Recently, Newport & District Running Club’s Helen Mason travelled to Portugal to take part in the Lisbon Half Marathon. Afterwards, she sent us this report:

I travelled to Lisbon to do the half marathon on the 9th March, which was the second of the Super Six half marathon series I’ve completed, with the first being Berlin last year. The weather in Lisbon was horrendous for most of my trip, with coastal storms and wind, but luckily it stayed dry for the morning of the race. 

The race started on the suspension bridge, which presented logistical challenges for all the runners having to take the same train line across the bridge to the start line; this meant I unintentionally started near the back and spent a lot of the race trying to get past slower runners, but it did mean I paced myself fairly well and didn’t go off too quickly. I completed it in 2 hours, 6 minutes, which I was happy with, considering my lack of training in the winter due to illness.

I was half expecting a Magnum ice cream at the end of the race, as advised by Phil Hardy who completed the same race last autumn, however it was a slight downgrade to a Feast!! Still very welcome though!