Sport and adventure, is the ultimate conquest of the useless. The exploration of our body and mental capabililities to perform well on a game, or the capacity to travel into the unknown, has captured my heart and energy in the last 10 years, and the fire is stronger than ever.
Sport has the power of change lives (Adidas moto), I do beleive it so deeply, that for me, working in the sports industry, is a dream come true, despite many discrepancies in my vision with the mainstream approach to sport, adventure and competition.
For thousands of millions of humans in the world, physical activity is not a necessity to aquire the means for living. The division of labor and specialization, moved most labor from agriculture to the industry and services sectors. Keeping aside the unfair, innacurate and missmanaged notion of agriculture as a small and almost irrelevant part of our system, less and less people are needed, given our temporal abundance of dense forms of energy, for that purpose. The ramifications of that fact are multiple and out of scope for this post, but the truth is that unless our work requires signficant amount of physical exertion, we need to practice sports to remain healthy and keep our minds healthy.
The practice of exercise via games, self-propolsed movement, is not only fun and healthy, but a great way to connect with our body, other people and the environment. The regular practice of sports particularly those of endurance type (running, cycling, mountaneering, walking...) develop our hearts, muscle and brains taking us to physical and mental places we were never before.
I did have some problems studying and reading, and adding 30 minute runs to my life help me to focus, to engage into a healthier lifestyle and increase my steem. Endurance sports become much more atractive than team sports for me, as I was seeking the introinspection, outside the competition and sometime agressive nature of football. Running was a way to transform my life, block by block, by thinking and being more deeply connected to my thoughts and sorroundings.
I start with urban places, and that became the first thing I did when I move to a new place to spend my summer. Later, I start exploring the forests near my father's place, and the rest is history. Inspired by the catalan fast alpinist Kilian Jornet, I started exploring higher and more remote places... I was fascinated by covering long distances in places were only those who spend days walking can be. I dream of crossing entire mountain ranges in one day, in islands or the big mountains worldwide.
Hiring a trainer than later will be a friend for a lifetime was a great choice, as Carlos teach me the fundamentals of endurance training and athletics. I was running longer, faster and healthier because of his guidance and science behind his teachings. One of the highlights was to be in the podium of one of the most competitive and beatiful races in our region, the ultra of barcelona in 2017. The mixture of white rocks and sea views capture my attention and it is still for me one of the best places to run in the world. I saw that what seems impossible, running 73km3400+ in barely 7 hours was possible, with a lot of work and luck. It was a sweet and sad moment, because my dream came true, and I did not happen to have a long list to follow.
I choose to focus my energy and to build up my dreams in adventure more than competition. Decided to develop for the rest of my life as a fast mountain athlete, exploring in multiple ways, such as cycling, climbing and running, our natural environment. There is an obvious tradeoff in that decision with respect competition, but I made my mind clear, adventure was a lifetime goal, races come and go.
It has been more than 14 years since I started running and having endurance sports as part of the base of my life. I can only be grateful to found out that. I feel strong, both physical and mentally, resilient, and above all, healthy and happy. I am deeply connected with my adventure mates and our planet, and using the learning from the hardships of the sport, in the challenges that life brings.
Death, decay, injury...are around the corner, but I keep the intelligent dance of making the best out of every day. I choose not to have happy Fridays, but happy moments, I choose not to pollute my body and brains with junk food, drinks, info and relationships. I train every day because it makes me a better person, and this is enough to keep pursuing the conquer of the useless.
Sport is much more than winning, racing and watching a match. Sport is a chance to make the apparently useless the change we want in our world. It does not matter your sex, color, who you love, your religion, your political position... we could all enjoy together the immense amount of possibilities that sport brings.
The opportunity to love our bodies and minds a little bit more, to discover the world and the amazing people around us...the chance to challenge us safely and compasionately, is within our reach. We only have to put on some shoes, shorts and a shirt, and start a life changing journey.
"I wish I could be a bird, but running is the close second (bernd heinrich)"
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