Category: Events

Lisbon Half Marathon

Finally a sub 2 hour half marathon, exactly 1h57m53s, with a lot of mixed feelings.

The first couple kilomoters, simply impossible to run properly, just a big gymkhana with all kind of non-runners in the way,  from the baby stroller to the old ladys walking hand in hand to avoid getting lost from each others, and a lot more characters in the middle…. the second third of the race did a very good time, with many sub 5 kilometers, probably sub 50m 10ks (couldn’t get all the splits), but just dropped the hammer a bit too soon, so the last 4Ks were hard, stopped and walked a couple of times, maybe the mental working due to the strong pace that somewhere started to seem harder than what i was ready/mentalized to coup with.

Except the feet blisters (as usual….), everything ok at the finish, legs, knees, muscles. Cool. By now, the sub 1h50 seems really doable, without no major change in training or life style.

Anyway, probably not in this race, for sure that is a very scenic and fun course, and the weather usually is fine this time of the year (today a bit too warm though). But have to rethink it next year, 45 minutes in a line to get the bib-numbers, they ran out of time control chips ?? (so no official time for me and others), in the race day, 45 minutes to walk/crawl 500 meters from the train station to the race start, first kilometers you don’t run you gymkhana, near Praça do Comercio gymkhana again, missed 3 aid station water supply due to all the confusion, at the end another 30 minutes just to pass through to the exit…..

Next running objectives:
sub 50m 10K
sub 5m 1500m (that is very hard)

Ignite Portugal

Attended (half) Ignite Portugal in LX Factory. The concept is quite simple, 5 minute talks about creativity, innovation, technology, entrepreneurship and other themes. Each speaker presents 20 slides that show up 15 seconds each. So, there is no time for bullshiting, the speakers must go straight to the point.

I enjoyed a lot the frenetic pace, and the talks were very interesting and diversified points of view. Unfortunately, already had a dinner party scheduled, so i missed part 2… definitely a must do again experience.

Running 24Kms in Lisbon Marathon

This was a busy weekend, signed up for the half-marathon event that runs parallel to the Lisbon Marathon. Lousy traffic jams downtown due to traffic Sunday restrictions and the marathon itself made it impossible to get to the starting line on time. So, what we did (me and TC) was to stop the car near Restauradores and start running with the “marathonists” well ahead of the half start line.

The scenary was very nice, running along Lisbon main avenues, the river and plazas. So, the aftermath was 24Kms in 2h30~ the longest run i ever did, with the last uphill through Av. Almirante Reis very hard to the legs and knees. As always the time is not important at all for a weekend runner, but was very nice to make such a distance.

Note to myself: a full marathon IS VERY VERY HARD looking back to the mental finish after “only” 24kms

At end i also won two nasty blisters, one at each foot, maybe due to wrong socks or just the plain distance…  now i go bath my legs in cold water…

Nissan Leaf – Test drive

What makes one get out of bed at 9am Saturday with 6 hour worth of sleep in a very cold day? Electricity! Provided by the “Nissan LEAF Tour” in Lisbon.

I had scheduled a test drive 2 or 3 weeks ago, and today was the day to engage in a first person pure electric drive. As i was rushing to Expo in my beaten diesel i wondered how it would feel as the only previous experience was in an Altima Hybrid (full electric up to about 25k/h)…  after arriving on site, the check-in process was a breeze , just signing up a responsibility term and show the drivers license, and 5 minutes afterward i was seated up in a brand new Nissan LEAF with Gary (a very nice Nissan technician) on the passenger side.

So, how was it? In two words, very cool. The test drive was a tour around the outer perimiter of Parque das Nações, 10kms worth of urban and sub-urban routes (not the usual salesmen drive around the block / or in the parking…yes it actually happened to me once…). So, how is it? Smooth, silent, powerful, calm, relaxing. Really smooth power delivery, the 0-100K/h acceleration is pretty good (around 10s), and almost no noise, just a cool “jet like” wine at wide open throttle, you really don’t feel no lack of power and you can merge to highways pretty easy. Really didn’t push hard on corners, but the direction feels good (not the normal Nissan feather like steering), so as the suspension and brakes feel pretty competent. This IS NOT a sports car, but a perfect commuter car, very easy and relaxing to drive. Its like a magic carpet, that slides down the road. It must be driven to be sensed.

Afterward when i went back home in my 10 years old diesel, it felt more like a 100 year old car with all those nasty engine/transmission noises…. Back to the Leaf, it is a real car, a real solid product, not a gizmo with wheels, is a great accomplishment by Nissan. I believe that if Tesla Roadster showcased the electric car technology and inspired many, the Leaf can be the dawn of the electric revolution.

For the bad part, the ugly design, other bad point is the ugly design, and of course the ugly design. Did i mention the ugly design? How hard could it be to make a (much) better looking car? Well, lets just hope Leaf 2.0 gets better looks. Also the range, of course always the range, only 160kms (at highway better to expect around 100Kms) so this implies a oil burner as a backup car for that 1% big trips. The range issue is something that will remain for many years, as the battery capacity trend show small improvements over time, about the double of capacity for each ten years. So, maybe only a 2030 Leaf can have a decent +600Kms range, and by then we can finally trash the oil burners.

The good news in this range/battery/electric car business, is that the engine is +90% energy efficient (almost no margin of progress here), so the battery as the weak link, in 10 years from now a “simple” battery swap upgrades the car to the latest technology.


I also did some number crunching…

Continue reading “Nissan Leaf – Test drive”

Sapo Online Advertising Prizes 2010

Yesterday we (we as most of the good people of Waynext) went to LX Factory for the SAPO Online Advertising prizes 2010 event. These are THE prizes for the portuguese web industry. Personally for me is always a really good time, with free drinks and meeting other friends and people of the web business.

The venue was ok, not one of the best neither a bad one. As usual in the beginning of the ceremony almost impossible to get some drinks (kudos Diana for getting the drinks).  Fernando Alvim was the host of the event and with the help of some F1 girls did a pretty decent job (more about this later in the post).

For me is always strange, as the prizes are being announced and delivered there is so little cheering and clapping, its awkward, it seems that everybody is chatting with everybody else and could not care less for the prizes. Anyway, Fullsix won the agency of the year prize, next year will be other and then Fullsix again (some kind of universal law). I really disagree with Financial category where Waynext won silver with “CGD Ciclo da Poupança” and the gold prize was delivered to “BES Vou filmar com o Ronaldo” a common site with some videos with C. Ronaldo doing tricks with the ball. Maybe is the superstar effect “look what a mediocre site, hey but they have Ronaldo :)”, truth to be told we also benefit a couple of years ago of this “superstar effect” in a PT site, really common but with Gato Fedorento.

Also, about the jury selections, i really dislike the overuse of double prizes, they delivered two golds or two bronze for different agencies in the same category too many times. Fuck, a jury is supposed to decide not to stall. Maybe in some very particular situation is really too much difficult, so an ex aequo decision is fine, but the key word is “very particular situation”. They overused a lot, and for the host and agencies was strange:

Alvim – “The gold prize in X category goes to agency X. Humm. Ando also to agency Y.” ??? And there was people from both agencies in the stage, and it doesn’t really feels like a victory…. because of all that mess, as we were co-winners of Best Rich Media with View-Isobar, and were waiting for the stage to clear up of the good people of View, Alvim forgot that there was two winners and proceed to next category without the actual delivery of the trophy (we collected it later at the finish).

Other thing about the jury choices, was the no blog prize delivery, i think they simply forget to vote on it, because i can’t believe that there was not in the competition worth of the prize. Also, the “Advertiser of the Year” award presented to LG??? Ahhh, a member of the jury was the portuguese LG CEO, did the other guys get big LCD TVs or did he just sold the other votes?

Besides, some jury non-sense, a great time there, in the last half hour made a personal commitment about running and other that involves model rocketry

Mental note: Must drink less or keep mouth shut when in alcohol danger zone

I also took home some pictures, and happily re-touched them: