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EDP LISBON HALF MARATHON. PORTUGAL. SUNDAY 21st MARCH 2010.

Congratulations to Chris March and Les McIntosh who took part in this year’s Lisbon Half with both posting excellent PBs.  Incidentally the winner, Zersenay Tadese, also set a new world record of 00:58:23!

The impressive finish location; The ‘Mosteiro dos Jeronimos’ in Lisbon.

ERN International Team report: Les and Chris go on a Lisbon adventure …

World record set in Lisbon half marathon!

"I'm in a good shape. Kilometre after kilometre I achieved more courage and determination and always believed that I can get the world record."

Ok – so these weren’t our words and we didn’t break any world records – these are the words of some Eritrean geezer, Tadese, who broke the world record by 10 seconds to win in an astounding 58:23! Incredible stuff!

The cool things about this race were:

• Definitely being in the same race as the likes of Tadese – the course looped back on itself on a couple of occasions so you were in a fabby  close up position to see incredibly fast athletes run incredibly fast past you – twice!  The first time everyone slowed down a bit and clapped/cheered as they went past – I think the second time we were all just too knackered – oops – typo – I meant ‘focused, like the serious athletes we are’! To get up close though was just mega!
• The transport – it was free for runners and extremely well organised. You got a train to the other side of the bridge 10 minutes walk from where the race started. It was crowded as you’d expect – but we had no problems at all getting there.
• The amazing start on the 25 de Abril Bridge with the figure Cristo Rei keeping a watchful eye: a 246 foot monument with the figure of Christ on the top.
• Five water stations en route, plus a second ‘goody bag’ at the end with two more bottles of water and a bottle of Powerade – and free ice creams! The oranges and bananas at 20 kilometres were a tad suspect – a recipe for a disaster in my book.
• A ‘goody bag’ when you collected your number the day before – fab front design on the t-shirt – not so sure about the gold lame stripes on the sleeves (strike that – we’re very sure about those gold stripes!).
• The finish line – right in front of the stunning ‘Mosteiro dos Jeronimos’ – an amazing monastic complex with unbelievable Gothic and Renaissance architecture. I bet when they were building it they never expected 6,000 sweaty folks turning up in shorts and t-shirts to sit on their front lawn!

The ‘not so cool’ thing was ….

• The weather – the race started in mist which was a real shame as the view running across the bridge would have been fantastic. It then cleared once over the other side to brilliant sunshine … and a soaring 18/20 degrees. Which generally speaking is great … unless you are running 13.1 miles and not used to it! But hey – are we complaining about that – don’t think so…
• Arghh – but who put the 19k sign before the 18k sign – that was mean!
• Due to the event the transport we’d sussed out the day before for our ‘support team’ wasn’t running – so they just made it in time to meet us at the allocated meeting place – so, sorry Murdo – no pics of the actual race – but some nice pics below.

Other than that – this was a very well organised event and we’re both chuffed to have been part of it. So, to …

The results …

Did we break any records – yes, we both managed PBs! Les has never run this distance before and did a sterling first 13.1 miles race in the soaring heat, Chris broke her only ever half marathon time of 11 years ago by 3 minutes and was delighted to ‘beat her body clock’! Here are our times …

And what’s a report without a few piccies …

Crossing the 25 de Abril Bridge with the figure Cristo Rei in the background

This was the last few metres - finally, the end was in sight!

View of the bridge

Two days later it all looks so calm! The finishing line is where the line of buses now sits.

The monastery - what a finishing point!

Practising our finishing poses - not sure any of us looked like this at the end!

The Grandparents and Grandchildren's race/walk on the Saturday!

All smiles - and red-ish knees!

Medal

And the cool t-shirt ...

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