After waking up pretty early (7:30 a.m.), and eating a reinforced breakfast, I took my way to the train, that would take me to the southbound, Pragal, 15 minutes walking distance to the starting line.

Being the Vodafone mini-marathon my second competition, the novelty of Corrida do Tejo was not so strongly felt, but observing other people, their attitudes and trying to see who’s a runner and who’s a “competition walker” was a challenge prior to the challenge itself.

After arriving to Pragal, I took the walking mile to the starting line as a warm-up race, but despite getting there quite early, I did still had to wait half an hour to be in position, something like 100 metres before the starting line. The crowd was huge (30.000 they say) and I even had the Portuguese prime-minister just a few metres from me, at the start of the race – needless to say, I made my race 20 minutes faster than him!

Arriving at the starting line

Contradicting my worst predictions, reinforced after seeing a character, disguised as a monk and three guys dressed as brides, the starting was not as chaotic and slow. After seeing some runners pushing walkers to the right lane, I started to do the same… oneself must be pedagogical about it.. if you are participating in an event like this and want to walk, please make room for those who wish to race. It’s the minimum acceptable. And after all, it’s the only way to make the crowd flow and make this as enjoyable to everybody.

Entering the second kilometre, I was already running in full speed, with plenty of room, and passing people like a breeze… the race course was pretty fast, and I only felt needing to manage my effort in the last kilometre.

As for strategy issues, and after spotting a 6 feet nordic blonde girl perfectly in shape at the 5^th kilometre, being briefly followed by frustrated male runners, I decided to use the girl… for pacing guide purposes. It worked nicely and I made to pass her in the last 500 metres and finish my race at a 37’04”, bellow my 32’05” record. Reasons? Slow start resulted as excessive crowd and zig-zag racing to avoid slow runners ahead, for sure.

Race participants, near the last kilometre

Balance:

• It was a good experience;
• Running in the Tejo bridge is fun enough;
• Fast course;
• Cheerfull crowd;
• Transportation system worked perfectly
• Just a downside: the lack of management capability from the Police to make the crowd flow prior to starting the race, in Pragal bridge;
• Good beverage pack for the racers at the ending line;
• Nice staff giving the pack too;
• Excellent weather, a bit cloudy to avoid excessive heat, which was nice.

Mini-marathon’s participation medal

Nice event. In 2009 I’ll do the half-marathon, since I’m now going to shift my efforts to longer distances.