If the particularly harsh winter experienced by Quebec made the runner from the Azores sweat, this 48-year-old cabinetmaker needs his daily dose of running, which he combines with work and family.
When I finish my working day and I’m tired and stressed, I tell my wife that I’m going to take my cigarette when I go for a run, explains the Laval resident with his Portuguese accent. My cigarette is racing and when I come back, I feel like a different person, more rested.
Manuel Cabral has always stayed away from real cigarettes. His father, who smoked and drank heavily, died of cardiac arrest when he was just two years old. His mother also died relatively young of cancer.
I always told myself that I had to lead the life of a wise man or a soldier if I wanted to live old, so I started running without ever stopping, he explains. It’s my pleasure to run, it’s my passion.
This is why running has accompanied him all his life. Years of rigorous training are visible to the naked eye. His muscles are striated, his silhouette refined.
When he was in his early twenties, enlisted in the Portuguese army, Cabral even managed to complete a marathon in 2 hours 19 minutes, a feat that is beyond the reach of many humans.
On Monday, he hopes to complete his tenth Boston Marathon in 2 hours 45 minutes. He has run regarding a hundred marathons in his life. In fact, he no longer counts them.
I run naturally, I don’t have a specific training program, says Cabral. I make my program myself and that’s what it looks like.
He will be one of the 350 Quebec runners who will blend into the mass of 30,000 runners at the start. It is the first time since 2019 that the prestigious endurance event is presented in April, as tradition dictates.
This marathon, followed by around 500,000 spectators massed along the 42.195 kilometres, makes him vibrate.
Boston is unique, because first of all you have to train in the winter, so that pushes us out of our comfort zone. It’s always a pleasure to go there, because no matter if it’s raining or snowing, the spectators push us to run faster.
If he trains most of the time alone, Manuel Cabral runs at least once a week with a group, in Rigaud. This group of runners, set up by his friend François Perreault, meets during the 14 weeks preceding the marathon to prepare well.
Confronting the slopes of Rigaud helps to soften those of the marathon course, it seems.
A man of challenges
When the pandemic shook our world, in 2020, Manuel Cabral sought to challenge himself. Since all the organized races were at a standstill, he gave himself the mission of running on all the streets of the city of Laval.
His challenge forced him to cover more than 3100 kilometers with his sneakers. He is doing it once more this year and taking the opportunity to raise funds once more for a charity that is close to his heart.
Last summer, in the middle of a heat wave, he ran 100 kilometers in a single day to raise funds for the Quebec Firefighters Foundation for burn victims.
He admits to having boundless admiration for these heroes who save lives, sometimes at the risk of their own.
But on Monday, in Boston, Manuel Cabral will mainly run for the pleasure of running. It’s just as noble. He will go, as is his personal tradition, to sleep with his brother who lives nearby.
They will go to Easter mass on Sunday, then he will have dinner with the same menu he chooses on the eve of each marathon. Tuna, sweet potatoes and rice.
