Written by Babs Pinheiro
5 years ago, I had planned to do the Lisbon half marathon as part of my race training for the Madrid marathon. As we all know, neither the Lisbon HM (I’ll call it LHM) nor the Madrid marathon took place that year and I wondered if I’d ever go back to either city and actually run those races. In 2022, I did go back to Madrid and did a 10k rather than the marathon distance since I was dealing with my chronic quads injury.
Since 2020, the LHM has become one of the 6 SuperHalfs, along with Berlin, Cardiff, Copenhagen, Prague and Valencia, becoming even more popular than pre-pandemic.
When talking HM races for this year, before even dreaming that I’d get the club ballot place for London, Nick and I decided very quickly that we wanted to go to Lisbon - me because it’s redemption after the pandemic cancellation (plus injury) and Nick because he’d have a native to “guide” him around town, in addition to kicking off our journey to completing the 6 SuperHalfs. On top of that, I’d get to see my dad, who has only really seen me run when I did my first HM in Edinburgh back in 2018.
As soon as I mentioned it to my dad, he went into full “cheerleader dad” mode, just like when I was a kid, travelling across Portugal (and once to France with the national team) to see and support me as a rower. Not sure who was more excited between the 2 of us! I did tell him that we were a few months away so he could calm down and not try to book the first hotel he came across!
Fast forward to last weekend and the LHM has been and gone so let me tell you all about it!
People think that Portugal is the land of the sunshine and to be fair, is it… in the summer! It rains A LOT in the Autumn and Winter months, maybe even more than in the UK - sounds plain wrong but there you go! And this weekend was mainly one downpour after another!
The day started with a train ride from Roma-Areeiro to Pragal, with train being the only means of transportation to the start for anyone staying in Lisbon. This is because the start of the race is on the iconic red Bridge, also know as the 25th April Bridge (Ponte 25th April in Portuguese). We got to the station fairly early, having decided to go to the 1st of 4 stations north of the Tagus. For me, it was an obvious choice as the train would be empty and only getting busier as it reached the last station on our side of the river.
The rain hadn’t relented the night before and it was still going strong at 8am when we reached the South of the river. At this point, I thought that I was going to just go round the course, on survival mode between gusts of wind and pouring rain. We stayed at the station for a while before deciding that we’d need to face the rain at some point to get to the start.
Expecting pouring rain as we walked out of the train station, we were surprised that the Portuguese weather gods had listened to my request and decided to stop the rain completely! We walked up a hill, joking that this was hopefully the only hill of the course. And it was!
After going through a body “search” (they just waved a metal detector around), we made our way down to the bag check area to drop off Nick’s bag - I’d left my backpack with my dad - before going for a warm up mile to loosen up the legs.
At 9:15, we walked to the start area and, almost by miracle, were tapped on the shoulder by Clíona, Zita and Bill, who were also doing the LHM. Caroline Crehan was also around but stuck at baggage check - more about the baggage check later.
After an Eagles’ group photo, the speedy eagles made their way to their starting pen and Clíona and I stayed in the next one up, for the not so speedy people.
It wasn’t long till the race started and off we went… slower than I had intended! The start was very congested, since there wasn’t really a staggered start. I had to zig and zag my way around slower runners and ended up doing my slowest km of the whole race. Luckily, soon I managed to hit my pace and stride and just kept going.
The sun graced us the whole way and I was too warm due to the fact that I was dressed for cold. I had removed my gloves by the 3rd km, stuffed them in my shorts’ back pocket and tried to forget about them. I kept running in my long sleeve vest under my eagles top but was starting to feel too hot so did a little striptease number, hoping it wasn’t caught on camera. I have to say that one of my proudest moments of the race was that I was able to remove the long sleeve top without slowing down at all!
Around the 17k mark, everything was hurting! I had set the goal of running at a pace between 5 and 5:10 per km, which would put me at a PB of at least 3 minutes vs my fastest HM, which was EHM last year. I knew at this point that I was in PB territory but could also feel that it would easily slip away. After hearing (but not seeing) Nick just before the 17.5k turning point at an “out and back” part of the course, I knew I just had to keep pushing and not relent. I allowed myself another 1.5k before I made my “move” and picked up pace to be at the top end of my pace window (5 min km) and make it the best race I could do. The aches of running a solid HM were all there, my core reminded me that I was pushing hard but I didn’t listen, I just ran!
I knew that I would be running 21.2k since my watch had beep 80m “early” the whole way round and I didn’t let it get to me. I knew where the finish would be and boy, the joy of crossing that finish like was something special with the Jerónimos in front! I saw that I’d crossed it a 1:49 something, which meant that I was truly in PB territory. I had only stopped my watch a few seconds after I’d crossed the line and it showed 1:48:03.
Nick had finished about a min ahead of me and he waited for me near the finish and it was a good thing he did. He kept me moving and I managed to catch my breath after a few steps! Everything just ached but I didn’t really care!
We grabbed our medals after seeing Bill and Caroline, who had both finished ahead of us, and made our way to the bag check lorries via an ice cream stand - for Nick.
We’d heard some of the horror stories last year about the bag check and had hoped things had improved but they hadn’t. Nick had to wait for 90 min to retrieve his bag in what I can only describe as a shambolic auction like situation with the local scouts showing the bags to the expecting crowd hoping to see their bag appear. If you read the comments about the race, that’s one of the biggest complaints. During those 90 min, there was a downpour, which obviously didn’t help calm the exasperated runners.
Due to the crowds and my dad’s initiative not to follow instructions, it took me as long to retrieve my backpack. I was in agony by the time I managed to get changed!
But, even with that mishap, I’m so happy with the race on 9th March 2025, the day I broke not only the sub 1:50 HM but also the 1:48! My official HM PB is now 1:47:50!
The race was unbelievable, at so many points, I could have taken the pedal off the gas and taken it easy. My brain and body were fighting a fair bit but I didn’t listen, I had a goal and went after it! The goal was, besides practice nutrition for the big race on 27th April, to see what I could achieve on a flat course after hitting sub 2 hours at EHM last year, the 3rd time I’d ever managed it.
And… Mission accomplished with a massive smile - although you can’t tell from the pictures I’ve seen!
I don’t have any other races where I’m planning a PB before London. There will be plenty of time for that on 27th April!
