality was considered unhealthy. The initial dusty forecast, raised flags for Friday and Saturday, which gave me extra time to explore Komoot (now 100% approved for route planning) to polish a route for Sunday. These runs are starting to be Christmas Eves for me. You can imagine the spirit of the child in me, when Xmas got cancelled for Sunday. The dust rain would linger, and even worsen on Sunday! I searched in vain for Air Quality metrics that would justify taking the risk, but Grinch had been competent. These dust storms have been going on forever and are even critical in supplying important minerals,

Stage 10 - Washing the Sahara sands in Sintra Quinta do Pisão 2,227 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 11

Easter visit to the lungs of Lisbon

Sunday March 31st, 7:17 am (really 6:17 am)

The sun is my running alarm clock. I always want to make the most of my day by starting at the first signs of light. I was fondly getting used to the 6 am sunrises and frowned upon the spring forward day. My drive to the starting point was around 25 minutes, so this meant waking up at the new 6:30 am, old 5:30 am. It hurt. After a week of some flooding in the Lisbon area (the new normal), Apple weather forecast promised me a rainless morning. I was very much looking forward to a dry run, after the mid-week showers - Siri lied.

I parked in Algés, right at the Lisbon border, close to the river.

Friendly bike-lane

There are plenty of milestones to check in the area. I was hoping for another dramatic

Stage 11 - Easter visit to the lungs of Lisbon 1,859 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 12

Sintra trailblazing

Monday April 8th, 6:44 am

I spent another weekend grounded by the flying sand dust of the Sahara. The plan was to circumnavigate the Lisbon Airport but I had to postpone that flight to the next weekend. It is not possible to run in Lisbon during the week because of early morning traffic. I was out yesterday dusting off my mountain bike on the trails of Sintra. I manage to get much lower heart rates, and breathing intensity, during the MTB rides, so I took the “Dune” risk - fortunately the dust had settled already. I have biked these trails for many years now, and I know them like the back of my hand, so I had decided to keep them as backup plans for missed weekend runs.

Civil sunrise was at 6:41 AM, but with the sky packed with menacing clouds, it was still too dark. I started again at the Aldi parking lot as one needs just to cross the road to find the portal entrance to the mystic Sintra trails. Maybe a little too mystic this ea

Stage 12 - Sintra trailblazing 2,529 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 13

Circumnavigating the Lisbon Airport

Saturday, April 13, 6:44 AM

Last weekend I had reserved my flight around the Lisbon airport. I had chosen my path when boarding was cancelled at the last minute by the Sahara sands.

It was going to be a warm day so I hit the road as early as my sleepless working week allowed. I had a 20-minute drive to the runway which meant a cruel wake up at 6:00 AM, after a 4 hour sleep from the previous night. I need to improve my sleep schedule.

Promising sky ahead

The goal was to go around the Lisbon airport, touching bases at a few parks along the way, since most of the landscape was expected to be unremarkable.

The starting line was right by the abandoned terrains of Lisbon’s fairground from many years ago. The merry-go-rounds and roller-coas

Stage 13 - Circumnavigating the Lisbon Airport 2,172 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 14

Lisbon Expo - Urban Experiments

Saturday, April 20, 6:44 AM

Breaking the inertia of waking up in the middle of the night to go out running, is on par with starting the first paragraph of a blog post. Running has to be the sport of least resistance. You get dressed, get out the door and start doing it, except, if you have to drive far enough to keep coming up with distinct routes. It is imperative for me to start my run just before sunrise, at the first signs of light. I want to avoid traffic, the heat, and be back home early to enjoy the weekend with my family. My second race of the day is coming back home, and catching everyone still asleep - extra weekend bragging.

This puzzle is slowly turning into a travelling salesman problem solving - bring it on.

The phone buzzed at 5:45 AM, fed the meowing cat and hopped in the car for a thirty-minute drive to the Lisbon Expo area.

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Stage 14 - Lisbon Expo - Urban Experiments 2,503 words

Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 15

Lisbon Derby(*)

Saturday, April 27, 6:29 AM

The Christmas-Eve-kid in me was suddenly awakened, at 5:00 AM, by the sound of pouring rain outside. I have a hard time getting my beauty sleep on the night before the game. I can’t wait to unwrap what gifts the route will bring me and unconsciously end up waking up multiple times during the night. Needless to say that the impromptu water alarm robbed me of the last 45 minutes of my night rest - prophetic.

Today we are going to tour the main sports stadiums in Lisbon (football / soccer). The starting whistle is blown by the Fonte Nova shopping center - a vintage mall.

Fonte Nova Shopping Center

Parking is easy, if you don’t try to park like 30 years ago, which might just as well be the last time I had parked there, a lot has changed.

Stage 15 - Lisbon Derby(*) 2,098 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 16

Sintra's northern footHILLS

Friday, May 3, 6:12 AM

I could not ask for a better incentive, as I got out of my car, than the magnificent bird tweeting that filled the main street, downtown Sintra. I recorded it, enjoy…

06-10-52.m4a

These are the real tweets that we should be paying attention to.

I started right by Palácio de Sintra, disturbing the orchestrated chirping, with the usual initial inertial stomping, and equalizing breathing pressure. Most photons are still lost in their lazy dawn tangential travel route. Today is still not the day that I will properly frame Palácio de Sintra.

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Palácio de Sintra

The first km is a very steep descent, harsh on my barely awake cold legs. Descending can be just as hard as asc

Stage 16 - Sintra's northern footHILLS 1,953 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 17

Lisbon - Castle ascent

Saturday, May 11, 6:15 AM

Lisbon instantly tamed the hillbilly from Sintra, serving me a 400m climb for breakfast, at an average 9.75% grade. That woke me up pretty quickly. After last week’s brutal climb I came into Lisbon wearing the wrong credentials. There might not be a mountain, but all the hills combined put up a good fight.

Another 5:30 AM alarm clock. No aurora borealis in sight, unfortunately.

The big plan for the day was an ascent to the Lisbon castle, with some mountaineering around the older parts of town. It’s easy to park in Avenida da Liberdade at 6 in the morning. The starting line is identified by the QR Code from the start of the 20th century imprinted on the sidewalk.

![aebcfaa3-b619-4f47-a91c-6234051fdd3a_1536x2048.jpeg](https:/

Stage 17 - Lisbon - Castle ascent 2,114 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 18

Lisbon - Downtown-Uptown

Saturday, May 18, 6:12 AM

I just heard on the news that this year, Portugal is bound to break the record for the number of incoming tourists. This comes as a surprise to me, as I did not think we could have more tourists than what we have been having. I feel like a stranger in my own home.

All are welcome, the Portuguese are know for being good hosts, and today my plan was to become a tourist guide in the most touristic spots of Lisbon.

I am also trying not to repeat myself, in routes, and writing. Writing is hard (but fun).

Current state of affairs (including stage 18 colored yellow, downtown Lisbon)

For a change, today I start from the top, Amoreiras, again, with my Dallas landscape behind my back I head for the fine neighborhood of Campo de

Stage 18 - Lisbon - Downtown-Uptown 2,230 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 19

Sintra-Marine Loop

Saturday, May 26, 6:07 AM

Between two Taylor Swift concerts and the final Portuguese Football Cup game, Lisbon was too crowded to host stage 19. I chose Sintra again, the mountain range where you can almost ride for 100 km without crossing the same path twice.

I wanted to loop around the mountain range, but that is more than a half marathon. I also wanted to start from one of my favorite spots, Praia do Guincho.

To get a little bit of both, I accepted the mission of running over 25km

Starting at one of Guincho’s beach parking lots

Guincho is well known for being windy all-year round, and for the protected sand dunes that regularly crawl into the road. I got very little wind and a perfect temperature, I was very lucky.

A number of surfers beat me

Stage 19 - Sintra-Marine Loop 1,792 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 20

Suburbia Olympics

Saturday, June 1, 6:11 AM

Summer is arriving fast. This weekend might have been the first rehearsal of the heat to come. I have close to zero tolerance for running under the sun, a result from having had a heatstroke on a 10k run more than 10 years ago. If it looks impossible to you… it isn’t! I was in close to perfect shape back then, and out of nowhere at the 8th km my mind wondered someplace else. It was serious and unexpected. My message to you is: be extra careful running under the sun, and hydrate, always.

Today’s route explores a suburban area right at the border with Lisbon. We start in Algés, at an easy parking spot where we had already started on stage 11.

Car high tide

Algés is right by the river/ocean, the perfect example of a commuter town,

Stage 20 - Suburbia Olympics 1,959 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 21

Back to the University

Saturday, June 8, 6:07 AM

The end of the week was again marked by another batch of Sahara sands. Might this mean that we will have a specially rich crop season? Providentially, there was some rain coming down on Friday evening which persuaded me to risk a Saturday morning outing. I plotted my course to infill my overall map, and chance drew it to be centered around my alma mater. It was an unusually gray day for June in Lisbon, a fado mood that I am not fond of. A stark contrast of the days to come since the following week will be of party around town - Santos Populares.

The low light and graphite sky is a hard combination to shoot on the run. Lisbon is definitely a city that needs the sun to shine. “If life gives you lemons, you make lemonade” - I will show many of today’s photos in black and white.

The run started by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, a wonderful garden and art center, that I was looking forward to shoot

Stage 21 - Back to the University 2,139 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 22

City of football

Saturday, June 15, 6:06 AM

21 of the 22 runs so far (the missing one is Madrid)

Euro 2024 has started. We will be eating and breathing football for the month to come. I feel an urge to paint my map in as many colors as the jerseys worn by spectators at the stadiums. The map is starting to look like a packed arena, I am “running” out of space and it’s not even halftime yet.

Today, we start in the town of Caxias, purposely chosen for the stadium - Estádio Nacional - that we have visited two stages ago. Given the recent successes of the Portuguese football team it is only natural that money is funneled to keep the machine moving. So, they built here a sports complex named “City of Football” where the Portuguese team gathers for training before main events.

Stage 22 - City of football 1,814 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 23

Cascais suburbs - off trail

Saturday, June 22, 6:03 AM

Today we will be exploring the Cascais suburbs. As I drove by the Estoril Race track, I could see an extraordinary orange full moon to the west. One of those sightings where the moon seems to have grown out of proportion.

There are no cameras for that, we have to use our eyes. Perks for early birds.

We are starting close by Cascais Shopping, spoiled by tailwind with an Olympic racetrack beneath our feet, going downhill, south-east, towards the sunrise that is patiently tinting the sky.

The perfect stadium

It is perfect, I have to try hard not to get carried away with my pace. The bike lane follows a normally busy road, a prime housing complex and the A5 tollway, empty as it never is. Running at 6 AM takes place in a

Stage 23 - Cascais suburbs - off the trail 1,874 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 24

Salamanca - Universidad

Saturday, June 29, 6:36 AM

Salamanca University is considered the 3rd oldest in the world. Bologna being the 1st and Oxford the 2nd. University cities are special and Salamanca is a pearl.

Four years ago, we came running with our son to drop him here at the university to study medicine. The city was a remarkable surprise. I have run here several times, including some half marathons so I had been anxiously waiting to score one of my 52W52HM runs here.

Starting right after civil sunrise

A long drive last night, through the middle of a scary thunderstorm, and a rough short night of sleep, were no match for my enthusiasm. I already had all the photos developed in my head, and was just a little bummed that the sky would not be the Salamanca sierra-blue th

Stage 24 - Salamanca - Universidad 2,564 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 25

Lisbon stairs...

Saturday, July 6, 6:17 AM

Sintra woke up to very strong winds and light rain. Not the most inviting scenery to encourage me to step into Lisbon. I am still sour from France having kicked Portugal out of the Euro yesterday - any cursing today will have to be in French.

“Putain!” I forgot my water bottle and already lost 10 minutes driving back to pick it up. And so it began, 4 flights of stairs climbed during pre-game to fetch my precious hydration (and some rain to cool me off).

Cloudy “noir”

Today’s route is packed with attractions, and I am once again eager to show you around. Because of my initial fumble, I had to divert parking to Amoreiras, knowing that this would add almost 2km to my planned climbing feast.

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Stage 25 - Lisbon stairs... 3,301 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 26

Painting the suburbs

Saturday, July 13, 6:15 AM

Today’s run starts by the Beloura Office Park in Sintra. An easy parking location close by home. I needed some extra sleep today to recover from an unusual epic MTB ride on the day before. I have “discovered” the insane joy of e-bikes, a “free” ski lift up the mountain to devour as many black diamond descents as I can eat. I find it to be perfect to recover from my half marathons too. I barely touch Zone 2 during 40km rides with more than 1000 m total climb. It is beautiful.

One of the entrances to the Beloura Office Park

The goal was to paint a missing portion on the map. I kept delaying it because it’s a difficult area to photograph. It’s an easy area to run. The run starts flat, on the sidewalk, again with close to perfect t

Stage 26 - Painting the suburbs 2,226 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 27

A Dirac in Sintra

Saturday, July 20, 6:15 AM

The Dirac delta function (by the physicist Paul Dirac), or unit impulse, is a mathematical function that is represented by single line at the origin and is zero everywhere else - (the simplified TL;DR version).

Dirac delta function (source Wikipedia)

I have a training route that I baptized as my Dirac ascent. It’s a beautiful run up to the entrance of the Palácio da Pena park in Sintra. One day I will buy the ticket to the park in advance and go all the way to the top to make it even closer to a Dirac (should the tourists allow). Lucky me, there is a Dirac on today’s route too.

Stage 27 - A Dirac in Sintra 2,068 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 28

Cloud striking at the Sintra Peaks

Friday, July 26, 6:30 AM

The irony of yet another cloud malfunction. I was awoken at 3 AM by the movement alarm of my e-Bike. My run started even earlier than expected with an adrenaline rush to the storage floor, hoping not to encounter an improbable burglar. False alarm - another cloud mishap. I kissed my night-rest goodbye. It was less than 3 hours before my wake up alarm, it took me one hour of reading to get me back into sleep mode.

We park again easily by the supermarket Aldi of Beloura and cross the road to immediately start climbing up the mountain. I was beyond thrilled with the planned route.

The first climb early sets the tone for the difficulty of today’s run

We will be following many of my usual MTB paths which means I will not need any navigation aids. The plan is to touch several peaks of Sintra t

Stage 28 - Cloud striking at the Sintra Peaks 3,004 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 29

Magoito cliffs by the Mariana Trench

Friday, August 2, 06:10 AM

The good weather from the Summer, arriving late, puts additional pressure on my run activities. Between the extra hydration needs and my acquired avoid-the-sun vampire state, I need to accommodate time for family activities - the matrix gets harder to invert. I had another Friday run, harder to avoid traffic, and also because I do have to go to work afterwards.

This time, we are going to the coast, north of Sintra, exploring amazing cliffs by the Atlantic. It’s about a half hour drive from home which means a 5 AM wakeup time. Those are hard, specially since I never go to bed early.

Dawn by Praia das Maçãs

We are starting by Praia das Maçãs, Apples Beach. There’s free easy parking right by the ocean. The weather in this area is usually cool, windy, and normally the fog from Sintra exten

Stage 29 - Magoito cliffs by the Mariana Trench 2,549 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 30

Surfing the waves down to Guincho

Saturday, August 10, 6:29 AM

Waves, the essence of life. It all starts with the solar radiation bathing us in the warmth of all kinds of radiation. This week, we have been crossing through a normal August heat wave, the perfect invitation to cooling down by the ocean front ones.

I have been very active on my mountain bike, and had pushed hard in Sintra weaving the waving trail lines on the day before my run. I am again hooked on my MTB outings, just as much as my 52W52HM runs. With another swell MTB ride planned for the day after, I had to pick a run with less peaks, and just surf it.

I miss the hill crest runs in Lisbon but the city is way too hot for this dude.

The plan was to glide to Guincho beach and spend the morning by the natural air conditioning. For a change I picked a route that would be quite easy during the first half, still, I threw in a few walls to prevent me from slacking.

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Stage 30 - Surfing the waves down to Guincho 2,261 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 31

Hopping on the cliffs - Part II

Saturday, August 17, 6:28 AM

I have jumped off many cliffs in my life. I have no recollection of ever regretting having taken any of them. That does not mean, by any means, that I have not face-planted several of them. It also does not mean that I have learned all the lessons from the scars out of the botched ones. What it means is that the thrill of catching the rushing wind in my face, and the brief moments when it felt like I was flying, those, far outpace all the mistaken ones. I plan to keep on jumping for the rest of my life.

Stage 29 had left a tiny sour taste in my mouth because I got cut off from many of the cliff trails that I had planned. With the temperatures during the week getting close to the 100’s (Fahrenheit makes it even look more dangerous), a second run by the cliffs was the refreshing route that I needed for the weekend.

I was a lot more diligent about the planning and checked with some local

Stage 31 - Hopping on the cliffs - Part II 3,508 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 32

Sintra - Field trip to my MTB trails

Friday, August 23, 6:43 am

Escaping the social networks trap takes quite an effort. They are a carefully crafted additive drug-poisons that, just like the real-life ones, slowly kill you by shutting down your brain. It’s very easy to fall prey. All is carefully set up to suck you in into the vortex. I highly recommend Cal Newport’s books, where “Digital Minimalism” would be the one to start. I have read it, I have written my own version of it, several times in my mind, before reading it, and I have forgotten it just as many times - and so have you. As I am slowing down for my summer vacation, my brain got some extra thinking time. We are running around flooded in tasks all day long that we seldom stop to think. Thinking is hard, just like running, it takes effort and concentration. I am not going to try and describe why, Cal Newport does that impeccably. I will just share my attempt to get my feet back on the ground,

Stage 32 - Sintra - Field trip to my MTB trails 5,273 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 33

Venezia outpost

Friday, August 30, 6:02 AM

I have landed by the remote outpost of Venezia. A unique settlement in the galaxy, by the Oceano Mediterraneo d’Italia on Pianeta Terra of the Via Lattea. I have arrived in the middle of a heat wave. This planet has been going through some wild climate changes due to the increased mercantile activity and the local star, Sole, gave me no truce during my exploration of the Venezia maze. The settlement was born around the 5th century of the local calendar and soon became a rich magnet for spices, silk and other luxury goods of the time. I set ground on the outskirts of this outpost and around 0345 UTC time, 0545 local time, I caught the local transportation shuttle to the centre of the colony.

Waiting for the transportation shuttle to Venezia

The shuttle, known as a train by the locals, operated flawlessly

Stage 33 - Venezia outpost 3,860 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 34

Firenze - Back in Time

Thursday, September 5, 06:05 AM

Leonardo da Vinci was born a little over half a millennium ago, 20 miles west of Firenze, in the small town of Vinci. I should not have touched one of his amazing contraptions last night, because when I left home for my run in Firenze, it had warped the space-time continuum, and unexpectedly, I travelled back in time. Thanks Leonardo, I am in for a treat!

Fortunately I read the instructions, and to get back to my present time all I had to do was to follow a progressively accelerating running pace. Start at 6:00 min/km and go down to 4 min/km - at least that was the plan, to shave 10 seconds off my pace every km.

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons.jpeg

Via Santa Reparata - space-time warp clearly visible at the start of my run

My running Christmas Eves are always a sleep challenge, and especial

Stage 34 - Firenze - Back in time 3,754 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 35

Sintra Mountaineering

Saturday, September 14, 6:59 AM

Coming back from a run in Venezia and another in Firenze, I was not quite ready to explore the renaissance-less of the Lisbon suburbs. Instead, I opted for another reborn moment in Sintra.

Over the course of the year, I have already logged countless trails in the mountain, so I had to sharpen my Da Vinci pencil to come up with a non-overlapping route. And there lies the root cause of my adventure today. It’s not the first time, and it won’t be the last, that I start painting my trails on Komoot without looking at the challenges of the profile. I know I will be climbing but instead of thinking about how hard it will be I always think about how freaking cool it will be. The running me not always agrees with the planning me.

One of my proudest achievements is having a detailed map of the Sintra mountain trails in my mind. Sintra, however, always manages to have one more trail for me to discove

Stage 35 - Sintra Mountaineering 3,503 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 36

Filling the gaps in suburbia

Saturday, September 21, 7:02 AM

On my previous run, I used Sintra as a plug, coming back from two dream runs in Italy. Now it’s time to face suburban reality once again.

There is a lot of painting to be done in suburbia - if I want to complete my masterpiece. As you can imagine, I have been avoiding the not-so-scenic areas.

Fortunately, having grown up in the region of Lisbon, gives me additional incentives to explore every little corner of my early morning kingdom.

I am lucky to have a lot of friends and relatives living in the area. To make a dull route fun, I just had to make sure I ran by their homes, and later on send them photos asking why I had not been invited for breakfast.

Starting in São João do Estoril

I am bummed that I am now starting my runs too late in the morning because of the sun’s increasi

Stage 36 - Filling the gaps in suburbia 2,938 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 37

Monsanto Loop

Saturday, September 28, 6:56 AM

The Monsanto Forest, right on the border of Lisbon, is a small mountain range of about 10 km^2. It is densely populated with trees, which, I have now learned, only started being planted at the end of the 1930s. For many years, it was a place that I did not find very inviting, and where there were a lot of shady businesses going on. Things have changed. The place has been progressively becoming friendly for sports activities, and many other different kinds of events that gather people around. It is a particularly convenient spot for hiking, trail running and mountain biking. One that, surprisingly, I don’t know too well, and today was an exploration day.

I have a close to half-hour drive to get to my parking spot in Algés. As usual, I want to start by civil sunrise time, and that made for a glorious drive. I am driving east towards the incoming Saturday, and the slow unraveling of the day was a spectac

Stage 37 - Monsanto Loop 2,958 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 38

Another Brush In the Suburbs

Saturday, October 5, 6:31 AM

Today I started earlier than usual, while it was still dark, because I wanted to escape the forecasted rain expected by the end of my run. I chose the Beloura Golf Course as the starting point. I could safely drive my nocturnal run because there are good enough light poles along the way. I expected today’s run to have plenty of contrasts, and starting by a fancy golf course helped set the tone appropriately.

This would be the first long run with my fractured left pinkie finger healing inside a splint. The run was approved by my orthopedist, as long as I did not fall. I would be extra careful to keep my feet out of any holes.

It had only been a week since my MTB crash, the finger was still giving me a hard time. The trick was to keep all the fingers on my hand tight together to minimize free movement of the bogey one.

![IMG_5054.jpeg](https://writebook.52weeks52halfmarathons.com/

Stage 38 - Another brush in the suburbs 1,810 words

52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 39

Hills galore - skimming the Lisbon border

Saturday, October 12, 7:19 AM

As I park my car in one of my bases, Algés, it starts pouring. I knew that there was a high probability of a wet run. I took cover by the bus terminal hoping that it would slow down a bit. I don’t mind running in the rain, but starting in the rain does not feel right. It feels like getting in the shower with your clothes on. Catching rain mid-run is like climbing a hill, it’s hard at the beginning, but you get used to it and eventually enjoy. It didn’t feel like the rain would stop anytime soon, so I took the plunge.

Bus station in Algés

Algés is a very lively town right at the Lisbon border. I really like it. There is plenty of commercial activity, good restaurants and business parks. We start on one of the main streets, already busy. I got rewarded by the plunge, after 100 m

Stage 39 - Hills galore - skimming the Lisbon border (writing in progress) 2,311 words

(writing in progress)