I was told this race starts on a multi-lane highway, far outside the city centre, on the other side of the river. As descriptions go, it didn’t sound all that promising. And yet, the first miles of the Lisbon Half Marathon must rank as some of the most spectacular in road racing.
The start line is the Almada side of the 25 de Abril Bridge, just as its span moves from earth to sky. Indeed, the red-painted bridge seems to float over absolutely nothing, and lead nowhere. It’s all a little too ‘unsubtle metaphor for a bad race’. Lisbon is somewhere over the other side and there is a river somewhere underneath, but both are hidden by low, misty clouds. Fleeting glimpses do start to emerge as the morning sun burns them away, but are quickly snatched from view.
The bridge is the symbol of the race and its shape will be familiar to anyone who has visited San Francisco. It’s the same colour as the Golden Gate Bridge, and was built by the same company that constructed San Francisco’s Bay Bridge. Normally, it’s closed to pedestrians, so being able to run across it is one of those wonderful treats that only road racing brings.
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I start chatting to a Polish runner, who explains he’s aiming to complete all of the European SuperHalf races. Lisbon, of course, is one – the others being Prague, Copenhagen, Cardiff and Valencia. Hearing my English, he asks me if I’ve seen the Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service; it turns out some scenes – one featuring an Aston Martin, naturally – were filmed on the bridge.
The bridge’s name – 25 de Abril – comes from the date in 1974 when the Carnation Revolution ended 40 years of authoritarian rule. Why don’t we adopt the Spanish and Portuguese custom of naming places after important dates, I wonder? The petition to rename Trafalgar Square ‘The Plaza of 1805’ starts here. And so, busy as I am taking arty pictures of the single rays of sun that are starting to pierce the mist around the vast Cristo Rei statue, I am taken completely by surprise by the start and do a comic startled jump.
We’re off, over the bridge, streaming in that curiously noisy silence that the first minutes of a race always bring – no crowds, no shouts, just the rhythm of 35,000 thousand pairs of feet finding their pace.
From our starting position, the bridge has no uphill – just the most perfectly runnable downhill stretch, then it’s round the descending motorway loop, on to an out-and-back along the pancake-flat side of the Tagus river. We don’t just run into the city; we have it gradually revealed to us from behind theatrical sheets of cloud.
Though the rest of the course is less spectacular than the start – how could it not be? – we do pass some of Lisbon’s landmarks, including the 16th-century Belém Tower and the Padrão dos Descobrimentos monument to Portuguese exploration. The sun starts to beat down and, unused to it owing to another grey, damp English winter, I start to feel I’m working too hard.
Determined to enjoy the race, I ease up and try to take it all in. It’s one of those slightly cruel courses that takes you teasingly close to the finish, then away again, but it does mean I get to see the front of the elite field racing to the line, while I still have a good 35 minutes left to run. Finally approaching the finish – by which point those elites have probably cooled down, showered and had a meal – I realise it, too, is spectacular, just near the gothic Jerónimos Monastery. Thousands of runners enjoy post-race treats and chill in the sun. I, however, have promised myself the best pastel de nata in town, and because googling reveals this is a hotly contested title, I’m determined to selflessly assist with research and try out a few different candidates.
Despite race entry coming with free metro transport, for some inexplicable reason I decide to walk back up to my hotel. The race may be flat, but the city most certainly isn’t, and by the time I get back up some very steep hills, I’ve certainly earned another pastel de nata (I am nothing if not dedicated). And I’ve also decided I most definitely want to come back and have a crack at a PB on this course, because it really is worth repeating.
Sign up to the 2024 Lisbon Half Marathon here.
