As Jenny had previously blogged I was in Portugal to run the Portugal Half Marathon. It was my first race this size, as I previously had only run a 10K in Winchester. Eager to give my best shot I set my mark at 2h00m. I knew my pace had to be around 5h45m so I thought… ok, lets go, lets give it a try!
The day came and I nervously woke up and headed towards the bus stop to catch the special bus that would take us to the Vasco da Gama bridge, where we would start the race. I was there by 9am and waited 1h30m for the start of the race. Always trying to move forward in order to get as closest to the front as possible, after a bit it turned out to be impossible. Everyone had the same idea… hundreds of people were compressed into a few square meters. There I waited while reporters rushed through us heading to the start line, so they could get a picture of Jaouad Gharib, the Moroccan long-distance runner and Olympic (2008) marathon silver medalist.
By the beginning of the race reporters were in several place and helicopters were cruising the skies trying to get a good image for the live transmission for the portuguese state channel, RTP. The run started and I only noticed because the guys in front of me started to run, it had passed a couple of seconds from 10.30am. People started shouting “Run, Run, Run” and pushing your back forward. No matter the speed you wanted to go, you kept being pushed forward. Around two minutes until the start line and a few more minutes for the crowd to clear. Fortunately you could then get some fresh air and one square meter of ground to run. As I had a watch with lap function (thanks Jenny), and all the Ks were clearly marked I could know how exactly my pace. My initial Ks were at a confortable 5m30s. As we left the bridge and started the only down-hill of the race I let myself go and did a pace of 3m40s for that K. By kilometer 7 you could easily run and see that many of your comrades were already quite far away. As part of the race was run in the same road, but different directions, kilometer 7 was marked by the fact the front runners were already on their way back at kilometer 14. In the front was Jaouad Gharib, trying to speed away from the rest of the crowd and running near the RTP camera man which was mounted on a motorcycle with a huge camera less than a meter from Jaouads face. Arrived by the 10th Km within 55m and the return point at 58m. I was fresh and happy for the result I had. I was hearing people talk how tired they were and I was feeling quite well. A group of runners however, discussed that the worst bit was still to come, 4Ks were uphill, 12pm and the sun was sky-high boosting around 29 degrees celsius. I shivered! I started to feel the uphill by Km 13, and by Km 14 I couldn’t keep my 5m40s pace anymore. Until the end of the uphill I dropped my speed and the pace rocketed to 6m20s. I was trying hard to keep the legs running, and I repeated several times “Go Go Big-O”… and I ran. The exhausted legs were trying to give up by Km 17 when I thought that I wouldn’t meet my 2h goal. I just kept going, a couple more K, it shouldn’t be hard… by this time my brain was hard trying to make the legs run and the heart pumping… I was most of the time breathless but still running. I hit Km 20 with a time of 1h57m. I knew I had more 1km and 92m. The legs were no more, there was not enough air in the world that would keep me running, however, I glanced the finishing line and the cameras in the horizon. For some reason, the pain disappeared, my peanut lungs were replaced by huge potato sacs of oxygen and what seemed to be by now an impossible pace, became a reality. I started to speed up and took over about 15 guys in the last K. I crossed the line at 2h00m37s. I reached my goal! This was a happy run… To keep the day on a high, nothing like a lunch near the beach followed by some sun bathing in the afternoon in the clear white sand of Costa da Caparica!
Incredibly, the winner did the half in 1h01m26s and it was not Jaouad, but Silas Sang. Jaouad finished 6th. The first european runner was a portuguese and finished in 16th. The men and women podium was filled with Kenyan runners, the first ones being respectively Silas Sang and Rita Jeptoo.
It was an awesome experience. This time Jenny, unfortunately, couldn’t join me but soon we will be running Gosport Half Marathon where together we will definitely beat the 2hours mark, aren’t we Jenny?
GO GO BIG-O!