52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 22
City of football
Saturday, June 15, 6:06 AM
Euro 2024 has started. We will be eating and breathing football for the month to come. I feel an urge to paint my map in as many colors as the jerseys worn by spectators at the stadiums. The map is starting to look like a packed arena, I am “running” out of space and it’s not even halftime yet.
Today, we start in the town of Caxias, purposely chosen for the stadium - Estádio Nacional - that we have visited two stages ago. Given the recent successes of the Portuguese football team it is only natural that money is funneled to keep the machine moving. So, they built here a sports complex named “City of Football” where the Portuguese team gathers for training before main events.
Kick-off is by the local Barcarena creek, coming down the valley that we shall be following upwards, during the first half of today’s match.
There is a nice garden in the area that was going to host the summer music event Out Jazz on the day after. It would have made a nice running scenery. We are right by the ocean, elevation can only go up from here. My first goal was a hill climb right after the 1st km to get a nice view of the sunrise by the river.
I knew it would be steep, but not like scoring an early goal in the game. What a slaughter. It’s 500m at an average 12% grade with Strava showing some stretches at 23%. The pitch is tilted - in my favor.
Cell towers are telltale sign that we have reached a local maximum, but today, there were also prison cells, as a well known prison resides at the top of this hill. It felt wise not to take any pictures so that they wouldn’t feel compelled to invite me in. I was climbing for the sunrise, but the hill top was not as favorable as I had hoped for capturing a master piece. The 3x camera on my iPhone is injured, I really could use it to score better photos sometimes.
Apart from the amazing view, one feels offside on this area of the field. Why did they pick such a noble spot for a sad purpose is unknown to me. Looking at the positive side, this is a great asset for the Portuguese government, as this land will eventually be transferred at a premium to a foreign league. I was expecting to catch a nice view of The City of Football as we descend, but I had no such luck. Between the low light and the hidden features I failed, sorry. Just like in football, you can’t always score
It’s now time to go back down to the valley through an interesting quiet neighborhood with a garden that conveniently has palm trees lined up like two football teams about to face each other.
I soon find out that even though I am on a strong team, today’s game is not going to be easy. The road follows the creek slightly from above the valley, it’s not too steep, but unfortunately its dangerous. Again, like the ones from previous stages, on the suburbs, roads are not made for pedestrians. I scored early but it’s going to be a stressful first half.
The valley is quite nice and I imagine a walkway following the creek - that would make a perfect run spot. The reality is another inviting road bike course that I have been discovering by chance. My early game protects me once again, there are no cars on the road except for a bread delivery van that crawls beside me to cheer my run.
The road is narrow but very nice, offering plenty of interesting views to the creek and the valley. My football game turns into a racing game, as I constantly have to pick the best trajectory that will be the safest at any given point. Do not run on this road! Curiously, villages are safe harbors - Barcarena is coming up at the 6th km.
Barcarena is also home to Fábrica da Pólvora - Gunpowder factory - nowadays, a park and cultural spot, coming up at the 7th km. It would also make for an interesting run inside the place, but again, people wake up late in the suburbs, it’s still closed. We are not very lucky with the highlights of the match today.
We could have easily trespassed, but we don’t want to risk a yellow card that might leave us out of a later game. Let’s just enjoy the yellow buildings that surround the road. They guard the way to our progressive climb, now with a relaxing sidewalk.
We leave the urban area onto what, for a moment, resembles a Serra de Sintra road, and that makes me feel at home. I was not expecting this bonus. This game is far from boring. The other team is putting a stronger fight than I expected. The climbs counter attack when I least expect, but I have been training well my defense.
When I though I had the game under control, out of the blue, a true wall shows up in front of me (on the Strava profile it is clearly identifiable as having an infinite grade).
I burst out laughing, slightly crazy, faced with an infinite straight climb in front of me. I don’t enjoy long, straight stretches. I had second thoughts about this one, since it was a climb, and I like climbs. It’s like I was scoring a beautiful own goal. Game on.
According to the records, it’s about 300 meters at a 13.3% grade.
It was indeed an own goal, I ran out of breath writing about it and looking at the pictures again. The end of the first half is getting harder. We approach a residential area of dense buildings that crush us down with really steep asphalt beneath our feet. It’s the concrete Himalayas.
It’s one of those moments when your expectations of distance are wrong, and it makes it harder to cope with difficulties. We are now by one of the busiest freeways that goes from Sintra to Lisbon, the reason why these residential buildings exist here. We have been predominantly running north. At 11.4 km, first half plus stoppage time, we switch fields and start the 2nd half down. The pitch should now be truthfully tilted in our behalf, we are rolling the ball down to the ocean.
We will be following a road that serves mostly an industrial area, and a technological park that was built around 30 years ago.
The area is known as Tagus Park and has been a project in constant development to attract important innovation to the area. It is not as vibrant as I would like it to feel, but has indeed sprouted very successful businesses. Like many business parks of this kind it has both a modern look and a deserted appearance. I think that is what one gets when we tend to segregate residential, commercial, etc. It does not feel alive.
It’s like watching a football match of Real Madrid against Benfica with no assistance. The scored goals are deaf in an empty stadium. Benfica would still win.
I recognize several successful brands, as if they were advertisement panels on the side of the pitch for today’s game. One stands out, my alma mater once again, has another campus in this area. They ran out of space in the middle of Lisbon. I take it as supporter rooting for us.
The tech park is ghost town on a weekend so early in the morning, I cross several parking lots and don’t even see security guard anywhere. It’s like I am using Guardiola’s tiki-taka game and the other team has no chance.
Tagus park sits on a high area and has always been known for being extremely windy. Today is no exception. Distances are larger than my local driving memories, fooling me again on my estimates to go from A to B. It’s once thing to listen and read the coach’s tactics, it’s another story to implement them on the field.
Contrary to my expectations, the profile of the way down to the ocean is not smooth; it better resembles a bunch of sharp shark teeth biting my legs every two kms. That all added up to an unexpected accumulated climb of 426m , almost 1400 ft.
I fight my way down with the shark, to another well known business park, Quinta da Fonte. The county of Oeiras, one of the wealthiest in the country, has done a good job in proving infrastructures to capture a number of important multinational companies doing business in Portugal. This one feels cozier than Tagus Park, but still detached.
We are at km 19.5, and the game is going into overtime. I knew that in advance, the half marathon would in reality be closer to 23km
We need to overcome one last shark tooth, another 500m long climb at a respectable ~7% grade. The team is tired but focused on winning this match. The cup will be ours at the top of this hill. We run by the headquarters of a major news group - Impresa.
We have scored a winning goal on top of the hill. The match is ours, from now on it will be a refreshing descent until the final whistle. At a distance we can see the City of Football once again and rejoice in our accomplishment.
We came in with low expectations, but it ended up being one hell of game!
Enjoy your runs!
-APF
