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.
QR Code from around 1910
I immediately understood that Lisbon had talked to Sintra, and was not going to go easy on me today. I had rushed the plan on the night before, and as I tried to perfectly fit the route with previous runs, I did not pay attention to the run profile, just like laying an orthogonal grid on the orography of the city of San Francisco.
Rua das Pretas climb
The road is old, and so are the sidewalks, narrow and uneven, like going on a trail in Sintra. The beginning of the castle assault, felt like I was wearing an armor. Starting with such a challenging climb doubles the weight on your legs. It’s a bitter sweet view along the way, the streets boast a certain patina that gets offset by the savage graffitied walls. That’s a pity.
Nova Medical School
At the crest of the hill stands small garden, Campo Mártires da Pátria, interestingly populated with roosters, chicken, ducks and an intimidating goose. I laughed as I steered away from the goose, because I had no wishes for a morning brawl (a good friend across the Atlantic had recently shared a story of a similar encounter that ended with a bite).
Leaving the wild life behind, we climb again to Hospital dos Capuchos, what a coincidence, just like the Capuchos Convent, Sintra did call Lisbon.
I am only at 50% of the first km, always the longest of any run, and my lungs have turned inside out. I get a break cruising down a residential avenue until the next challenge.
Rua do Conde Redondo climb
At the beginning of every run, I regularly have the company of trash-men. “Prehistoric garbage trucks no longer have the city for themselves” (Dire Straits). The trashcans in the middle of the sidewalks push me to the middle of the empty roads. Not too bad, as the wide open area makes the climbs look easier.
I navigate through a number of residential areas, with cars parked bumper-to-bumper on both sides of narrow roads.
Cobblestone climb
As I rushed my route planning I came up with the idea of checking as many miradouros (vista points) as possible along the way. That meant following a carrousel profile - I gladly “had a ticket for the race” (Dire Straits, again).
Arriving at the Miradouro da Penha de França
I had never been here, what a great spot. Did I mention that there were some other 10+% climbs on the way? Sintra come back, you are forgiven :)
The view from the top is magnificent, but we have barely crossed the 4th km, there’s no time for goodby, we will have to come back as tourists. I want my descent reward.
View from Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Penha de França
Another great surprise on the way down from Penha. “Throw him some switchbacks for kicks”, Sintra told Lisbon.
We have the switchbacks on the way up to Pena in Sintra, and we have switchbacks on the way down from Penha, in Lisbon - the story tells itself.
Lisbon switchback
The ride down is short, and the carrousel quickly must come up again. Sintra and Lisbon arranged the game in advance and Lisbon keeps scoring hill climbs.
What goes down must come up
We set course for another vista point at the top of Fonte Luminosa. We’ve run down there before, on stage 8. At a distance, IST, the integral Engineering University in Portugal. We can also spot the tip of the pharaonic building of Caixa Geral de Depósitos, headquarters, for the time being, of the state owned bank. Time is not money, it is precious, we have to move on. This minor detour was at km 6.
View from the top of Fonte Luminosa
Our next milestone is at Areeiro Square, stubbornly surrounded by curved buildings, it was never meant to be a square. The route is through the middle of residential buildings, everyone is still sleeping tight. Driving on these roads betrays my mind, nothing looks to be uphill - not true, Lisbon gives no truce.
Praça do Areeiro - Areeiro “square”
From Areeiro, all the way to the Lisbon Airport, we fly through the avenue Almirante Gago Coutinho (a naval officer that first flew across the south Atlantic on a sea plane - we ran by their plane on stage 3). It’s a long avenue almost 3 km long, wide roads and side-walks. Finally some resting time after the demanding navigation effort of the first kms. We cross stunning railway track.
No commute today
Just shy of km 10, we get off the main avenue and make our way up to Parque da Bela Vista. I am pleasantly surprised by a friendly bike line painted in my favorite running color. We are again at reasonably high spot but the view is mostly blocked by a fence that prevents the framing of a nice picture.
Parque da Bela Vista has become known for being the spot where Rock-In-Rio Lisboa has been held for the past 20 years, every other year. I had only been there a couple of times to watch some concerts.
Entrance to Rock-in-Rio Lisboa
Coincidentally, later in the evening I would watch some news on TV about Rock-In-Rio moving to a new venue (stage 14, this is becoming a tour guide). They presented pictures of the park empty, as I saw it today, contrasting to the place packed with crowds watching Bruce Springsteen play with the Rolling Stones. “It’s all over now”, “Born to run” in the Expo area.
Bela Vista is a natural amphitheater - the stage was planted down below
The park is wonderful for running and hiking, hard to believe, again, that we are in the middle of Lisbon.
Bela Vista stands for Nice View - Indeed!
On the way out of the park there is an interesting pedestrian bridge connecting the two hills sparing us from a steeper climb. The area is known for people living in challenging social-economic conditions. I am happy to see that they have such good parks around them to brighten their lives. It’s hard to believe that the trails where we are running are right by large avenues and main roads in Lisbon. Nicely done.
After a few more up and down spins of the carrousel, at km14, it’s time to switch to neutral, as I like, on a long descent, 2 km, all the way to the river margin.
A text-book bridge from IST
We have run by the river before, so we take a different inner road that will finally point us to the castle assault. I’ve already had my overdose of eating pastry through my nostrils along the way here. The Ferroviário restaurant building puts a few more grains of salt on my injury, I had great meal last time I was here (on the night before stage 3)
Ferroviário restaurant
My next target is Panteão Nacional, and to get there is quite a climb. We are close to km 17, every climb is now double the effort. We are getting near to the castle, the oldest part of Lisbon, a jigsaw of narrow streets and steep climbs to deter the enemy.
I am not the enemy and they certainly are not going to stop me today. I want that cherry.
Arriving at Panteão Nacional - The Flea market , Feira da Ladra is about to start
I was surprised to see the place packed with people setting up that selling tents at the Feira da Ladra flea market. Ladra stands for robber, and apparently indeed the place started as a spot where stolen goods were sold in the 13th century! I think that lasted for a long time, because if you are old enough to remember when car stereos got stollen, this was a spot where you might have been able to recover them.
Panteão Nacional - The view from the top is fabulous
We now enter the core of Lisbon old town, in the Alfama neighborhood. The city constricts the streets as we approach it’s heart. In the beginning of June, Lisbon holds a number of festivities called Santos Populares and we already find signs that the party is around the corner. We are now back on GPS navigation, and since the streets are narrow it struggles with accuracy.
The city is getting ready for the parties
We shall be climbing and descending stairs, and at this point in the route I really prefer to climb the stairs. The steps are uneven and going down becomes harder than going up. Since we are climbing, the views are behind us, make sure to turn around and smell the roses from time to time.
The river at a distance behind us
I knew that it was way too early in the morning to enter the castle, but deep down I was hopeful that a struck of luck would let me go inside. Not a chance, the gate was closed and well guarded. I made it to the top but they would not let me in.
This warrior was too tired to climb the wall and not prepared to spend the morning at police station, so the siege would be left to another date.
The castle behind bars
Time to hunt for the next Miradouro, this one is easier because we are already at the top, so we actually will mostly go down to reach it. Running by the castle is tricky because the pavement is made of old cobblestone, for all the reasons in the world today would not be the day that I would break my HM record.
I balance myself down to, you guessed it, the climb to miradouro de Santa Luzia and then further up to Miradouro das Portas do Sol (Vista Point to the Doors from the Sun).
Access and view from Portas do Sol
I am in Lisbon, but most people on the street around here are US tourists (still early).
The views are mesmerizing, both to the river and the multiple stairs and narrow streets going up and down the hill. Old Lisbon is a charm.
Follow the tram
It’s time to head to the last vista point of the day, that I just found out, is almost at the same height as the castle. Neutral no longer works, up to 14% grade, requires first gear and full throttle. I did stop for a quick panoramic photo.
View from miradouro da Graça
To get up here, people usually hop on “Jeff’s” funicular. I would have preferred to follow the funicular route but it’s not possible nor recommended.
I am not allowed to run on this track
To compensate me, Sintra put a good word on my behalf and ordered Lisbon, some switchback stairs on my way down. They are fun but very hard and dangerous to race down. I wish I could come back here on my mountain bike, that would be a treat.
These stairs are tricky to descend
The remaining of the route is no easy task. In order not to repeat previous routes, I followed my San Francisco type “grid” and found myself climbing on Folsom (what a stretch).
The finish line is on the beautiful sidewalk of Avenida da Liberdade
Avenida da Liberdade
The carrousel ride is over. I certainly will be back for a few more rides, it was mesmerizing.
Enjoy you runs!
-APF
