52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 11
Easter visit to the lungs of Lisbon
Sunday March 31st, 7:17 am (really 6:17 am)
The sun is my running alarm clock. I always want to make the most of my day by starting at the first signs of light. I was fondly getting used to the 6 am sunrises and frowned upon the spring forward day. My drive to the starting point was around 25 minutes, so this meant waking up at the new 6:30 am, old 5:30 am. It hurt. After a week of some flooding in the Lisbon area (the new normal), Apple weather forecast promised me a rainless morning. I was very much looking forward to a dry run, after the mid-week showers - Siri lied.
I parked in Algés, right at the Lisbon border, close to the river.
There are plenty of milestones to check in the area. I was hoping for another dramatic sunrise to serve my pictures some good lighting. It’s roughly 1.5 km to the first checkpoint ( ~1 mile). I had never been in this quiet neighborhood of interesting houses. I chase a few seagulls that are wondering in the middle of the street and suffered no retaliation from several others guarding on top of the lamp posts. I quickly got punished with severe wet feet inside one of the many puddles.
Our first sight-sore-seeing spot is the monolithic building of Centro Cultural de Belém. A controversial building planted by one of the most iconic landmarks of Lisbon, Mosteiro dos Jerónimos. It’s one of those hard to swallow decisions that slowly bought the approval of the locals by exhaustion. The building hosts numerous cultural events, art exhibitions, concerts, and conferences. I shouldn’t judge this book by its cover but… they just needed to move it 250 m West.
With the monolith behind, we dive into the beautiful gardens in front of Jerónimos. I am not getting the light that Siri promised, and am bummed. The route is flat, wide and desert, as usual I own the place. There are several gardens in sequence that get very busy on sunny days.
We are dangerously close to the famous Pastel de Belém mother home. This pastry is absurdly good. I bookmark it. On my way back I will have earned the rights to eat some as a reward (fyi I am salivating as I write this). We run past the official residence of the Portuguese President, zoom by another garden, and get to one of the most visited museums in Portugal - Museu dos Coches.
We are not even at the 3rd km and already have passed by a lot more landmarks than I can write about. One could easily write one or more books with the historical richness of the buildings within a couple of blocks. I follow the deserted tram track along an old neighborhood with no soul in sight. I don’t like the looks of some of the clouds that are creeping in but I keep my faith in Easter Siri.
My stage 3 went on a parallel road, right by the river side. Further down the road we move closer to my beloved train track to observe the wonders of an historical building - Cordoaria Nacional. This was built to be a factory for ropes, cables, sails and other equipments for sailing ships. It is a long flat building that today is used mostly for art exhibitions. Not too fancy on the outside, except for its length.
The building is 400 meters long, a track lap - Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa can do it in 43.03 seconds. At the other building end, I merged back to the inner street back on the tram track.
Siri pulled a Judas on me. It is now pouring rain and my brain and spirit were not prepared for the betrayal. It’s Easter Sunday, I have faith on the Sun resurrecting later on. It does not take long for my camera phone to start rebelling against me. I am soaked and so are my pockets. I planned a loop to visit and interesting spot under the bridge, Lx Factory
This spot is packed with restaurants, bars, shops and art. It becomes flooded with tourists and locals providing an interesting atmosphere.
The buildings keep their harsh abandoned look but have renewed souls. I was not expecting the place to be open for my run. It was a pleasant surprise. Come back here on a sunny day and it will be all but quiet. I’ve had 6km to take in my sightseeing dose of anesthesia. I should now be numb enough to withstand the climbing pain that will get me to the next photo spots.
The next 7 km will be going up exploring the sleeping blocks. I have been running on the sidewalk and sometimes in the middle of the road (by choice), there is no traffic at all.
On the way up, we pass by the fancy Pestana Palace Hotel. If you can afford it, you should stay there for a couple of days.
Our next goal is Palácio da Ajuda. To get there, we need to keep climbing and climbing. There are several 10+% grades candies along the way. I am still not over the weather forecast miss. I was still soaked from Tuesday run. The palace is at km 8.8. After some suffering I am greeted by all it’s beauty.
It’s hard to capture in a single shot on the run. The history behind this palace is fascinating and an early lesson in poor budget management mixed with the illusion of grandeur. The plan was for the building to be roughly twice its size, but they ran out of money and steam and the initial plan never got finished. After many years, in 2020, they finished the west side of the building, just as poorly as they did the Centro Cultural de Belém. But the east wing forgives everything else.
There is a fascinating Library in the Palace that is worthwhile visiting. It’s one of the oldest in Portugal and it’s gorgeous. The building is undergoing maintenance and boycotted my pictures.
We are ascending to Monsanto, a large green area that is described as being the lungs of Lisbon. There are several ski slopes but now lifts, so I am following a more tender path. We can look left every now and then to admire the river far below.
I had planned to cross the garden Jardim Botânico da Ajuda, but it was closed. I had to go around. I zigzagged my way up to the outskirts of Monsanto. It’s mostly residential areas. There was another green area, Parque dos Moinhos de Santana, that I had planned to cross but was also closed - the drawback of going out too early.
Arriving at the border entrance of Monsanto there are several high rise buildings that should not be here, in my opinion, but alas, they are now part of the landscape and their owners can enjoy a spectacular river view. The sun has finally resurrected and I get some warmth back on my hands. It was 7 C degrees cold for a Spring day (44.6 F) exacerbated by the Judas showers.
Monsanto is a large green area at the western entrance of Lisbon. There are numerous trails for running and biking. I don’t usually run on these trails so I will follow the main road around the southern area of the park.
I was surprised to run all by myself, for the whole time that I was in Monsanto. The probable reason was it being Easter Sunday and having had the clocks move forward. The flooding rain from the previous week prepared me a brown carpet of mud and puddles that were very hard to dodge. I was weary of injuring myself because my calf is still not well. I wore a compression sock that really helped keep things in place.
Going through Monsanto on this route is around 6 km where the last 3 km are a glorious descent, except for the trail “traps”. At a given time I got tired of tip toeing in the mud trail and jumped on the road. There were no cars on the road, I wanted devour the descent.
The sun and clouds are painting a beautiful portrait before my eyes and after 7 km of going up-stairs I am entitled the rest going down. I accidentally discovered the Lisbon version of the Treasure Island photo of the Bay Bridge.
The road going down is dangerously narrow with barely enough space to hide from the cars coming up. Definitely not to do it during busy hours and be extra careful at any time of the day.
We are done with most of the sightseeing activities. From here on it’s mostly residential buildings. The route, while going down on average, is far from being easy as we meet a succession of hills that cut our hopes of resting.
There is always an interesting building lurking by. I ran by the Portuguese Olympic Committee (no chance of me being drafted for Paris though).
We head to a fine residential area, bairro do Restelo, houses for people with deep pockets. It’s also home of a historical sports team - Belenenses. I ran by their stadium which lives in a really privoleged spot.
I aimed at going down the perfect avenue, rightfully named, Avenida da Torre de Belém, precisely aligned with, you guessed it, the Tower of Belém monument.
The final km is now relatively easy, after the accumulated 335 m of climbing (1050 ft).
I have around two extra kg of water in my clothes and shoes, but I can’t feel that weight at all.
My spirits are as high as they can get, once again.
Enjoy your runs!
-APF
