Oleksii Didenko's Staging Area

It was just a disaster!

I felt that it’s gonna be epic the day before race, during collecting my race kit. It was pure chaos there in Centro Cultural. I came home and checked the T-shirt I received – it was way too thick for such weather. Good that I had clothes from previous runs and was able to dress according to the weather.

Th show started the next day when hundreds of people were trying to pack into trains that were one of the two options to get to the start of the race. There were also buses departing from the finish location, but according to other reviews it was the same mess there with enormous crowds and just a few buses. I was lucky to squeeze in and observe disappointed people on every station we passed that were not able to get in. After train arrived to the final station thousands of people had to walk another 30 mins to the race start. At some point of time the road was blocked with a fence and security guys were checking everyone. There were 7 gates. 7 gates for thousands of people. You can imagine how long did it take to pass through this stage.

After passing the security check you find yourself in the middle of nowhere, without any visual navigation, so just follow the crowd. The crowd however also doesn’t really know what’s going on. Same as orgs – no damn clue about anything! I had to put my stuff in a locker and not a single person knew where they are. And no signs, no navigation, NOTHING. Just people peeing in the bushes all around, as there were only a few toilets there.

After getting really annoyed and lost, I bumped into a girl who said that lockers are gonna leave soon. She pointed the direction. I ran there. There was a huge truck (without any signs saying that that’s the place where you can leave your stuff) and people were just throwing their belongings into there. Pure medieval madness and chaos. There were dozens of people and as soon as I arrived the guy in the truck shut the doors and it left. Everyone was shocked. And orgs didn’t react to any requests, didn’t provide any help or any solution. Just ignored the problem. People were shouting and it felt like a protest at some point. Wow. In the end all these people (including myself) had to run with these shitty bags. Oh boy was that a torture!

Another sweet moment is that race starts at 10:05! All other races I took part in were starting 8:00-8:30 tops. It was 23 degrees Celsius in Lisbon, not a single cloud and the sun was violent, people were running with their stuff on their backs, the route was passing through sea docks and industrial hangars. No shadows, no views, and a bag slowly cutting your body. Pure nightmare!

“The fastest half marathon in the world” they said. My time was much worse than my time on easy long runs (and I run almost the same route, as I live in Lisbon), because I had to run with a damn 2kg bag swinging on my back under a sun in zenith!

Wow, I can’t imagine how this completely retarded level of organisation is even possible. And it happens every damn year! I’ve found reviews from 2016 and 2019 – it was just identical! How on Earth can you keep so unbelievably awful level of organisation without any improvements FOR YEARS! It’s either extreme cretinism or extreme misanthropy. Probably both.

All in all, I got sunburns, the bag’s ropes cut my shoulders, I achieved the worst imaginable time for half-marathon (again, worse then my training time), and my IQ has dropped after just participating in this shit show.

Please don’t register for this event and don’t give money to this organisation. It’s a scam and it’s a crime. Better just come to Lisbon, enjoy your vacation and go for nice and rewarding run along the Tejo river in the morning/evening. Spend these marathon money on nice local cuisine and support people that do their job and deserve being paid.