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 meters the rain decreased substantially. I always like how the photos come out full of reflections from the wet ground and today was no exception.
Algés downtown
The area is extremely hilly, there’s no way but up from where I started, but it was only 900 meters in the run where we get our wake-up call. A vertical climb with an ascent grade approaching infinity. If the rain wasn’t enough to wake me up, that did it (and another great photo).
Wakey-Wakey climb
The climbing continues until km 2.1. I like it when I get my lungs a full wash right at the start of the run. You can tell that this is a densely populated area by observing all the cars parked bumper-to-bumper. On weekdays, the parked queues just shift left and start crawling bumper-to-bumper like a conveyor-belt.
Conveyor-belt paused until next Monday
I tend to think of the whole area as Algés, but in fact there are a number of small towns almost overlapping each other in the area. My first prolonged contact with this area was when I attended my 12th grade at a temporary high school built right by the train station. My current company was founded in Algés and had offices in two other adjacent cities, so I spent many years of my life in the area.
New Life - Yet another shopping center
The cities of Algés/Miraflores are a rich mix of residential and commercial areas. After the initial climb we head down to the valley that will take us north to the industrial side of town. We are skimming through the outskirts of Monsanto, which I would set as the Lisbon border. There have been recent attempts at building high-rise business buildings to attract more businesses to the area. I challenge that these kinds of constructions should exist by such a nice forest. We are tackling yet another 1km hill that will take us north of the A5 freeway.
Notorious high-rise building in the area
The rain kept following me up close, not too strong, just enough to mess with my phone screen and picture taking. Today I knew almost all of my route from memory so at least I did not suffer trying to navigate. It’s one of those places that I have mostly travelled by car, so in my mind everything is close by and flat. Interesting how our brain compresses reality to the tune of our means of transportation.
A brand new office space poorly named “World Trade Center”
Well, this overpass jumping the A5 is not flat for sure, we are at km 4.1, going deep into the industrial/commercial area. Here we are able to find all the main department stores that you can find in every major city - globalization. Most of the sidewalks are good for running with a few exceptions when we approach the main freeway crossings. Construction companies and specially the city halls tend to forget about that. It’s not uncommon to find sidewalks and crosswalks leading to the asphalt black holes.
Navigating through the industrial area with Monsanto on our right side
Between the early hours of the day and the unfriendly weather, the roads are mostly empty around here. I am able to navigate through the outskirts of these blackholes into the safety of the parallel universe on the other side - aka, I managed to cross the roads safely.
Ikea building
We are only at the 5th km, passing by the Swedish mothership IKEA, strategically positioned at the confluence of several main arteries serving Lisbon, and typically clogged by traffic. I have assembled my run plan around the building to get access to an overpass. It’s climbing time again for the next 2 km. It’s fun today! On the opposite side of Ikea sits a large shopping center, and again the area is a strange conglomerate of pedestrian-friendly islands. The large department stores try hard to make their buildings look friendly and cozy as you drive by. They have grass, trees, flowers and pathways. But most of them are just like a picture frame on a wall. They have barely any use, are mostly ornamental and many times have zero connections to adjacent buildings - unpopulated islands.
Alegro Shopping Center
After climbing to the top of the island at the 7th km, we can see the valley of Algés where we came from and it’s time to go down again. I had never been through this area and immediately notice a mix of industrial buildings and a residential area of social housing. Fast-forward a few weeks later and this would be one of the neighborhoods where there were some riots after an unfortunate event. Not something I would ever expect to see happening in Portugal but that thankfully was over quickly. It was a fun 1km descent.
Heading back to the river
What goes down must come up, the 1st law of running (being proven over and over today), and we start another 1km ascent through another social housing area in the city of Carnaxide. I am still enjoying most of the reflections that the rain is putting together for the photos - a friendly way of saying that it kept raining.
Bairro 18 de Maio
At the top of the hill, at km 8.6, we have one of the main hospitals specialized in heart diseases. I have taken a few running stress tests on the treadmill over the years. I plan on taking another one at the beginning of 2025, curious to see what the cardiologist has to say about resting heart rates around 42 BPM.
_Climbing to Carnaxide _
It’s time to slide down for the next 2km until we reach the river Jamor. We are going through large residential buildings packed with parked cars. I am following a backroad that I have used countless times to try and escape the freeway traffic. The road by the river is quite narrow so instead of the sidewalk they have built a very nice pathway.
Crossing the river Jamor (which is actually a small creek)
We are roughly halfway through our run and it’s time, of course, for another 2.5km climb to the center of the town of Queijas. Some stretches are vertical walls. The climb is made through recent residential areas, with nice sidewalks and green areas. The town faces the Jamor valley where there is a large sports center known as Estádio Nacional (we have been through there on stage 20).
Beginning of the ascent to the top of Queijas
After ascending through the south face of the most recent side of town, we head to the center of Queijas. I don’t know this city but I feel like I do. Just like many of the small towns around where I grew up, the buildings downtown have a resemblance. There is the same kind of commercial spaces, cafés and restaurants. I have to get out of here quickly because I am starving. The scent of freshly baked pastries and coffee is pure torture.
Downtown Queijas, a copy-paste version of many villages in the suburbs of Lisbon
We exit town around km 13.5 and have to tackle a pedestrian-hostile overpass of the A5. We are now at the end of CREL (external belt road of Lisbon), definitely not prepared for running. It’s quite early so I am able to safely run on the road shoulder and pass by the imperial entrance to Estádio Nacional. The stadium is on my target list for a run on the track later in the month - I am on pins and needles.
"Formal" entrance to the National Stadium
For many years in my youth, this road was the main connection to the A5 which only started by the National Stadium. The road network in Portugal after joining the EU went through an unbelievable transformation. In its essence the goal is noble and a textbook economics directive. In its execution it came out flawed in so many ways. If we do have an extraordinary network of roads and tollways, the cost of maintaining a lot of ghost roads is too high. After feeding the construction lobby it feeds zero value-added road operation companies fully subsidized by the taxpayers.
End of the external Lisbon beltway on the way to the river/ocean
The road takes us all the way to the river/ocean front, it’s hard to tell where the frontier lies. The Marginal road that follows the coast line from Lisbon to Cascais is superbly beautiful road, I just love it. I am fortunate enough to arrive as the skies are clearing and the sun is peeking between the clouds.
Arriving at Marginal road (going along the Ocean from Lisbon to Cascais)
We are at km 15.3 and the scenery is breathtaking. I struggle with shooting my photos because of the soaked shorts pockets that cripple my phone’s touchscreen. Eventually I manage to capture a nice photo illustrating a small portion of what I observed. If there is one thing that I have been learning during my 52W52HM challenge is that it is impossible to capture the beauty of the world in one photograph. You can shoot amazing photos but they will always pale to reality. The view was outstanding.
A magnificent view of the river with the 25 de Abril bridge and Cristo-Rei - the San Francisco / Rio mash-up
My incursion by the river is short as I descent to enter the Estádio Nacional sports complex, once again crossing over the rive, Rio do Jamor (now looking more like a river). One day I will have to come here for kayaking, it should be fun. There is some movement already, the area is a magnet for all kinds of sports enthusiasts.
Rio do Jamor
It’s km 16, I start to go through the remaining of the route in my mind to realize that I will face a brutal climb ahead, no sweat. The roads bring back good memories. I came here to play tennis with some of my best friends in my late teens. Those were great times. The road follows a fence and at some point there are people running inside the sports complex on flat terrain just as I start my climbing. Of course, I had to push to pass them even though we were diverging - they stayed on the ground while I was taking off.
_Let the climb start, km 17.4 _
I quickly paid for my foolishness as the ascent grade kept increasing, my oblivious running partners continued about their lives, while my lungs started flaming - the usual. I show no weak side and huff and puff all the way up, I can die later. I end up slightly messing up my route at the top, having to go through a bunch of stairs for a final punishment moment.
Hilly neighborhoods
There are some blue skies, not as blue as the photos seem to show, but still, it feels like a prize for having endured the rain throughout the run. Even though I have arrived at the top, there seems to be more to climb and there is even a way to a nice vista point that I have to decline because my route was already stretching beyond the desired distance.
Climbing was the word of the day
I am now fully energized and feeling strong, I start devouring the road, and a short climb that attempts to take me down is destroyed without mercy. I felt amazing. I know that the remaining of the route will also have a sweet descent to downtown Algés and that candy is the perfect reward for my final kms.
A nice neighborhood with another excellent view to the mash-up
I run by the headquarters of a company where some of my good friends have founded and still work at. Their success has always been uplifting to me, so the moment is an additional strengthening inspiration.
These buildings are home to a business from some good friends.
The final km is cut through the now busy Algés city center. It always feels a little odd to run like a madman at full power when the streets are packed with people.
The trick is to do it so hard that you get tunnel vision and stay in the zone.
It was another excellent challenging route that brought back many good memories.
Enjoy your runs! -APF
