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.
My Dirac training run
Looking back, many of the most important decisions in my life seem to have been impulse or gut feeling decisions. I am sure that a great deal of the worst ones might also have been. That’s why I have to love the Dirac: enjoying the success of the best decisions and learning from the failure of the bad ones.
The hot weather has started to make its way into the Lisbon area. I will have to make use of the Sintra microclimate as my safety buoy. I kept the expedition south of the mountain and was longing for open blue skies to greet me early in the morning. I had no such luck. We have so many British tourists around that it looks like they brought the weather along with them.
Start line in the town of Alcabideche
We will start in the town of Alcabideche. Its best attribute is the magnificent view of the Sintra mountains. It’s going to be around 3.5 km of mostly going down using sidewalks and my favorite middle-of-the-road option. The town is surrounded by freeways and tollway so I will have to keep exploring the overpasses and underpasses that I had only met before from the inside comfort of my car.
Cave paintings on the overpass crossing the A5
We travel through the inner roads of a residential area that seems to stretch forever. I planned on using the mysteriously named road “3a circular” but there is no safe area for running during the first half of the descent so we have to cut through the neighborhoods.
The 3a circular road, going down, now with some space on the border for our run
Down below we cross the stage 10 trail, Trilho da Ribeira das Vinhas, that has left such good memories. No time for nostalgia because we have the 1st Dirac warmup climb, 400m @ 10% average grade (Pogacar material).
Trilho da Ribeira das Vinhas going to Cascais downtown
It’s obvious by now that the blue skies that I was hoping for would have been more of a threat than a blessing. It’s very early in the morning, overcast and still I can feel the heat showing its weight. If the sun was out, I would have been in trouble.
Dirac warm up
Hyperventilating at the top, we keep following the main road trying not to wake up the locals as I heavily stomp through the middle of the asphalt gasping for air. The suburban landscape again fails to impress and even less with the British skies lurking above.
Lonely Araucaria and Palm tree - missing my stone pine
We get to the main road at the km 4.5. This road will be packed with traffic for most of the day. It is the road in Cascais used to take the A5 to Lisbon.
Not at this time in the morning. It’s just us and our good friends cleaning the streets. They clear the road and as we clear our lungs and spirits.
Keeping things clean
We are now aligned with our target, the Sintra mountains to the north, they look far away. The sidewalk is excellent for running and the empty road is quite nice and quiet. If you are inside a car here, you will not feel the same, as it is quite frequent for traffic to be bumper to bumper.
It’s too early for anyone to drive to the gym to go and walk on a treadmill
The road is deceiving, it resembles a long flat straight when in reality we will be climbing for the next 9 km. Just like our impulse function, nice and easy and then, all of a sudden, through the roof. We run by a gym that seems to be closed this early. The only time you will find me inside one is if I am going through some kind of physical therapy to recover from an injury (knock on wood).
Public transportation always ready to pick me up
We have some long kilometers until we get out of the urban area, and start to get a glimpse of our goal. This is another road that is great for a long road bike journey, as long as you do it early in the morning.
Sintra is waking up
I am surprised to get to know a couple of small towns on my route, with some interesting housing developments going on. Not a bad place to get a view of the mountains. Sadly on the day after my run the place would suffer a nasty wildfire that was serious enough to scare the local population. Everything was fine in the end
The clouds are stealing our sunrise
This connecting road takes us to a main road, estrada do Pisão, that links the Alcabideche area with Malveira da Serra, a well known town by the bottom of the mountain - a town that I would have preferred not to be there since it is a protected area.
Estrada do Pisão heading north
The landscape keeps getting prettier and I know this road like the back of my hand. There was a period when I was hooked on road biking, and an avid fan of Lance Armtrong, and trained as diligently as I have been executing my 52W52HM challenge.
I have ridden this road more times than I can remember and I love it.
Progressive climb
I can feel the familiar scent of the mountain as we gain altitude. I realize that this indeed a road bike route and not a running one. There is no safe space to run, I have to be on full alert and pick the right side of the turns.
Keeps getting greener as we climb
I was expecting the bottom of the Dirac to arrive around the 14th km and was confused that I was getting to the town Janes earlier than that. I then realized that I had started much further than I had initially planned.
I have always been intrigued by this church that feels out of place
Just before the impulse climb we have short soothing descent to prepare us for the effort. Time to reflect on impulse decisions. Are they just really impulsive, as in a bad way? Are they not mostly gut decisions. Choices that have been maturing in our heads, because they are difficult, bold, outside our comfort zone, and our instinct has been slowly cooking them to boiling pressure until we are ready to set the valve lose?
Are they not, in that sense, the ones that best can make us feel alive and energized? Let go of our control to be in control of our goal, because there is one. I think they are, I felt them, and regretted them with just as strong learning cues.
Entering the town of Janes heading to Malveira da Serra
I feel squeezed by the slope of the Dirac like an astronaut is crushed by the g-forces of a launching rocket. My pulse climbs to the pace of this impulse with the tunneling vision focused on the beautiful patterns of the road. Push! I can’t really see the top, it’s hard to tell when the booster rockets will get depleted and we are left orbiting the first ring of the Sintra mountain roads.
The Dirac in all its glory
Eventually we touch the ceiling, and through the ultra-wide-angle camera of my phone it indeed looks like we can almost feel the clouds with our hands. This view will never disappoint.
We have hit the sky
I am now in wonderland. The road is facing the sunrise that has somehow managed to poke through the clouds just for me. The view to the south is infinite and will keep us company for the next kilometer.
Finally the photos that I came here for
Why? Leave the bench and ditch the frame please
I suddenly have an urge for my MTB. I drool with the thought of all the trails around me. But we are now on the negative infinite slope of the Dirac, the descent is easy. We have been rewarded by our impulse.
This feels like home
We have 4.2 km descending to rest our legs on our way to cross the trail Ribeiro das Vinhas once again. Just relax and enjoy the view. It is now getting a lot warmer than I hoped for and I am running low on water. I will definitely have to get some kind of backpack to carry more hydration with me during the summer runs.
I could spend the whole day running loops in this mountain
We are running in the middle of the road, a dream for a road bike, perfectly safe this early in the morning. I will have to plan another HM in Sintra completely on trails. We will join the road Estrada do Pisão at the 16km
The view to the south is absolutely gorgeous too
I have ridden this road probably more than a hundred times, and driven just as many. It’s interesting on how the same place can have three different looks depending on your speed perspective. In the car one hardly notices the climbs, on the bike the climbs are hard but the descents are just as easy as in the car. Running, as long as there is air inside our lungs, no matter how fast you are, there is all the time in the world to observe.
Heading back to the Quinta do Pisão road
The road of Estrada do Pisão is probably the most dangerous that I have un so far. There was no traffic but I was stressed. There is absolutely no space on either sides of the road. What should have been an enjoyable descent, and climb, became a game of nerves. Do not run here.
The dangerous road (for running) of Quinta do Pisão
The dip of the Dirac comes at km 17.4 and I had completely forgotten that I had a nice climb waiting for me. It’s late in the run and beyond by temperature threshold. In the last stretch of our run we will navigate through some roads that access the A5 and the Cascais Shopping center. A lot of concrete and asphalt.
The sun is starting to pick up its pace
There’s always the Sintra mountains postcard just one look away. The area is windy and the wind is starting to pick up. The proof comes from a lonely windmill by the road. I am too thirsty to detour for a visit.
A shy windmill in an unexpected spot
We enter the stadium through a freeway underpass for the final victory lap. My last 400m are focused on how dry my mouth is. I will have to take measures for this not to happen again.
The final underpass to the finish line (and the cave paintings)
I took this 52W52HM challenge on an impulse and I am loving it. I started writing about my runs on an impulse and I am loving it.
I have such a wonderful time running that I want to share the experience with as many people as possible.
Go after your Dirac!
Enjoy your runs!
-APF
