Four months after the cold marathon

For the past weeks the Ironman website has been releasing some short videos featuring interviews with pro-athletes, each time about a certain subject. One of the last ones they released was about strength/pain/suffering in endurance sports. At some point of the video (see it at the end of the post), the 2 time ironman world champion Chris McCormack (Macca) says something very interesting:

“Speak to someone after the race, and what is the first thing they talk to you about? They don't tell you how wonderful they felt at 4 miles. They go "oh men, the 10 miles, I did not think I was gonna finish". So they all grasp on to that moment, that painful moment. So, that is the whole reason we do it; that is the drug, is that pain. Whether you believe it or not, that is the purity of endurance race that is why we are all here. We are all asking ourselves the question of how we react, how we do with ourselves at that moment”.

I am not a big fan of Macca and his big mouth, but he does says interesting things sometimes. It's really funny how pro-athletes, and amateurs alike, treasure that painful moments in the races or training sessions. And those are the things we remember the most when looking back to our performances.

Today it's been exactly 4 months that I ran the 2012 Stockolm Marathon, a race edition that was later described by the organization as a race in “cruel conditions” (unseasonal 3-4 degrees C, blasts of wind up to 18 meters/second, and a persistent rain made the race the one with the worst weather conditions in the history of the Stockolm Marathon). 

Although I suffered a lot during in the last 10km of the course, after hitting the wall, and was in a quite bad condition when I crossed the finish line (I was very weak, cold, and shivering all over), I really have good feelings when I think about that cold day in the streets of Stockolm. And I still get goose bumps when I watch the video “Run run run” (see it at the end of the post) with images of the race, which was released on the official website the day after the race.

Of course I do prefer to run in good weather conditions and I always wish that my body will respond optimally during the whole race. I would rather choose to have a good race and improve my personal best for the distance than have to endure a tough race. The point is not the suffering itself, but how you deal with the conditions of the day, and how you push your body to the limits without messing up with the whole race. It is also what you do when external or internal factors are messing up with your race. It is about not giving up when you body or mind wants to do so. It is about surviving. And that is why I love endurance sports.

I am now counting down to my next challenge: the 2012 Amsterdam marathon. In 19 days I will be again at the start line of a marathon, and I am really looking forward to it. The challenge: run a sub 3 hour marathon. Can't wait to taste the “purity” of the marathon, once again.

Ali'i Drive: Strength

 Run, run, run (in the streets of Stockolm)

The longest run before the Amsterdam Marathon

Yesterday I had my longest training session of the preparation for the Amsterdam Marathon next month: 34km in slightly less than 3 hours.  Just  few meters into the run a thought came to my mind. Four years ago, I called myself crazy when I decided to enter the 20km of Brussels for the first time; not because I thought I would not be able to run it in a good time, but because I was not even sure if I would be able to make the distance. By then, the longest I had run was 10km. And somehow that seemed the limit.

But now, going for a morning run of 34km did not seem crazy at all. I just saw it as a normal training session; tough, but perfectly doable. And this gave me a really good feeling. It was really rewarding to realize how my run has improved, both physically and mentally, in these four years.  Not that I am particularly proud of my running skills; I am just an ordinary amateur runner. But I do love running, and I am enormously happy that doing what I love over and over again, stride after stride, km after km, has brought some serious improvement in my running performances. And I hope that the next four years will bring new challenges and achievements. And, of course, completing a full ironman is still part of the dream; training (first for the triathlon short distances, of course) are planned to start next year.

A new personal record for the half-marathon

Now the running season has officially started, and with a good kick-off. Yesterday I ran the 21km of the studentenmarathon, and I am really glad with my result. My time this year was 1:25:19 (8 minutes faster than my time from last year; and 7 minutes faster than my previous personal record for the distance). I crossed the finish line as 44th of the 247 men who ran the half-marathon.

The route was a bit different this year. There were more hills than the previous year; at least that was my feeling during the race.  But somehow the times this year were lower. If last year I had run as fast as yesterday, I would have finished the race in 22nd. My personal theory for the fact that so many men ran under the 1:20 yesterday is that the level of the runners was a bit higher (more fast runners) in comparison with last year.

Something funny/interesting that happened yesterday was that for the whole first half of the route I ran practically together with a guy wearing a red T-shirt (the same color of the T-shirt I had on). We just kept running next to each other and passing other people gradually - like team mates. I had the feeling that I was the one determining the speed, and that he was just following me. And from the way he was breathing I was sure that he was going to blow up at some point and would not be able to follow me anymore. But neither he or I blew up. What happened in the second half was that I kept running in the same speed - I could not run any faster - and he sped up a bit. I tried to follow him, but he was too fast.

Without my companion with the red T-shirt I ran the second half of the race practically alone; there was no one around running at the same speed any more. In the last kilometers some people passed me. But I just kept on running as fast as I could. When I saw my final time I was really happy to realize that I hadn't slowed down in the second half, even though I was quite tired. 

With this time I can start dreaming of running a 3 hour marathon somewhere in the near future.

The official results are here: http://studentenmarathon.ulyssis.org/timeList.php?t=1&d=3

Story behind the running stories. How everything began.

A book, a film, a painting, a poem, a song. They all bring some message; sometimes implicit, sometimes crystal clear. But this "original/intended message" is not always determinant in how you might be impacted by them. A painter cannot precisely determine how a person will feel when standing in front of his painting; neither can a writer, a producer, or a composer do it for their work. Sometimes you can have the same thing producing completely distinct feelings in two different people. And there is where the subjectivity plays a role, and where very peculiar and interesting things can happen. At least that was what happened with me when I saw the film 300 for the first time in 2007.

There was I in the cinema with friends, enjoying a typical Sunday afternoon in São Carlos/Brazil, where I lived by then. I had heard something about Leonidas and his army of 300 courageous Spartans; but I did not really have great expectations about the film. However, right at the beginning something really caught my attention. To become a Spartan soldier, a man had to learn, since his childhood, how to use his body as a weapon. He was tested on his limits, and he had to overcome them to be able to survive all the training Spartans had to go through. To the ones who would make it to the end of the training, a place in the well-trained Spartan army. An army made by men who were not simply soldiers; they were warriors.

When I got out of the cinema I did not want to enlist in the Brazilian army or to subscribe for a fitness program "I wanna a six pack like those guys from 300". Still, I felt I could make a better use of my body and that it was time to put an end to my sedentary lifestyle. Then I did what looked me the most natural thing to be done. I said goodbye to my friends, who were heading to get the bus, and I ran all the way back home. It was not a lot, I must say; 4km I think. It was enough though to get me completely exhausted. Probably I looked completely exhausted as well. In my last 50 meters I passed by a man who looked at me and said: "yes son, I know, it isn't easy!".

I was totally out of shape. I had run sometimes before, when I wanted to lose some weight. But that was long ago. And I had never been what people call a sportive person. Still, I was decided to go deeper in my own way of challenging my body and my limits, and that is when the whole thing about running began for me. 

At the beginning running felt quite tiring and demanding. But after a while my condition started to improve and running soon became a habit - a very welcome habit in my schedule. Sometimes I would catch myself looking forward to the next morning just because I knew I would have a training session by then. The more I ran, the more I liked it. At the end of that same year I ran my first 10km race. That was my debut in "the world of running races", and I really enjoyed it. Since then running and taking part in races became a very pleasureful part of my life, and a passion.  

I am still amazed how the decision of running the way home in that Sunday afternoon has impacted my life. It has changed my schedule, my interests. It led me to meet very interesting people who I would probably never have met if it was not because of running. I gave me a different view about sport in general. It brought me dreams, challenges, ambitions.

I really love running. And I hope I can keep on doing it for a long long time.  

Studentenmarathon 2012

The running season is finally just to start for me. This Wednesday I will run the studentenmarathon, organized at the KULeuven. I am going for the 21km and I am really looking forward to it.

My time last year was 1:33:05; good for position 63 out of 224 runners. Not bad, but this year I want to go for a better time. Even though I have not been training a lot, I believe can run faster. Actually I was dreaming of a Top10 this year, but now checking the times from last year I realize that is not really feasible. To be in the Top10 I would have to run the half-marathon under 1h22min - more than 10 minutes faster than last year; a bit too optimistic I would say. Anyway, I will try to run as fast as I can, and see how fast I can get to the finish line. And when I get really tired I will try to think of the following sentence of Mirinda Carfrae, champion of the 2010 World Championship Ironman.

"You have to be willing to hurt the that next level. Yes, there are people that go out there and say 'You know, I am just going to go there and do my best'. I think that those athletes are not ready to put everything on the line because they are scared. Those athletes never win." (Mirinda Carfrae in interview to the NBC show of the 2011 World Championship Ironman)  

Of course, as an amateur runner, my goal is not to become a champion, but to go beyond my own limits. And to do that, the same principle holds.

Yes! Studentenmarathon here I come.

The Ironman Project

I think that almost every person who I talked to for more than 5 minutes lately has heard me talking about my dream of becoming an ironman. Sometimes I wonder if people don't get tired or bored of me talking about this over and over again. I cannot help it though. Being a triathlete, and eventually an ironman, became a dream to be pursued, a passion that makes my heart beat faster.

But this passion about ironman is something quite new in my life. It all started in July, last year, when I was in Madrid for a summer school. In the interval of one of the courses I got a message from a friend, Thomas, saying that he was going to start training to complete an ironman in 1 year time. When I read the message I just thought: “it sounds like a really crazy idea”, but I also immediately realized that that crazy idea would probably start playing around in my mind as well. The thing is: I like crazy ideas, especially when they mean challenging myself and my limits. A crazy idea like that got me to walk 100km in less than 24 hours the year before, and another crazy idea like that got me to complete my first marathon 3 months earlier. So, deep inside I knew how tempting the ironman idea would become in my life.

It did not take really long until I decided to embrace the crazy idea; actually part of it. I decided that I would become an ironman, but by then – in order to play safe – I did not fix any deadline for my official debut in the triathlon/ironman world. I simply decided I would go for it and would accept all the challenges and commitments involving it. I knew that the way to get me to a start line of an ironman would be long and demanding. But the ironman dream was conceived inside me, and there was no turning back.

Since then I got really involved with the idea around ironman. I bought books and watched documentaries about it; I learned more about the history of this sport and the big names that paved the way for the current generation of triathletes; and I spent more than 8 hours in front of my computer watching the live coverage of the Ironman World Championship 2011 in Hawaii. Of course there is also some sweating and training going on as well: I have been trying to learn how to swim crawl properly and to improve my swimming condition; I cycle in the fitness center now and then – since I don't have a bike yet; and, of course, I keep on practicing the sport I love the most – running.

My ironman project has started! And I hope that with this blog I can share a bit of my steps towards the “still so far start line of my first ironman”.