The trip

Portugal was our first trip booked for 2025. There’s nothing like a bit of January sun to lift your mood in Winter, even if it is just for two days. I moved jobs in October and we moved house in November and we didn’t go anywhere in December for financial purposes so this was my first marathon in about three months since Gdansk. A crazy statement in general terms but this three months was the longest gap I’d had since starting the challenge properly 12 months earlier. I’d done 14 marathons in 2024 and was generally hoping for a similar number in 2025. We were also getting married later in 2025 so the wedding in Ireland and later Honeymoon were going to take up a lot of my annual leave (which was less generous at the new job as well…) so this year was going to be a challenge for sure.

I’d looked at a few official races in Portugal but just couldn’t make one work. Madeira marathon was the closest to being booked but it was just too expensive all in and would have required a day off work so I opted for a solo run in Faro instead, flying out on Saturday and back on Sunday.

When we landed on Saturday we got the bus into town for a few euro. We were staying in Hotel Faro (which is now a Barcelona according to Google Maps) right on the docks in the hub of the city (well, large town really). We were a bit early for check in so it was another case of getting changed in a toilet cubicle on the roof terrace floor. Ciara stayed up there for a bit of shade bathing with a book and I jumper in the lift down to the ground floor.

The run

I started my watch, went around the dock and crossed over the small railway tracks towards the sea. I followed this path through a little park and up to the next road it crossed. I turned left here and started going up the hill into a little town called Montenegro. Similarly to the train journey to the track for the first induction day for the Bristol University athletics team that took us through ‘Montpelier’ a joke of “How long have I been running (on this train) for?” Was in order. Unfortunately, Ed Anders wasn’t there to give me a pity laugh this time.

I navigated some of these small streets, with notably annoying pavements to run on, and came out near the airport after a wrong turn or two. However, unlike Gdansk, this wasn’t a fly-run-fly, so I carried on past the airport. Luckily my Limited Spanish gave me enough confidence that “Praia” was Portuguese for “Playa” which was Spanish for beach, so I followed the brown sign and didn’t need a Google maps check. This road took me past the Ludo trail which I kept in my mind to come back to later. Eventually I came to the bridge that crossed the estuary to the beach. This has also improved since my visit according to Google Maps street view with the work now complete.

The beach was effectively an endless beach. On the other side of the bridge there was a car park surrounded by a few shops and restaurants. I went left from here towards the side that did actually have an end. After the road came an elevated wooden path over the sand. There were a few houses occasionally scattered on either side. Let’s just say they didn’t exactly come with a two-car driveway. Although, some people did occasionally pass me on mopeds, which pretty tight overtakes on this path. Pretty soon, I got to the end of the path which went up over the small dune onto the beach. I had a quick look left to right then turned around and went back down the path the other way.

I got back to the main car park and carried on in the other direction. This was a similar story at first, with a short stretch of road that led onto a slightly raised wooden path. It was on this path though where I really started to appreciate where I was. I hadn’t done much in the way of google maps research for this run so I didn’t know what was here. What greeted me was possibly one of the most unique places to live I have ever seen. The path was lined by tightly packed little houses on either side. Some were not much more than shacks but all must have been so peaceful. Within the space of about 100ft across you had sea - sand - house - path - house - sand - estuary. It was just brilliant and I was imagining night time as I ran, how you would hear nothing but the waves crashing. A stormy night may not be much fun though, these houses were just a little exposed to the elements.

This path was much longer but did eventually come to an end. I needed more distance so took the rarely advisable option and started running on the sand. As always, this was rather challenging. I kept going for a few miles, trying to balance the enjoyment of exploration and with not overtiring my legs then turned around and headed back for the path. I went up and down the paths on both sides of the car park a few more times to get the miles up and took a quick stop at one of the shops for a 7up.

I then crossed the bridge back to the mainland and headed towards the Ludo trail I’d passed earlier. This was much more runner (and cyclist) friendly. The path went up to a golf course and a load of mansions. Eventually on my left came another small bridge that led back to the beach. I went up here to Gigi’s but it was closed so I used that as a good time to turn around. I really didn’t fancy any more running on sand. I tried exploring one more road after this but that just led to a caravan parking area, so this was a much quicker turn around.

I was past 20 miles now so took the road round the airport and started heading back to the hotel. I was coming up slightly short so did a few laps around Parque de merendas on my way back to get the miles up. My legs were, as always, very tired by this point so I just kept them ticking along and let the pace drop. I followed the path back to the dock where I started and got the full marathon done.

After I washed up and got changed, we walked around town to find somewhere for dinner. We walked through the tight cobbled streets and eventually wound up at a tiny little restaurant. It was very quiet throughout the city and there was an almost creepy atmosphere when going round a corner and seeing nobody around on the dark roads.

The next morning was similarly quiet. Almost everywhere was closed as it was a Sunday morning. The rooftop breakfast in our hotel was much appreciated as we would have struggled to find anywhere else serving food when we walked around again. Everywhere being closed was quite helpful in trying to keep the trip cheap as we did pretty much just walk around for a few hours. We were tempted by the boat trips but by the time we made it round to where they left from, we were almost out of time. From there we went back to the bus station and headed back to the airport. The first of 2025 complete and 15 marathons down in total.

Evidence