Z Valdir's races

Back to the index When I got back to our hotel I told my wife that the Porto St. Silvester is not a race, it's a grand popular party, during which tons of people cross the city, sometimes running, sometimes walking... :-( I was not happy...  :-(  :-(  After running the Lisbon St Silvester the day before, we travelled by train to Porto, where I ran another St. Silvester (10K race). They are victims of their own success. There are way too many people participating. I was in the sub-60 group, so we started after the faster guys and girls of the sub-50 cohort.  A minute after we had started, we had to stop, just stop and wait for the mass of people ahead of us to get out of the way. Not funny to have to stop in the middle of a race... I was all the time worried about causing an accident, I had seen a runner fall on a bad cobblestone patch. Some parts of the way were not properly lighted, it was a bit dangerous. The last kilometer we go through a long tunnel, they ha...

Back to the index We visited Lisbon once more during Christmas, it was a wonderful experience all over again. This time we skipped most of the main museums and went instead for some of the second tier. I was quite impressed with the Water Museum. A small place, but quite interesting. On Sunday, December 28th I ran the Lisbon St. Silvester 10K race. It was a blast, like last time. At the beginning of the race it was a bit crowded, I couldn't develop the speed I wanted, I had to be careful not to cause an accident. Around km 2.5 I got stomach aches and I had to stop to walk. Damn! A kilometer later I felt the beginning of a cramp and had to ease on my stride.  The last kilometer is one big downhill, everybody goes crazy there, it's awsome! My average during the race was 5'26''/km, but on that last km my Garmin showed even 4'15''/km. Wow! I finished the race in 54'15'', a respectable time for me.