52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 21
52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 21
Back to the University
Saturday, June 8, 6:07 AM
The end of the week was again marked by another batch of Sahara sands. Might this mean that we will have a specially rich crop season? Providentially, there was some rain coming down on Friday evening which persuaded me to risk a Saturday morning outing. I plotted my course to infill my overall map, and chance drew it to be centered around my alma mater. It was an unusually gray day for June in Lisbon, a fado mood that I am not fond of. A stark contrast of the days to come since the following week will be of party around town - Santos Populares.
The low light and graphite sky is a hard combination to shoot on the run. Lisbon is definitely a city that needs the sun to shine. “If life gives you lemons, you make lemonade” - I will show many of today’s photos in black and white.
The run started by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, a wonderful garden and art center, that I was looking forward to shoot at the end of the run, as today’s prize.
The first stretch is along Avenida de Berna, an important artery in Lisbon, flat and with a good sidewalk for running. It crossed several other main roads that have a lot more traffic than I expected.
Today was one of those days where one starts slowly at an easy pace and suddenly realized that I was actually going too fast. I surely have been improving my shape considerably and that is a great feeling that I want to hold on to. Knowing when to to slow down and rest has been my running best lesson so far, and I seriously recommend everyone to study theirs too.
At the end of the 1st km, we have the Pharaonic-Roman-Empire style headquarters building of a state owned-bank. It’s the largest building in Portugal.
Not all is silly in this building. It packs a lot of culture with art exhibits, theater, dance and music. Only the architecture is out of touch with its time. This is an interesting area of Lisbon. Right by the mothership, there’s an interesting single family home neighborhood, and modernist buildings with simple and beautiful timeless architecture.
This is very familiar gound to me as my university is just 500 meters away from here. I am so eager to get to campus that the two climbs that we have faced so far felt downhill. It’s not even 6:20 AM, I am anxious that it could be closed.
It’s not! What a feeling to get into the campus main entrance, totally vacant, with the two NeXTcube buildings standing out. Fun fact, the two modern buildings, were a project from the nephew of the original architect of the main campus buildings - Pardal Monteiro. Hats off to both! I just came up with the NEXT Cube reference as I “developed” the photos - with all the computer science knowledge that has been taught and created at this university, it is more than appropriate.
I am so happy to be here that the climb was flat. My course was a challenge in many ways but I am lucky to have a selective memory that squeezes sweet juice from the hardship, and that’s what stuck. I would love to come back and go over calculus, algebra, Maxwell’s equations and all combined. The best teachers are the ones who can make you fall in love over an equation. I’ve had a few. But I had a special one and feel like the most fortunate person in the world. My best teacher was my Father, a University Professor, who made me fall in love with Engineering and Life. I miss him every single day of my life.
I ran through the campus with no person in sight. The buildings seemed to be closed, but the main entries were kept open. I had a second pass planned later it the run, I was hoping to have some blue skies by then.
Just like advanced calculus, my navigation today was not easy. I was so in the clouds with memories that I made the wrong turn and took the route that was meant for coming back later in the run.
Through the next 5km we shall be going deep inside residential areas, not the prettiest in Lisbon, not the cleanest, and not the most colorful ones, at least today.
There’s something about Lisbon, even with the graphite look, we can feel that there is a special soul in the city, that is probably what inspires the melancholic fado music.
I remember early in school, reading a text in a Portuguese class and being ask by the teacher for the meaning of the word melancholic. I answered - cheerful - to be roasted by the teacher (rightfully) - but I think I was somehow right.
The route takes us down almost all the way to the river. It’s a steep descent, and -my- route ends with a sharp hairpin to a 17% grade climb. Oh yeah, it’s black and white today.
We are only at the 6km. They were easy but felt like the whole 21k in memory lane. Lisbon is all “prep” for celebration. The school year is coming to an end, university exam season is coming up, summer is around the corner. A big party is about to take society over until the end of August. That’s how it feels.
For the following weeks, in many squares around town, people will be packed like sardines, eating… sardines.
We have a miradouro in sight today and that means we have steep function ahead that needs to be solved. It’s at km 7.3, the climb to Miradouro da Senhora do Monte, also close to 17% - it was hard!
We are as high as the Castle, I still have that rock in my shoe. I need to go back and enter the Castle during one of our runs. That will be a true conquer. Now that I think about it, we will plan one run that finishes at the top of the Castle. Bring the flag!
I had stairs planned for today, climbing stairs. Too bad I made that error inverting a matrix as I was going out of IST. Instead of climbing we will have to ski down the steps, carefully.
By now you should know my saying… “what goes down, has to come up!”. One of my favorites. On the way we cross three nice “corner” buildings with beautiful tiles - nice!
We are heading back to newer Lisbon, running by finer avenues, interesting on how different the west and east side of this valley look. The building architecture changes, but it’s still the same at heart. We are around halfway point but, but in my head two half marathons have gone by. Strange feeling. Not because I am tired, on the contrary, but because I have had too many memories to digest.
It will be less hilly from now on, but Lisbon is never flat. I am high on getting back to campus, but there are a few interesting spots to visit on the second half of the run. First, we run by some of the taller buildings in Lisbon, one of them the iconic Sheraton Hotel (the highest in Lisbon for quite a while).
Behind the skyscrapers hides the most famous maternity hospital in Lisbon - Maternidade Alfredo da Costa. Now old and outdated, from 1932, they are trying to slowly phase it out into obsolescence. I want to bet that most people living in Lisbon will have a relative that was born there. I have several.
Next on our route come the grid avenues around Gulbenkian and the University Campus. This is a nice residential area that has been slowly been converting to have some cool pedestrian streets mixed with bike lanes. A promising future. We will first cross the neighborhood for a small add-mileage detour. We will be back here to complete our run.
We will need to cross the railway. There are two options, an underpass or an overpass with stairs. I will let you guess which one I picked.
We venture into another interesting neighborhood. A mix of residential and important business offices. For instance, the main data center that hosts a good chunk of the financial transactions is in the area. And so is the building that once hosted the Portuguese Stock Market - cough, cough… “pocket-change” stock market.
We hardly noticed it, but we have been climbing for a while. We are at the 14th km when we have a nice resting descent with another cool building at the bottom.
It’s the iconic building Edifício Marconi that I have just learned, as I researched for my post, that will be occupied by the Bank of Portugal. Marconi was the company that initially handled that first wireless communications in Portugal - appropriately named.
We are back on flatter terrain heading back to campus and the grid avenues around Gulbenkian. The area is one of the busiest in Lisbon, but we cross Avenida da República barely without cars. I love the early morning smell of now cars in Lisbon.
Next on the punch list is the bullfight arena of Campo Pequeno. Thankfully with other purposes beyond bullfighting nowadays. There are some good restaurants, shopping and a nice green area around it.
Across the road from Campo Pequeno, you have to bow again to the temple of the Pharaoh, or the Palace of the Roman Emperor, take a pick. It’s easier to photograph it’s size from this angle.
This is when we start going through the columns and the rows of our matrix, at least so I thought when running in the area. We are heading back to Campus again so algebra bubbling up in my mind,
It will be a quick run through campus, coming in the north entrance and exiting through the south. I did not even feel that ramp. I was so happy to run here! Thanks Dad.
We are at km 16. We have an additional 5 or 6km to go explore the grid.
I have now performed a complete Monte Carlo on my planned route. Not to worry, statistically the final result will come out perfect. We will be running back and forth on the avenues from IST to Gulbenkian until we have put enough kms for the prize. Persistence is the matrix determinant to success.
We get to Gulbenkian for the last km. We go around the compound and enter the gardens on the west side. It’s a pitty that there is no sunshine, the gardens have so much vegetation that we need the sun to properly shoot some pictures on the run. I try my best.
Gulbenkian is the exponent of culture. Art exhibitions, classical music performances are just the tip of the iceberg of this fine institution. One of the most beautiful spots to end our routes.
A place full of color even though the photos are in black and white. The weather brought me graphite but I managed to paint a run with the complete spectrum.
I might not be a great fan of fado, but I do love the soul of Lisbon.
Enjoy your runs!
-APF
PS: You know what else looks amazing in black and white? Sintra’s mist during another MTB ride
