52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 23
52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 23
Cascais suburbs - off trail
Saturday, June 22, 6:03 AM
Today we will be exploring the Cascais suburbs. As I drove by the Estoril Race track, I could see an extraordinary orange full moon to the west. One of those sightings where the moon seems to have grown out of proportion.
There are no cameras for that, we have to use our eyes. Perks for early birds.
We are starting close by Cascais Shopping, spoiled by tailwind with an Olympic racetrack beneath our feet, going downhill, south-east, towards the sunrise that is patiently tinting the sky.
It is perfect, I have to try hard not to get carried away with my pace. The bike lane follows a normally busy road, a prime housing complex and the A5 tollway, empty as it never is. Running at 6 AM takes place in a parallel universe. I love to have found this wormhole and plan on keeping using it forever.
The track heads down to the beach but today we will not be catching any ocean waves. Just our normal terrain ones.
Just before getting to the shoreline, we head west to the Casino boulevards. The first 4 kms have been a steal. The terrain from now on will be quite hilly but always enjoyable. The bike lane ends quickly but there are plenty of nice sidewalks to keep us safe.
We cut through the Casino gardens. I have no idea at what time the gamblers go home but the area is just as desert as the roads coming here. The place looks harmless during daylight. The danger during the night comes from the gambling addiction.
I confess my addiction to the endorphins from running. It’s not uncommon to go out for an early morning run and crave for another one at the end of the day. It is a great feeling. If you use the wormhole enough times, I bet you can easily get sucked into this dependency too.
There’s some steep climbing ahead of us, including some leg-burning stairs to get us over the top of Parque de Palmela - a nice stretch of green flowing down the valley all the way to the ocean.
I have my eye on a bike park along our route. Apart from the steps, the run is unusually easy compared to our latest stages. I have been at this park before, a nice spot for a meal, and definitely some entertaining bike jumps and banked turns. The ground is too slippery, causing me to get delayed going through the park, trying not to nosedive. The south gate is closed! Now I have to go back up, through the slippery banking turns, all the way to the top, and find an alternative way out. I had an epic MTB ride in Sintra planned for the day after, was not expecting to start it on foot here.
Time to head down to downtown Cascais, a nice easy descent through some really nice quiet areas. There’s already a lot of movement at the local market, getting things ready for the day. Cascais is a really beautiful village. It still manages to maintain a lot of character through the avalanche of tourists. We’re still rolling downhill, enjoying the fresh air and the empty streets.
The President of Portugal lives in this area, I don’t know exactly where, but it’s no secret, and there are no secret agents in sight either. He is too relaxed, and so is Portugal. There’s also no danger of me waking him up with my running because the word is that he rarely sleeps. We are almost at the halfway point and all has been very smooth so far, too easy.
Next on our tour comes the interesting art center Casa das Histórias (house of stories) where one can visit and critique the renowned paintings of Paula Rego - she sure had her own unique style.
Summer is the season of festivals, and the local park is being prepared for music concerts. There are always a lot of activities going on in Cascais - they have to keep the tourists entertained. The second half of the run, starting from here, is going to be an uphill festival. There are plenty of trees and green areas along the sidewalks making our run extremely pleasant. At this time in the morning, all is ours.
The weather is perfect, a little windy but I just unfurl my sails and enjoy the fresh air. Around the 12th km we take a slight detour off the main road to visit a colorful skatepark. I wish I knew how to skate to come back here and do some jumps. Unfortunately, just like at the bike park, I will be running on the ramps using my Tony Hawk imagination.
In the area, there are also football stadiums and schools that host wonderful youth tournaments. I love the idea of young kids and people doing sports. They inspire me to keep going and never grow old. Today’s run has been so easy that I should get suspicious.
I am looking forward to get to a trail area away from town. The view around town is quite nice but Sintra is where my heart lives, and I planned on running by an urban park that I have not visited before. I am eager to get there and that’s where today’s story would unfold.
The road to the Urban Park (which in reality is not urban at all), goes through a number expensive housing areas and through a road that will be quite busy in a few hours. It’s still quite safe to run through a never-ending climb all the way to the entrance of the park at the 18th km.
I suspected that the place would be nice, but it was even better than I expected. I have been admiring this valley from the freeway for many years, it is very beautiful. I don’t know why I had not come here before. Today, I have no time for picnics, but will definitely be back.
The way down to the valley is beautiful, a nice reward after such a long climb. It is however, a long dive to the creek down below, and the other side of the valley is looking pretty steep. On the back of my mind, I have an unusual foretelling warning message from Komoot route planning tool: “Includes a segment that may be dangerous”
Almost down at the bottom I make a left into a single track trail and am faced with my number one running fear. One unleashed dog guards the trail, frantically barking at me - red alert. I immediately understand that the trail is going into private property, and there is a lady than uneasily points me to the correct direction out of her property.
I lower the alert level one notch to orange, as there is hope that I can go around and rejoin Komoot’s trail. Success, we are back to the original route which is quite nice. I immediately start planning a mountain bike ride through the area.
My enthusiasm does not go far as I bump into a fence cutting me off. Back to red alert.
Going out of this valley back to my finishing target would probably add 6 km to my run. Not the kind of surprise that I wanted to deal with today. I hunt for another trail going up, and find one that sure looks promising since it keeps following the fence steadily up hill… until another fence blocks my way.
I have now detoured more than I had wished for and lack the will to go back and exit the valley where I had entered. My other option is to go off the trail, climbing a dangerously steep hill with no guarantee that I would be free at the top.
Of course I took it !
The climb is very sharp, Strava logging something like 30% at some points. There were a lot of loose rocks, packed with nettle leafs and other rash-inducing plants -fun. Worst, there were a lot of very dangerous pointy charred bushes. I was extremely cautious, until I wasn’t. Just as I was about to get to the top, looking for my way out, I got bitten by one of these inanimate black mambas. I loudly cursed at the wind.
It looked nasty, I had some water left and used it to clean it up. It was not that bad, the black char was painting a scene. I got myself a tattoo.
I soothed my pain with the magnificent view to the Sintra mountain range. I could see some houses within reach and not fences blocking my access back to the road. I was still on read alert though, dogs were barking in the area!
If things had gone worse, I would not have been too far from getting help. The route goes by Hospital de Cascais less than 1 km after getting to the top of the hill of pain. The building is 14 years old, the age of my younger daughter that was born there 3 months after it started operating. Dear to my heart.
I am now in damage control mode. My leg is burning from the sweat running into the wound, and in reality I did not pay close attention to how deep the cut was. Stopping is not an option, but I do want to finish.
On the way, I run by another special care hospital/institution that helps people recovering from terrible injuries. It is important to have them in the back of my mind when going through challenging mountain bike trails.
I finally get back to the tartan track that wil take me to the winning lap back at the stadium. I really like these bike lanes and hope that they keep spreading all over.
This time it was not a triumphal easy finish, but it sure will leave a mark as strong as the best runs so far.
Enjoy your runs!
-APF
