Running the traditional São Silvestre race in Lisbon

Lisbon, Portugal. December 2023.

Dressed with Santa Claus hats, we ran in the historical center of Lisbon, nicely illuminated with Christmas lights, for the traditional São Silvestre race.

TLDR; “Too long, didn’t read”

• I just want to run! Take me to RACE.
• Running is my excuse for travelling. Take me to TRIP.
• Running is my excuse for eating. Take me to CARBOLOADING.
• I want to know what to read in the plane. Take me to ONE BOOK.

History of the Saint Silvester races

The “Saint Silvester race”, originated in Brazil, is now a tradition in many places. The race took shape when a Brazilian journalist Casper Libero traveled to France and came back to Brazil in 1924 with the idea of running a race which would start on the 31st of December and finish up on the 1st, to celebrate the start of the New Year.

The first one was held in 1925 in Sao Paulo; here there is the full story and even the list of winners! 

It is named after Saint Silvester, the patron saint commemorated every 31st of December (in honor of Pope Silvester I, who died on this day). Not that Saint Silvester was a keen runner or anything 😜

I was very familiar with the “San Silvestre Vallecana” (in Vallecas, Madrid). But when I found out that there was a good one in Lisbon, here we went!

Building up 💪

When I signed up for the Lisbon São Silvestre race (10K)  I was not expecting the race to be that well organized, and with such a focus on the competition. I was expecting more of a run ‘for fun’, like the ones I am familiar with. 

But this Sao Silvestre is thought of as a competitive race: with starting blocks and waves, and pacers: from 4 min/km (that is, to run in 40 minutes or less) to 6 min/km (for those wanting to hit 1h).

And even a “healthy” elite “women vs. men” competition. For this, women’s elite athletes were set to start 3’43’’ ahead of the men’s elite (the time difference between the first man and the first woman to finish the race in 2022)

But what stroke me the most was the series of trainings before hand for people who have signed up:

“Treinos da Lidl São Silvestre de Lisboa”

Every week, the organization would send an email with information about training runs, that took place in the Anfiteatro Kell do Amaral. The runs had elite athletes, like Etson Barros, joining, and good prizes like Airfryers or Forerunner watches 🙂

As it can be seen from the email sent, they were super well organized!!:

A pity that we were not in Lisbon so we could not join!

🌍 The Trip 📷: What to see in Lisbon in one day

We had visited Lisbon on several occasions in the past. In fact, it was our first trip together back in… (year censored) 😛

So this time we opted to spend just a couple of days and walk without hurries, remembering places we had seen and enjoyed in the past.

And, by the way, the Sao Silvestre itself is a good way to do “running-tourism”, because the course takes you to a lot of Lisbon’s famous places, including the Rossio and the Plaça do Comerço. But I talk about this later 😀

📝 Run trip: Watch out not to get your legs too tired since Lisbon is super hilly!

We went up to Castelo Sao Jorge. It was full of tourists queuing in front so we didn’t enter (we had visited it in former trips) and just walked around the old, narrow and super hilly streets of the Alfama neighborhood, as well as enjoying the magnificent view from the Miradouro do Recolhimento. We also saw the Rossio and the Mirador de Santa Justa, until we reached the Placa de Comerço.

We then took the bus 714 (goes from Cais do Sodré station to there)  to Mosteiro dos Jerónimos. The Mosteiro is impressive as always. And we finally managed to enjoy it to oursevles and take pictures without any tourists… the day after at 7:45am! 

📝 Travel trip: Be prepared to queue and to not even be able to visit some monuments if you visit Lisbon during the Christmas break. For instance, Torre de Belem was sold out. Lisbon is a very popular destination!

Next to the Monasteiro there is the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, the momument to famous Portuguese sea explorers:

And, of course, the famous Torre de Belém:

You can go up the Padrão dos Descobrimentos and enjoy great views of the city, the 25 de Abril Bridge, a more than 2 kilometers long suspension bridge (which we crossed driving, very cool) and the Cristo Rei, which we visited the day after.

📅 The Race Expo 🎽

There was no ‘expo’ as such, but the race kits could be picked up during several days in the Complexo Municipal Casal Vistoso. 

Funnily enough, in Spanish, “Casal Vistoso” literally means “Colorful house”, but the Sports Centre was not very colorful, as it was under renovation.

At least it had a cool Christmas tree with sports-themed garments!

The handing over of the kits was well organized: there were a lot of people to attend you, and the kit was complet. It included long-sleeved shirts and socks (with the logo of the sponsor, the supermarket chain Lidl). 

The anecdote was when a man adressed Roger in portuguese to check if he had “the right” shirt… because the shirt’s colour for both men and women was the same, a pale pink… and he thought he had been given a woman’s one 🤣

🏃‍♀️ The Race 🏃‍♂️

Pre-race

The race was set to start at 21:30h. 

We checked the weather forecast: it was going to be 12C degrees aprox. And it finally was..  But two hours before, it started raining! So we opted for warm clothes (2 layers of long sleeve shirts) and raincoats. It was too much: I would recommend running with just one long sleeved shirt. The one included in your kits is a fantastic options. Long pants are ok, although many people were running in short ones.

Since we had taken our raincoats, we tried to left them in the “Bengaleiro”, the lockers. We finally didn’t, because there was a long queue. But it was another service provided by the fantastic organisation. 

The Plaça dos Restauradores had a great atmosphere! Thousands of people, and many (like us) sporting the Santa Claus hats handed over by Lidl (that’s the reason they were yellow… 🤣).

Music was playing and the organisation allowed runners to warm up in the space before the starting line.

Five minutes before the start we went to our starting block: our bibs were “mais de 60” ie: more than 60 minutes, and we were checked so we did not enter the wrong block.

A beautiful song about Lisboa was played, which was nice but kind of weird for a starting line for a race. But later, when (after waiting) we finally crossed the starting line, “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC was played!! 

The start was done in 3 waves, so we got to shout the countdown 3 times 😆.

Race

3,2,1… go! We set off amongs loads and loads of spectators loudly cheering. The streets and buildings were shinning, richly decorated with Christmas lights. It was beautiful!! 

What a great start, although we had to overtake many runners walking or taking selfies. But that was our fault, as we had signed up for the slowest block (we finally finished the 10K in 55 minutes)

The first 2K are festive, not only because of the public and the streets decorated with Christmas lights, but because you run down. Then you reach the sea in the Praça do Comércio.

The course is ok apart from a couple of streets where there was barely no illumination.

You turn after Cais do Sodré and at kilometer 5 you find a drinking station. All good. But then the final part, which is what defines the race, starts 😅. You reach the start / finish line at Plaça dos Restauradores but number do not add up – it’s kilometer 7,5!

Indeed, from here you run uphill 1,2kms until Plaça do Marqués de Pombal. We struggled a little but we were consoled seeing that the final km was downhill, and we could see happy runners finishing up the race at our left 🤣

In the Plaça do Marqués de Pombal, we turned and yes! We ran the last km in 4m 40s, and we crossed the finish line holding hands and super happy, while Daft Punk’s “One more time” was playing.

After race

At the finish line you get a medal as well as a fruit juice, cookies and cereal bars… and oranges 🍊! Very good ones, by the way.

After taking some pictures and waiting for our uber, it was soon 11pm. But the speaker in Plaça do Marqués de Pombal was still cheering at the slowest runners, who were walking.

🍜 Carboloading and Protein Recovery 🍝: What to eat

I love the “Pasteis de Belem”, Portuguese puff pastry and cream pastries that originate from the Belem neighborhood, on the banks of the Tagus River. 

The Pasteis de Belem are ideal for carboloading 😝. One cake has 107 calories, 15g of carbohidrates, 5g of fat and 2g of fat. 

A few years ago, when Lisbon wasn’t yet the tourist spot it is now, we were able to enjoy them sitting in the original “Pastelaria of Belem”, next to Monasterio dos Jeronimos. But now, the Pastelaria, founded in 1837 as shown in the beautiful street titles in front of the shop, is always crowded.

However, we were not deterred and we woke up at 7am and were queieng at 7:45am, amongst Japanese and Chinese tourists. So we got our cakes!

There is a famous quote from the book I have chosen for Lisbon, “Pereira maintains”, by Antonio Tabucchi:

…however I felt a great nostalgia, for what I couldn’t say, but it was a great nostalgia for a past life and a future life, Pereira maintains

Antonio Tabucchi, “Pereira maintains”

And it is especially appropriate as I also feel nostalgia for Lisbon, since it is the first trip that Roger and I did together.

And Lisbon and Portugal are famous for its ‘saudade’: a word of its own, a feeling, a state of mind, a nostalgia that can only be described as such and lived in places like Lisbon. 

Check this article from the Blog “The Living abroad” (in Spanish) about how difficult it is to define “saudade”.