52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 40
Montejunto ascent!
Saturday, October 19, 07:35 AM
This was one of those runs that had me on pins and needles. The Montejunto mountain range is 50km north of Lisbon in a straight line. From my house, the fastest way, through the tollways is close to 100km. I manage to get 300 km range on my EV, but that goes down substantially if I do the 120 km/h speed limit. To be safe, I had to pick a shorter route, 75km, using the local roads - 1h30 mins
Early rise to get there on time
It was a long drive and at the end I had to fight to stay awake - that wasn’t fun. Even with all the excitement, the pitch-dark winding road was a devilish lullaby. I set basecamp in a small village, Vila Verde dos Francos. While there might be many trails in Montejunto, I chose to use the main asphalt road for my run. I knew the road was going to be empty, I had driven on it during the summer, and fell in love with the landscape. Also, it is the same route that has been used by road bike and rally races in the past, I could not miss this.
Starting in Vila Verde dos Francos
This was going to be a massive climb, close to 9km going up right from the start. I was exhilarated. The timing and the bearing of the ascent were promising to observe the sunrise. It was around 1741 that the Royal Ice Factory got established high on the mountain in Montejunto. The factory would operate until late in the 19th century, supplying ice to the Royalty, the rich, and the powerful. Today it is a national monument. I could see some clouds and fog on the mountain top, knowing the history, I was crossing my fingers that it would not be ice cold up there as it was bit chilly down at the start.
Beginning of the long ascent
We start with a long slow climb surrounded by sharp-looking views that keep getting cooler as we go up. I see the warm sunlight gently climbing to peek and pierce the packs of clouds. It is another fresh solitary journey. I will not be heard if I scream of fun. I see that I do it… with no fear of icy looks.
I see the scenery behind that is just as beautiful as the cool one ahead.
Behind us, the mountain tops are scarred with gigantic wind generators. This region of the country, being very windy, has had a blizzard of wind generators randomly scattered around. I don’t question their importance, but I am upset that the crystal-green landscape has been shattered by the cold-white giants.
Surrounded by mountains in all directions (facing south)
Montejunto is a protected landscape, free from the wind harvesting beasts, the modern ones, because there are still a few Don Quixote-style ones, small and ornamental. Ahead, above the mountain, the sun seems to be making a furnace out of the clouds as if shooting a warning salvo to the spinning invaders on the horizon. I am delighted by the colors and start playing a game.
To the east, the sun is starting to dominate the landscape
Analyzing my route, I figured that if I would run fast enough, I should be able to keep holding the sun behind the mountainside, and shoot cool photos. Game on! It’s a tough climb but there was no chance in hell that I could miss this avalanche of light.
Montejunto art gallery
I am now under the Impression of playing Monet with Montejunto. The sun working as paint, the clouds and the mountains as canvas, and I just have to run and shoot with my eyes closed. We made a great team. There are some words written on the asphalt, my guess is that they were for some sports event. They prophetically say - “I see you” - I see you indeed Montejunto, and I am marveled.
Someone left me a message last night
We have barely started, at km 2.5, and already have a slush of photos to share. I will feel bad to leave any behind. We are met by a thaw of trees welcoming our entrance into the mountain. I love trees, but today they feel like a frostbite interfering in the game, and interrupting my shooting flow. I skate through faster.
An uphill rink of joy
The sun takes the advantage, and I can see the complete star glowing through an opening in the grove. I am not frosted, it’s my time to play. We have climbed high enough that we have long-distance visibility of the Lezíria do Tejo. This is an extremely fertile flat region by the river Tejo, who knows, a target for a future run. From up here we can observe spectacular formations of fog, almost like a gentle frost of sugar covering all the good things to be harvested down there.
The sun has the advantage
Although it is very hard to capture with my regular lens, the fog also makes it look as if the small mountains down below are floating on ice floes. It is really beautiful - and I have a good stretched imagination from thin air. The sun is running out of canvas, as some blue sky escapes into the frame, it’s time for me to accelerate, I am not going to lose this game.
Mountains swimming on ice floe.
Like pulling on a tough rubber band, I keep climbing and I manage to push the sun back behind some trees, it’s not easy. It’s a long straight, of the punishing type, those that seem to climb to infinity. I need to get to the end of it, to be able to use the mountain to my advantage. The game is far from over.
Getting back in the game with a balding grove shield.
Time for a long play
It’s a game of strength, I am fighting a star and a mountain. They move slow at their scale and my reference, I move fast at my scale and my reference. I also made the rules. It’s incredible how fast the sun is capable of rising and setting. I am very aware of that and that’s what makes it even more thrilling. At a given point I thought I would be defeated with no mercy by the speed of light, but the terrain came to my rescue with an unfair advantage. I score, taking one more Impression on my phone’s camera. My eyes are bringing back a million, the game is won already.
The sun fights back and grows on me as I try to push it behind that hill.
We are around km 3.7 and keep following the close to perfect linear ascent grade. My game pal flexes its muscles once more as I give it another push behind the mountain. The glow is phenomenal. We are climbing to the Ice Factory but the Sun looks as if it is going to burn the whole sky on a meltdown - it has spotted my plan.
Facing the giant head-on
The road takes a left (north) turn as we ascend, and, to be fair, our polar running coordinates were more north-east than east. The playing field was not fully leveled - pun intended, a message from my burning-frozen legs. With the climbing, we moved up a notch from chilly to nippy. TIL: legs can feel frozen and burning at the same time.
Who is in charge now?
That left turn, crushed below my feet. The sun is feeling my annealing power as it gets slowly cooled behind the mountain. We are playing the final cards in the game. The sun is trying to pull itself up, as if to prevent itself from drowning behind the mountain. My lungs are burning and feeding the furnace in my legs and at the same time trying to thaw air that feels like hail.
One more push
One last moment in the tug of war. My friendly adversary stretches its neck above the hill. I use the asphalt and the splendor of the green mountain as an arctic-cold final blow to drown the sun behind the terrain. I can smell victory, but only in short bursts of panting, because this game is crushing me - and there is still so much to climb ahead.
Trying not to sink
I won! My final Impression shows the ending glow of goodbye, as the giant star is about to be eclipsed behind Montejunto, by a small insignificant-to-scale runner. What a game! The trees are quite peculiar. We are only at the 4th km, with 5 more climbing ones remaining.
I won in every way
It was a fun game, now we enter the second stage of the run. We shall be going along an amazing winding road with the landscape changing from trees, rocks and grass. Montejunto has a similar exposure to ocean winds as Sintra but it is much further inside the country. Nevertheless, it is surprisingly very green at high altitudes, unlike other mountains further to the north. It resembles Sintra in many ways and that fully resonates with my soul.
Our first glimpse of the north view.
Most of the road is fully exposed to the wind, the trees are rarely dense enough for protection. The views of the towns below and far away are interesting, as in another mountain like this. What impresses me the most are the views of the climbing road and the vegetation. It is spectacular and the cherry on top of the cake is that it reminded me of Mount Diablo State Park in California. A place that was home to me for almost 3 years. The “déjà vu” moment was special and persists. I have a 21k run up Diablo on my bucket list. Six years ago I ran up the last 7km of the Diablo ascent, which is a good 500m climb - highly recommend it.
Montejunto Diablo
It’s just me and the winding road through the mountain. Zero cars, zero people. I have to come back on a road bike to climb this, it is gorgeous. I don’t know how to explain it, but there is something special and different about the vegetation in Montejunto. For some reason, it feels a lot greener than I would expect.
A cozy grove
The Sun is still flirting with me, kindly casting a gentle, heart-warming yellow tint on the clouds. It could mean that it wants a rematch, but it does not stand a chance, I am fully shielded by the mountain.
I can’t get enough of this road even if I am spitting my lungs out to climb it. There is an extraordinary freshness in the air. The very early morning cold of the mountains is unique.
Beautiful road with the sunlight still where I left it
As we come out of the friendly grove we are greeted with a remarkable landscape where the trajectory of the road is clearly seen. It does not look as steep as it feels (or actually is) but believe me that it was no picnic to climb. I had chosen Montejunto as a training session for a great ascent planned for the coming weeks. I knew what was coming, but I was still going through the honeymoon of the route.
Amazing view to the road that we will have to climb far in the distance
Extremely beautiful green areas from the mountain
I keep zooming in on the road and it keeps getting better
I took so many pictures that I could almost put together a stop-motion movie. Zooming through this valley was a joy. I start to notice that the clouds are starting to become denser. There is no way the Sun will have a rematch with this protective shield. I just hope it does not start raining.
Fell in love with this tiny valley (1x lens)
Fell in love with this tiny valley (0.5 lens)
The bonsai-looking trees are an unusual sight for me. I like them a lot and wonder why they are so sparse, not that I would change a single one of them. This is one of those times where I would like to be able to fly above the road at high speed like a bird, or a drone. It’s remarkable that today it is possible to get those shots with a relatively inexpensive drone. It’s becoming harder to find unconventional footage. The only way to have originality is to go there and see it with your own eyes live.
Large bonsai by the roads
Still only at km 6.4 and it’s very hard to see the summit completely engulfed by the clouds. We can’t see it but we sure can infer that it’s still way up there, the last 2 kms will be very steep, cold and moist. Last June, when I was here, it was a beautiful blue sky. I confess that I was hoping to repeat that, but in the end, the fog makes me feel at home just like in Sintra.
The weather looks nasty at the top
Looking to the north we can see the road that we will later use to descend from the mountain. It’s one of those moments where it is possible to observe the true size of 1 km - ouch, we are going to have to run all of that? And to get there is 5 times that, and after that we still have 10 times that? 21 km is a long distance.
Our escape route down the mountain
As we approach the crossroads to the Ice Factory there is a small cruel descent. It robs us of the accumulated climbing just before having to tackle the spine-chilling final ascent. It’s one of those stretches of road that makes you curse if you are on a road bike. I am running so there is no real resting even while descending.
A small cruel descent
We can still find old concrete road signs in Montejunto and I absolutely love them. They are sturdy and have the fonts and lines carved and painted inside - urban art. It’s time for us to decide if we want to head down, go sightseeing the Ice Factory, or grind the teeth up the summit. Since today it’s actually me, not us, of course I don’t even flinch, I drop down one gear and rev it up.
Old fashioned concrete road signs - precious
As we enter our final 2km climb we are distracted by a picnic area. Normally people come here to rest, enjoy nature and have a good meal. We had established before that the climb that brought us here was no picnic. Why would I think that it would change now? I am still alone, picnic season is mostly over (even though the weather keeps surprising us every week). Even if I wanted, I never carry anything to eat, at best I will have a drink on the go (water or Isostar).
Beginning the final ascent
Bring it on Montejunto, I am ready to dive into the clouds. I adore this road for running (not as much for driving or biking on the way down, it looks dangerous if you go off-track). The combination of asphalt texture, the grass, the road lines and the mist is superb. Now that I think about it, I probably was drinking water as I was breathing the clouds.
About to dive into the clouds
Another turn and another marvelous shot of the dashed road going to heaven. Don’t be fooled by the photo perspective, this is one bad ass climb. I am diving into the depths of the clouds, but inverted. The temperature keeps dropping as we get deeper into the cold water vapor. The mountain is still protecting us from the wind, but not for long.
Unreal textures
The last turn before the main straight to the finish line could not be more fantastic. Just as if we were flooring it in a Formula 1. The concrete guardrail painted red and white makes my day. This mountain is a classic and this guardrail a work of art.
Welcome to the Montejunto Grand Prix
One last push to the finish line through the main straight. I know that on my left there should be a vista point with a view to infinity. I can hardly see the chapel at the end of the road, we are deep in the water. Either that or I am about to faint from exertion. We are closing in on the 9th km.
Almost at the top
I sprint-swim through the last meters, passing by the chapel almost in apnea, and finally arrive at the summit to the warmth of the hundreds of antennas. Among other things, I am a Radio Engineer, and of course I like to admire antenna installations and towers. I might be a little biased because these also scar the top of the mountain. For some reason lattice towers don’t shock me as much as the metal monopoles hosting the wind turbines. These towers are also a lot smaller. And I am at the summit! Hurray, my fist went up in the air and sent back my photo to the family. I can’t get closer to a base station than that.
At the top, keeping myself warm with radiation
At the top, there is also a military radar station that I believe can also be used for backup and/or support of planes coming into the country. The clouds prevent us from seeing it today. I know I have been using the word finish line but it is a figure of speech. There was a race to the summit and now I have another one to go back. The good news is that there will be a lot of descending. The worrying side is that we are only the 9th km and today we will be doing close to 24 km. While there will be a lot of descents, there will also be rolling hills at the bottom and I used my legs a lot to get up here.
A vista point to the clouds
There is zero visibility at the vista point, by the chapel. I am looking forward to slide down the road that has just severely punished me on the way up - in a good way. It’s always hard to make the transition from a long hard climb to a full power descent. I take my time to pick up the pace to prevent overstressing the knees (... Pinocchio).
Chapel - Nossa Senhora das Neves
It’s Grand Pix time baby, after flooring through the descending main straight I encounter the first turn in all its glory. Just like on the mountain bike… - Brakes? You mean coward levers? (I always laugh with this). This road is an absolute dream.
Back in the grand-prix
As I was climbing the clouds seem to have been descending. It’s either that or a question of perspective but the visibility seems to have been reduced. That is not a problem for this vehicle with no brake. The road is wide and my top speed is way within spec for this track. It feels colder though, maybe because we are heading in the Ice Factory way?
The clouds have descended
At one point I can peek between the base of the clouds and an opening in the mountain. The view is outstanding (I know I have been hammering on superlatives today) but it really is. Just like earlier on, I can see fog by the ground at the bottom of the mountain and again it seems that other smaller mountains are floating in that fog. It’s like an inverted mirror view of where I am coming from. If you zoom on the photo you can see it. It was superb.
Peeking into heaven way in the distance
As we approach the crossing again I get Sintra vibes, again. The clouds have poured a lot of moisture on the green and I have been teleported back home. The lonely picnic table is waving at me again. Zooming in on the 10th km, I am starting to think more about food. It’s not a problem for me during my runs except when I pass by a nice bakery perfume. That drives me nuts.
Feels a lot like Sintra
After my runs it’s another story. I am what we call in Portuguese, a well with no bottom. No matter what I eat, there is always room for more. It’s common for me to burn over 4500 calories on running days - I earn my food.
Picnic area
Like I said, this road is a classic, and I can’t stop from framing another vintage road sign - call me crazy.
These signs are a work of art
As we are descending to the next vista point, we have the opposite view from earlier on. We can see a large portion of the area that we climbed and descended and proudly realize that we have been far. The summit is somewhere in the depth of the clouds. We are about to go below radar and have some clear views back.
Looking back at what we have already climbed and descended
It is also interesting to see how scales and numbers can be misleading. I am devouring a long descent that hits 12% at some points and it is so long and wide open that on the photo below it almost looks flat. What really matters is what our legs and lungs feel and what our eyes see. While I loved to have the clouds hosting us at the summit I would now prefer to have a blue sky lighting up the landscape.
Easy descent to the vista point
I quickly stop at the vista point to realize that the view has not changed. I like these spots but only if I have the time to try and identify relevant locations far in the distance, a luxury that I cannot afford today. I need to keep moving.
Just like in Diablo
This descent is hard on my depleting legs, I have to conserve power since I suspect there will be a few surprises down the road. I love again to be back in Sintra and still own the road. I am barely halfway and it feels like I have been running all day. I am not tired, just overwhelmed with all the great things that I have seen.
More of Sintra in Montejunto
Finally, I am not a ghost. Two courageous road bikers are ascending through the north side. It is steeper than the west side that we have used. One of them seems to be struggling behind and he still has a great challenge ahead. This photo is strikingly close to Sintra. I will be friends with Montejunto forever.
My first encounter with lucky and courageous road bikers
The vegetation seems to be denser in the north face but I could be mistaken. We slide by some amazing rock formations. I later checked and there seem to be climbing activities in Montejunto. This looks to be a perfect spot and the coordinates seem to match with a website that I looked up.
Wonderful rock formations
It’s a road full of surprises. I found another Grand Prix turn - sweet. We are around the 13th km, it’s now time to leave the main road. I am about to leave the descent phase and enter the rolling hills. I am still 10km away from the end of the route. It’s going to hurt since the total climb will be very high by the end of the run.
Another turn in the Grand Prix
We hopped into a secondary road connecting multiple small villages. We will find a mix of small houses, walled properties and small farms. The road is still mostly mine but many villagers are already awake going about their lives. The road follows the base of the mountain so we continue to have great views. I am tired.
Back in the realm of private properties
In such small villages and properties I get nervous about stray dogs. At a given point as I am about to enter into a village I spot one in the middle of the road. Luckily my route diverged from the city center at the very last minute so I did not have to deal with it. It’s still early in the morning and it’s not fun to have dogs barking behind closed gates. I never know when one of them might get loose.
The bottom of the mountain is just as beautiful as the top
There are still a few tough and long climbs, nothing compared to what we encountered earlier on but given that I am now tired, they become as big of a challenge.
These climbs are no picnic
The sky is a lot clearer on this side of the mountain. Looking back at the top, with beautiful vineyards oin the foreground we can still see plenty of clouds shielding the sun. They have to keep all that ice fresh. The Ice Factory seems to be strategically positioned, at least today.
There are vineyards all over the country
Way at the top is where we are coming from.
I am surprised at the 20th km to see the road ending and entering a wide dirt trail. That’s what you get when you plan the route at the very last minute. I worry that the trail might go through private properties and that it could be closed or that someone could be upset. I become lost in my mind, not on the route. The prospect of having to turn back and find an alternative way gives me the creeps.
Time to jump on the trails
I lost sense of how many kms remain to the finish line, I am in the ballpark but stress about not knowing exactly. The trail is far from flat, I actually climb from the 19th to the 22nd km. That was hard and it shows how much our psychological state counts in our running performance. The landscape continues to be amazing but I am not enjoying it as much as I should because of all the uncertainty.
Spectacular
As I am getting to the top of the 22nd km, knowing that I will be very close to the end, there is a drastic change in the trail. There are a few farm houses, several loud dogs and too many fences in sight. I feared that I might have hit a dead end but fortunately it was a false alarm. I eventually get to the top of the hill and have a great view of the valley where I had started. From here it’s an easy descent following the road.
Heading to the start line
It was a spectacular fun adventure and I have fallen in love with the area.
I was very lucky with the weather and my start time was perfect.
I had high expectations for this Montejunto ascent and it did not disappoint.
It excelled.
Enjoy your runs!
-APF
