"Is that green dome the Crystal palace?"

A sports pavilion named after a marathoner

​Frequently heard during our sunrise running tour: 

" - Is that the Crystal Palace you've mentioned? "
" - Well.. not exactly... :) "

 
​The present building's real name is Super Bock Arena/Rosa Mota sports pavilion, a multi-sports venue. To explain you who Rosa Mota is and why running is involved, we need to briefly go back to the 80's. However, there's some world records beaten in 2023 we also need to discuss!

Care to time travel with me?

The strange green dome

 You can't miss the green dome when you look at Porto's skyline. That's on of the reasons why why it frequently becomes a conversation topic during the running tours I guide. The second reason is that I often bring up the fact that this venue is intimately connected to running, though not in an obvious way... !

While some local people still call that UFO-shaped green dome in the background "o Palácio de Cristal", that is not its actual name. The historic Crystal Palace was indeed built in this location in the 1860's, inspired on the original exhibition building that stood in the south of London. The Portuguese 'replica' does no longer exist for it got dismantled in 1951.

READ >THIS BLOG POST< to learn more about the old (no longer existent) Palácio de Cristal

Back to the topic of its present name, Rosa Mota, let's find out who she is!

Who is Rosa Mota?

​I was only 3 years old when Rosa won her first international marathon. During my childhood years, I got used to watch her racing - and wining - over the television. She was 3 times (!!!) Boston marathon winner, won twice in Chicago and also finished first in the 1991's London Marathon, one year before she retired from competition.

Post-marathon interview outside the Hotel in Boston.

​Mota ran 21 marathon races between 1982 and 1992. She averaged two marathons a year for a decade and won 14 of those races. One of them was the Olympic Marathon in Seul, South Korea, in 1988.

Rosa running towards the finish line in Boston and Seoul.

​She became an elite athlete in Porto, where she was born, running for FC Foz, FC Porto and finally CAP, a club which she is still working with in organizing the Portucale 15k race (every July).

Left to right: Rosa Mota, Ana Paula Mota and Aurora Cunha, starting their careers on the track & field team at FCPorto

Rosa is now in her 60's and active as ever. Five feet, two inches of immense greatness and generosity. She took on the role of constantly promoting sports and physical activity and accepts most invitations to be in all sort of charity events.

In Porto she is affectionately known as 'a nossa Rosinha' - our little Rose!

Every other day you can still find her training in city park or the ocean front, usually in the company of her husband and former trainer, José Pedrosa.

Pedrosa, on a street payphone in Boston gathering information about Rosa's split times so that he could inform her further on, during the race (1987).  Smartphones were far from being invented...!

In the 80's she would train twice a day, starting from her apartment in the Foz district (that she and her husband bought with prize-moneys), enjoying the seafront and riverside wonderful sceneries that Porto has to offer.

Rosa's comeback: a serial world record breaker!

In 2023, Rosa is running strong as ever - and beating some world records in her age group!

In October 2023, in Riga, she broke the world record for the half-marathon distance: 1h26min05sec.  Only three weeks later, she beat her own new record, this time in Valencia, with an outstanding time of 01h25min 52sec.

She ended 2023 on a very high note: In Amadora's S.Silvestre race, Mota won her age category with a record time of 39 minutes and 40 seconds, surpassing her mark of 40:17 from October 2023. Her time was so outstanding that she even finished in the top 15 in the women’s general classification. Mota used her experience to her advantage, perfectly executing a negative split, coming through the first 5K in 19:58 and closing in 19:42.

She is (again) receiving some well-deserverd-hard-earned international media attention:

Ver esta publicação no Instagram

Uma publicação partilhada por Canadian Running Magazine (@canadianrunning)

Why has Rosa never attempted to win the Porto Marathon?

Rosa would probably have ran the distance in 2h23 (her PR and national best) and finishing it with the widest of smiles​!

Interestingly though, she never ran Porto's marathon.

Do you dare guessing why? 

(we'll explain it during one of our running tours)

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