Lisbon Half Marathon March 2026
by Gail King
Lisbon half marathon was our 3rd SuperHalf marathon. Like all the SuperHalfs now, it’s not very easy to get an entry in the ballot as they are so popular. But we were lucky to get in by entering as a team (in other words, if one gets in, so does the other), in the second ballot – presumably created after those who in the 1st ballot decide not to take up their entries.
We flew direct from Edinburgh to Lisbon via Ryanair on the Friday and stayed in a hotel in central Lisbon. We got a bus to the Expo, which was 5K away on the Saturday morning. The Expo was fairly standard and it didn’t take long to collect our numbers and goodie bag which contained a decent quality t-shirt, a buff and some arm warmers. On the downside or this race, nobody had the option of a bag drop (except maybe Kiplimo!) You could discard clothes at the start line which would then be donated to charity, but it meant that if you wanted extra layers for the finish you would have to carry them during the race or have a supporter at the end to help you out.
Sunday was race day. The race starts at one end of the April 25th Bridge. A bit like the Forth Bridge but flatter. There is only one way to get to the start line is by one train line. There is a timetable of several trains which travel on the morning of the race. The trains are big but you need that to transport over 16,000 runners to the start line. We had heard nightmare stories about chaotic scenes at the start and the finish, so we thought we better get there early. We travelled to the train station via the metro and got on the 2nd train on the timetable easily. However, we got on at the 1st station. It would have been a bit more stressful if we’d tried to get on a later train from a later station. Anyhow, the train journey was only about 20 minutes to the start. We arrived around 1 hr 45 minutes before the start and met John Hynd as we got off the train. I stood in my 1st toilet queue then walked about 15 minutes to the actual start and joined the next toilet queue. By the time we got to the front of that queue there was only 15 minutes to the start of the actual race. That was fine for us, but again, I think if we’d arrived later we would have struggled to get to the loo at all in time. Loads of folk were relieving themselves on the hill behind the loos in full view of everyone else. I was a bit worried about a landslide!
The start is split up into 6 waves, one leaving immediately after the other. Steven and John were in Wave 1 and managed to find a small area for a wee warm up. I was in wave 3. Absolutely no space to swing a cat, never mind warm up. However, my warm up ended up being the 1st 4 miles as it was so congested at the start. We ran across the bridge which felt quite iconic, then into the town and along the coast. The course itself is mostly flat, there are a few switch backs which allows you to see runners coming towards you. It gave me a lift to wave to John and Steven at a couple of points. Unfortunately, I missed Gillian and Craig. Probably because of the congestion and trying to watch my feet and not trip over anyone or get taken out by the weaving crowd with their feet and elbows! There were loads of water stations enroute, which was helpful as it got quite hot during the race. There were also a few showers to run through and gel stations. The finish was nice and organised outside the Monastery. You collected your medal and ice lolly, then filtered out into a big park area where you could collect a banana, protein drink and Powerade.
Overall I enjoyed the route. I didn’t feel the chaos that we’d been warned about, although others arriving later may disagree. The only down side was not having a bag drop and little or no help in getting from the finish back to your hotel. There were trains apparently, but we couldn’t see them. There were service buses, but they were so full that they didn’t stop at the bus stop. We ended up walking back to our hotel which was 7K away. I was pretty cold in my shorts and vest by the time we got back as I’d risked not carrying a backpack with extra layers. Thankfully it was just a half marathon and not a full one or I don’t think I’d have thanked you for that walk. 45,000 steps later!!
We finished off the day with a great evening at the Hard Rock Cafe for a burger fest with John and his wife Diane, Gillian and Craig. Always good to catch up with friends for a debrief and a few beers, cocktails, wine, sangria etc etc……
We enjoyed our long weekend in Lisbon, experiencing the race along with some sightseeing of a lovely city, sharing it with our Carnegie friends. I would recommend Lisbon half marathon. It’s a flat fast course but you might struggle to get a good time unless you start well up due to the congestion. And to race against Kiplimo who broke the world record was pretty cool!