52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 13
Circumnavigating the Lisbon Airport
Saturday, April 13, 6:44 AM
Last weekend I had reserved my flight around the Lisbon airport. I had chosen my path when boarding was cancelled at the last minute by the Sahara sands.
It was going to be a warm day so I hit the road as early as my sleepless working week allowed. I had a 20-minute drive to the runway which meant a cruel wake up at 6:00 AM, after a 4 hour sleep from the previous night. I need to improve my sleep schedule.
The goal was to go around the Lisbon airport, touching bases at a few parks along the way, since most of the landscape was expected to be unremarkable.
The starting line was right by the abandoned terrains of Lisbon’s fairground from many years ago. The merry-go-rounds and roller-coasters have been gone since 2003. The Feira Popular had been there since June 10, 1943! Construction vultures have been flying in the area since 2003, preying to land a new development in such a noble area. More than 20 years that tell the story of the inapt judicial and political system.
I started at the sound of a landing jet, heading for my first runway, the park of Campo Grande, a nice green area sandwiched between two major busy avenues. I planned to slice it bottom to top since I had already cut it half on stage 8.
At the park entrance, there is hub of bicycles that have become extremelyconvenient to move across town through the growing number of biking lanes. Unlock the bike (some of them e-bikes) ride, with care, and drop it at the next terminal. It’s a good system. Kudos to Lisbon.
The park is quite nice, approximately a mile in length, with a multitude of entertainment and relaxing spots. Well, relaxing is a stretch, the planes land practically over it, I challenge you to catch a nap in the park.
I immediately come up with a metric of counting the number of planes that I catch during my run. I will give up quickly as they are way too many for a Saturday morning. It hurts me for the people living under their path.
I jet through the park as if on a moving walkway. I took off too fast and will pay the full fare later in the run. We are right by the University of Lisbon, a convenient spot for the students. There are studying rooms, gyms, paddle courts and plenty of grass to lay down studying. Don’t forget your travel noise canceling headphones.
I head out of the park tuned to the bearing set by the ILS (Instrument Landing System) antennas at the south end of the runway. To get there, I use the bike lane through a nice “quiet”-looking neighborhood. Sorry for the sarcasm. As I rush my pace like if I was on a e-bike, I get crushed by the deafening sound of two jet engines, so close that I could feel the smell of the jet fuel.
It’s an Airbus A320 from TAP, TP1908 coming from Faro, a flight that is slightly over 30 minutes to cover 300 km. I am going for 21.1 km…
As an aircraft and flight fan, that has spent way too many hours on flight simulators, I was now on full throttle to land at the beginning of the runway just as the sun was rising. Recent flight simulators, like X-Plane or Microsoft Flight Simulator, render gorgeous dawn and dusk scenery while flying. I wanted to witness the real thing, and I made it.
Not planned, now at km 3.5, I detour to a known plane-spotting place to get a better view of the airport and hopefully witness a landing. It does not take long for another plane to reward me coming down as I make my way up the hill. Landed right on time.
I could easily hang around during whole morning admiring take offs and landings but there’s no way I will delay my flight. The excess taxiing got me an additional 500 m in the route but the view at the top is something else.
The Lisbon airport is old, small and cramped. The location is a dream for travellers but a nightmare for the city. The discussion for building a new one, is a Brazilian novela that has taken decades, and has yet to come to an end.
The “conquistadores” of concrete are staying on guard, waiting for the old man LIS to perish out of service, so that they can invade the area - LIS is the Lisbon airport code.
I follow an uphill wide avenue that has now been built for a while. Great running conditions to the tune of the massive torque from a GE turbine. Everything is ready for the funeral of LIS, but the old man keeps defying its odds. I am keeping faster than usual pace, even with all the slowdowns for picture taking and fuselage contemplation.
I get to the top of the avenue to be 1st class toasted with another beautiful landing with the sunrising in the background. Exactly what I was hoping for - executive caviar!
I disembark from the main avenue to pass through the gate entrance to a nice park, Quinta das Conchas. The place is very dear to me because I used to come here often with my kids. It’s a good sized park close by a recent building development. Today, unfortunately I could stop noticing how loud the engines of the planes were heard in the park, even just from idling planes.
If you have a 5k to burn in a friendly area, this is a good spot if you don’t mind looping in the park. Today I don’t have time for stalling, my wings are wide open as find my way down the park. Today, I had to rely a lot more on the GPS to navigate my route, appropriately. Doing it while running is not as easy as using that plane Garmin from the comfortable chair of the flight pilot. I had several go-around incidents today.
I haven’t checked, but since there is no cheap housing in Lisbon, I am sure these apartments are priced as executive seats. Odd, because they face LIS and are way too close. I can’t imagine sitting on a balcony or opening a window without hearing the jet hissing.
I exit the gate at km 6.2, detoured but not delayed, on my way to the next park terminal.
The route goes along a major highway axis, “Eixo Norte-Sul”, that cuts the city in half. Cars fly-by on this elevated highway and if the jets were the noise kings in the east side of the park, the pistons were taking over the conference in the west (not their territory).
There has not been a lot of building in town lately. This area seems to be an exception. A few high rise buildings have been popping up, adequately spaced and with an interesting green area in the middle.
I am now visiting the 3rd park of the day, all similarly sized, and highly recommended for light running distances. There is no gate to get inside the park, you access it off the tarmac. We are at km 7.2, and all the aerial distractions had me cruising faster than I should have. I used up too much fuel, and had not realized that I had basically been climbing (not very steeply) throughout most of the run as I am getting halfway. I should pay more attention to my instruments.
I start to realize that there is more turbulence in the profile than I expected. The altitude of my flight keeps getting adjusted and my legs and lungs are not too fond of the experience today. I route through a number of neighborhoods that by result of the airport location, are not the most attractive, but are doing their best to look pretty,
The end of the runway comes at km 12.2, in the city of Camarate, right beneath the flight path.
I can only imagine how hard it must be to have some peace and quiet in this town. I had done my pre-flight route analysis, and knew that this was going to be the easy way down. But, as they say, the devil is in the details, and the descent was full of air pockets requiring altitude corrections, aka, climbing, steep climbing.
We are at the end of the runway, and today, as usual, take offs are to the north (north winds are predominant) so I was eager to catch my first flight. It did not take long.
The route now moves to the east side of the runway. This is the area where the airport terminals stand and is mostly crowded with service buildings. To get there, my flight attendant served me no peanuts and a 6% grade climb (not beer).
We are at around km 14, and it’s one of those lonely 500m long climbs.
A big deal of our running performance is in our heads, and today I was not mentally prepared for this flight profile. Since I was flying solo, as I normally do, I had to dig deep in my fuel tanks to make up for my weaker-than-usual engines.
I had my cherry of the day coming! From here to the main airport terminal was just the usual car rental, hotels and ancillary buildings of any airport in the world.
I shall be arriving, of course, at the arrivals terminal 1. My flight is right on time, even though the pilot went sightseeing mid-way. Paradoxically, I have to climb, to land in the arrivals.
Me being me, I dash for the arrivals entrance. I had this one stuck in my head I was going to shortcut my way in the route by running inside the airport. I would enter the arrivals and find my way up to the departures (using the stairs, not escalators) to exit the building. I apologise my fellow travellers for the aroma that I might have spread in the air.
Mission accomplished, with the help of a police officer who kindly stopped traffic so that I could keep running as I exited the building.
The smile on my face is now as big as a 747 wingspan (I like the 747 more than the A380 and have flown both). The remaining of the route is more friendly, going all the way down till the next park of the day - Parque José Gomes Ferreira.
This is another “hidden” gem, not as big as the previous ones, but very beautiful.
I am now close to km 19, my bearings and rivets are complaining. My fuselage is soaked in sweat from the heat of the day. I need to start carrying more water for these transatlantic flights.
This park is not flat. My GPS guidance failed miserably as when one is tired, one makes mistakes. I took the wrong gate out of the park, but nothing to worry about, security let me through swiftly.
The remaining of the run is through the nice neighborhood of Alvalade with wide sidewalks and reasonably flat.
I finish with way too much thirst, luckily right by a local café. I treat myself to my sparkling water and a sweet Pastel de Nata - don’t die before eating one!
I had a nice flight.
Enjoy your runs!
-APF
I think what I'm learning from these is that life is beautiful if you get up early and view life through an iphone camera!