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Sunday January 20th 2019 Funchal Half Marathon No 22 Portugal

Funchal Half Marathon Sunday January 20th  2019 Portugal No 22

Richard 02:11:47  Jackie 02:25:19


 The Funchal Marathon , Half Marathon and Mini Marathon was a fairly small event for a City Marathon attracting about 1400 entries across the 3 distances, but Funchal and Madeira got behind the event  to make it into a big success. Full road closures , an early entry of only 15 euros, which included a t-shirt a delicious cake and a small bottle of fortified wine . Nice  atmosphere at the finish with entertainment , refreshments and presentation ceremony. There was also plenty of people out on the streets and in the roadside cafe's cheering us on . Madeira was very interesting , it has a population of 255,000 , is well known as the birth place of  Cristiano Ronaldo,  and the temperature on January 20th was sunny and in the 20's ( a bit warm for running ) . It was very green so I guess there is plenty of rain and it has  the largest and biggest range of passion fruit I have ever seen . It is also a popular walking destination and is visited regularly by cruise ships .We plan to go back and explore the island further in the future .
   Another interesting feature of this race was the number of countries represented which was 36 in total .Also of note is how many British entries there were , just pipping the Germans in both the Marathon and the Half Marathon .

                MARATHON

 HALF MARATHON



 
    
The only problem Funchal has is lack of space , unless you want to run up very very steep hills , and actually I think I have seen advertised one of the steepest races in Europe on Madeira .  Anyway lack of space meant  meant laps , I don't mind laps but Jackie is not keen .

Another lap , not finished yet .

All done 


Made in Madeira

Amazing passion fruit



Good friendly atmosphere



       IT WAS ALSO BOTH OUR BIRTHDAYS ON RACE DAY










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