I will miss it because no matter what I wrote in my thesis, China is not a place for sport. Not for private sport for normal people, at least.
Anyway...
Yesterday I made an indoor Pentathlon competition.
This means: 60 hs, high jump, shot put, long jump, 800m.
All in one day, all in 7 hours.
I have always loved it, but the last time I took part in Combined track and field events I was 17. And both of my knees were still intact.
Plus, after I broke my second knee, 2 years ago, I basicly stopped jumping hurdles (it's funny to notice that in italian you don't say JUMP... on the contrary, the first thing you teach to an athlets is that hurdles are not to be jumped, but "passed").
Neither have I run for long distances, because it's too painful for my tendons.
But last tuesday I decided I would have signed up for the competition. At first I tought about failing the first competition, faking to fall on the first hurdle or to stop before it, and then ignoring the 800m. I would have just jumped and thrown. For fun.
The, on friday, I tried the starting blocks and the first two hurdles. And against all expectations, I wasn't scared. I started, I jumped the first one, and the the second one. And no matter how slow I was and how uncohordinated I looked like jumping the second hurdle with my "wrong" leg, I felt the fast and strong. I could make it! I was incredibly surprise of my own courage. Expertise 1 - injuries and fear 0.
That night I couldn't sleep. I couldn't stop thinking about that competition, at 10.30 am next morning.
On saturtday morning I entered the stadium trying to gather all my energies, my courage and trying not to think about the painkillers I had to take because of my knee.
I was scared, I didn't want to fail.
But my friends where there. My mates, the pole vaulters. And they were encouraging me. So I started thinking I could male it.
When I was preparing my blocks, the anxiety reached its highest level. Bt when I was there, with my hands behing the starting line and the hurdles in front of me, I wasn't scared anymore. I was just determined. And when the judge shot and I jumped the first hurdle, I knew I would have made it.
11 seconds and 23 tenths later I was the happiest person in the world. I made it! I felt stronger thany any hurdles I could have found in my life from that moment on! And hearing my friend shouting and cheering was the best prize I could ever wish. I had already won my competition, now the fun could start!
After 7 hours, it was time for running... or better, for dying!
At the beginning I said I wouldn't run... I haven't run all winter because because of the pain, so I wasn't trained at all! And I know how hard that distance was going to be!
But I was there, I had already done 4 competitions... I couldn't give up! At least I would have started...
What made me actually start was the fact that I was in the same heat of Elisa... and I knew how fast she was going to run. So I thought that I would have just followed her and stopped if I couldn't make it to the end.
But then we started. final heat, final competition, final effort.
Elisa tried to reach the leading group, but I kept my (slow) pace. After 2 round out of 4 I wanted to quit. I didn't think that even my arm could feel so tired after only 400m! Everything was hearting, my heart was going to explode and my lungs to collapse. But for all those longest 3 minutes and 24 seconds of my entire life, I could hear people shouting my neame from all over the track. Friends, mates, people that I barely know where supporting me to reach the end, to not give up. Then, Elisa started slowing down and I felt that no matter how hard was the pain, I could reach her. For a moment I hated all these people because if there hadn't been there, I could have stopped. But the athlete pride won and with that new strenght, grabbed from other people's voices, I made it. I reached Elisa and I reached the arrival just a couple of meters behind her.
I knew it was going to be hard, but I couldn't imagine it would have been SO hard. When I finally arrived my lungs were aching and I wanted to vomit. I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe. It took me a while to realize that I had made it. A while, the help of a judge to rise and the hug of my friends to avoid falling again.
But when the oxygen started flowing through my brain again, I can't describe my feeling. Once again, I did it. And I didn't even get to the last position!
Expertise 2 - injuries and fear 0.
I owned the world, I owned my life.
Athletics really is a gym for life.
Yesterday I understood that nothing can stop me. And that when you feel like quitting, your friends will be there for you. And if they're there for you, you can't betray them. They are your strenght.
Thanks.
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