Pedro Rocha

Parte cedo demais, o "Professor" (como gostava de o chamar).

Um excelente profissional e ainda melhor pessoa.

Nem sei o que escrever mais.

Os meus sentimentos à família.

Find your obsession

Bela história de preserverança de Cat Bradley!

Informe Robinson DEP

Hoje faleceu Michael Robinson, que em Espanha tinha um programa de documentários denominado Informe Robinson, com muita qualidade. Descanse em Paz.
Deixo aquele que no meu caso é o mais emblemático sobre o enorme Haile Gebrselassie.

The Long Run

Uma visão dos melhores do mundo sobre o treino longo.
Boas dicas para todos os que ambicionam correr a maratona.

The road to Vienna: INEOS 1:59 Challenge

"Friendship is about life and life is a journey", a frase que retenho da terceira parte do documentário sobre a tentativa de Eliud Kipchoge bater as 02:00 na maratona, em Outubro.
Boa sorte, Eliud!



Primeira parte


Segunda parte

My future self

Se fosse treinador (de jovens e não só) mostrava esta carta a todos os que começassem e relembrá-la-ia de vez em quando...
Boris Berian, há cerca de 3 anos trabalhava num McDonald's. No ano passado, foi atleta olímpico, campeão mundial indoo e ainda teve o desplante de desafiar a gigante Nike, por não aceitar os termos de renovação de contrato, sendo que a marca tentou até determinado ponto, bloquear a sua ida aos trials americanos, para conquistar o lugar nos Olímpicos.
Conseguiu um novo patrocinador, conseguiu que a Nike desistisse do processo, pela má publicidade que a marca estava a obter e conseguiu o tal feito de ser campeão mundial indoor e atleta olímpico! Mas não se esquece do seu passado!
Grande lição de humildade!
Inspiração!

A New Balance lançou esta campanha sobre o mesmo tema:


A carta que abaixo reproduzo, apareceu aqui.

Dear 80-year-old Boris,

I know it’s been a long time since you competed in the Olympics, but I hope you haven’t forgotten all of the mountains you had to climb to get there.

As an old man, I hope you’re not just staring at photos from Rio, remembering only the glory. I hope you still think about the struggle, too.

Do you remember the lunch rush at McDonald’s?

The smell of stale french-fry grease in the air, and the line of customers that seemed to go on forever — every single day? Remember the pissed-off looks on their faces when they thought you were taking too long?

I do. I still remember that deep fryer in the corner, and how the floors were always slick with oil residue, even after they had been freshly mopped. You’re lucky you were wearing those weird nonslip safety shoes they made everybody rock. You couldn’t have afforded any setbacks back then.

Just two years before the Rio Olympics, you were a 21-year-old college dropout, bagging fries.

Remember that feeling of standing behind the register all day, just waiting for the time to pass, waiting for your opportunity to clock out so you could go train by yourself? You knew, deep down, that flipping burgers and working the register was only temporary. It wasn’t your true calling.

You were meant to run. You knew, man.

But nobody else knew.

The customers at McDonald’s definitely couldn’t tell. Those people in line had no idea you were the fastest kid in your elementary school. Or that you had run the 400 meters in under 50 seconds in high school. They didn’t know that you won the 800-meter gold at the indoor and outdoor NCAA D-II championship your freshman year.

To them, you were just another kid who couldn’t keep his grades up, who dropped out of school, who moved back home with his mom. Who was doing this now, and probably would be forever.

They didn’t see greatness. They just wanted to make sure you didn’t forget that extra packet of barbecue sauce.

Can you still feel that relief of clocking out every night? Standing in the parking lot, waiting for a ride home from your friend since you didn’t even have your own car? After your shift was over, you’d power-nap for an hour, grab some food, then head out to the train tracks.

That’s where you went to run, all by yourself, out where you could be free from any distractions. You’ve probably found a way to block it all out of your mind by now, but I still sometimes think about it. It was a battle. I know some nights you felt like you’d be better off at home just relaxing, but you never once let yourself quit. You had to keep going, even though nobody was watching.

You’re lucky you had a coach who lectured you the way he did when you were young. Over and over, pounding it into your head that you had the potential to be something special on the track — and that it was up to you to make the most of that potential. It took a few years to finally sink in, but eventually those words were what got you through your eight-hour shifts.

As you kept training, you kept getting faster. First you were shaving seconds off of your sprint times, then tenths of seconds. But no matter how fast you ran, you never felt like it was fast enough. You had something to prove, even though there wasn’t a single person watching, aside from maybe the conductor of a passing freight train.

You had to be faster than everybody else. That was your mind-set.

Do you ever think about those walks home?

It probably doesn’t seem so bad now, but I still sometimes think of those nights when you’d barely make it home because you had pushed yourself too hard. You’d be so exhausted from the hours of sprinting that you weren’t really sure if your aching feet could carry you back to bed.

Then you would wake up, go back to work the next morning and do it all over again. You weren’t training for the Olympics at that point. You were just training. No particular career goal in mind, just something inside of you that made you have to run.

And it was hard. Days or even weeks would pass by where you thought all of the hard work might be for nothing. How many people are able to make a career out of running? In the back of your mind you thought you might have to become a policeman, or join the Army. Or become a firefighter like your mother once suggested, after that day she found out you had dropped out of college and called you in tears, begging you to get your life together.

You told her that you just needed some time, that you’d find a way to make it work eventually. She bought it at the time, but it’s hard to tell if she really believed you.

But she sure was proud when you got invited to train at Big Bear, wasn’t she?You ignored the first message on your voice mail. You weren’t sure if it was real or just someone playing a prank. You hadn’t competed in a real event in almost three years. You’re lucky you got called again the next day, and that the running coach on the other end of the line insisted on personally taking you under his wing to train.

How did he even know about you? A friend of a friend, he said. He made it clear that he believed in you, even though everyone else you had met at college thought you had pretty much fallen off the face of the earth.

You didn’t know what agreeing to train with him would even really mean at the time, just that it was probably less dangerous than training by yourself beside the train tracks every night.

“Work hard. Be positive.”

That’s what he kept telling you at Big Bear. That became your mantra. If you followed that advice it would all work out for you in the end. Do you still hear him saying it? I do.

It was echoing in your head when your plane landed in Rio.

I know you remember Rio, but do you remember the feeling of unpacking your bags in your room in the Olympic Village? That’s when you realized they could never take it away from you. Forever after, you were going to be known as an Olympian.

It was a long way from the McDonald’s inside the Colorado Springs Wal-Mart.

And it wasn’t the way you planned when you were a kid, back when running was just a hobby you enjoyed while you weren’t playing Halo in one of your friends’ basements.

It certainly wasn’t the path you had in mind when you were spending your days surrounded by fast food and angry customers.

But it really happened. Don’t just remember that you made it to the Olympics. Remember why.

And remember, the next time you’re standing in line for a coffee, or waiting at a drive-thru, take a moment to think about the person working there. Look them in the eye. Maybe even try to learn their name. Think back to the time when it was you who was standing on the other side of the window, faking a smile and handing out bags of food to strangers.

Because you never know. One of those strangers might be exactly like you. Just biding time, doing work before doing work, and trying to tap into their own greatness.

Sincerely,

Boris Berian
January 2017

Resiliência

Capacidade de superar, de recuperar de adversidades.

Excelente documentário sobre a incrível recuperação de Camilla Pedersen, depois de um acidente de bicicleta (tendo estado em coma durante três semanas) e o seu regresso a provas de triatlo de longa distância.
Grande exemplo!

Bekele

Enquanto fazia a Corrida do Tejo, Bekele regressava à ribalta com um tempo fantástico na maratona!
Atleta de eleição, com uma bela estreia nesta prova, faz agora um resultado que lhe pode conferir o estatuto de melhor atleta de fundo de sempre!
Kipsang deu grande luta e o recorde mundial ficou apenas a 3 segundos...
Berlim continua a ser a prova dos recordes...

Espírito de equipa

Final da tarde, tive a sorte de ver parte dos Marathon Trials americanos.

Mais do que a (eventual surpresa da) vitória de Rupp ou o fantástico segundo lugar de Meb (que lhe permite ir aos Olímpicos, com 41 anos!!!), a prova feminina foi a que me despertou mais atenção:

durante quase 40kms, Amy Cragg e Shalane Flanagan correram lado a lado, como se fossem apenas uma.

Foto do instagram inhaleandrun

Elas que viveram juntas, durante os últimos 4 meses - acompanhadas pela série da Flotrack: The Trials of Shalane Flanagan.

Ao contrário do que seria suposto, a mais credenciada (Flanagan) começou a quebrar e foi fantástico ver o incentivo constante de Cragg para que não se fosse abaixo. Em determinada altura, era impossível a Cragg manter a quebra no ritmo. Seguiu sozinha e venceu de forma brilhante!

Mas ainda melhor, foi a forma como recebeu a 2.ª classificada (Des Linden) e a terceira, a sua colega Flanagan, que colapsou nos seus braços, imediatamente após a meta, depois de uma parte final de grande sofrimento.

Foto do instagram run_the_loop

Verdadeiro espírito de equipa!

Se quiserem ver esses momentos finais da prova, têm aqui o link da NBC e aqui os comentários pós-prova de Shalane Flanagan.

Rob Krar: Chasing the Distance

Ultra, corrida, depressão, distância, Amor, montanha, Paz!

Rob Krar: Chasing the Distance from Tandem Stills + Motion, Inc. on Vimeo.

76

Jacinto Bonilla
76 anos e um espírito do tamanho do mundo!

Querer é poder

Bela reportagem de Susana Bento Ramos!
Muito bem conseguida e transmitindo aquilo que muitos sabemos sobre o desporto português: excelentes praticantes e grandes treinadores, mas a necessitarem de muito mais apoio!
A mensagem de sempre: somos gigantes no desporto, apesar da dimensão territorial!
http://tviplayer.iol.pt/programa/reporter-tvi/53c6b3483004dc006243bd77/episodio/t2e42
Vale a pena ver!

Aurora

Só hoje tive oportunidade de ver este documentário sobre a grande Atleta, Aurora Cunha!

Curiosamente, elaborado (e muito bem) pela sua filha!

Para memória futura!

Do adro até à estação...

... em pouco mais de dois minutos!
Quando éramos miúdos, gostávamos de inventar provas, onde morávamos:
a mais famosa era a «Volta à Isilda», um «circuito» de menos de 500 metros, circundando a zona onde morávamos. Havia outras provas, como uma corrida no adro da igreja, com menos de 60 metros ou a «ida à estação e volta» (cerca de 2.000m).

Vem isto a propósito de...?

A última performance de Taoufik Makloufi (argelino, campeão olímpico de 1.500 em Londres), numa prova de 1.000m (a tal ida à estação) ontem:

Do adro até à estação em 2'13!!! :)
Grande máquina, para uma grande recordação!

Symmonds

Impossível ficar indiferente a Nick Symmonds...

A sua vitória no passado domingo, nos 800m nos campeonatos americanos da USATF, para além de surpreendente apenas para quem não o conhece, é o retrato fiel de um vencedor:
a) Assumiu uma mudança difícil de marca (Nike pela Brooks), saíndo da sua zona de conforto

b) Prepara-se ao milímetro para picos de forma nas grandes competições, apesar de ser um bon vivant, fora do seu oval office

c) Assume com naturalidade a sua grande capacidade para gerir uma fantástica carreira;
d) A sua conferência de imprensa, antes da final de domingo, em que cada palavra é usada como mind game para os seus adversários

e) A sua conferência pós-vitória no passado domingo

f) Por último, o trailer da série Driven da Flotrack em que Symmonds se define como um entertainer

Com a devida licença do Nuno, que sugeriu alguns vídeos que definem este grande atleta, do qual já sou fã há algum tempo pelas suas crónicas no blog da Runner's World:

Obrigado, Nick Symmonds!

At Last

"At Last", documentário sobre o combate do século!
Mais do que conhecer a história de Floyd Mayweather e Manny Pacquiao, fico positivamente surpreendido com a tenacidade do treinador de Pac-Man, com doença de Parkinson há 25 anos e que luta todos os dias contra um processo irreversível! Para mim, o verdadeiro combate!

The Clash of the Champions

Domingo com um grande duelo em perspectiva:
Admiro a paz que Kipsang transmite quando fala, mas a timidez de Kimetto não influi na sua corrida... o recorde do mundo, é seu!

Vamos ver!

Aceitam-se apostas :)

Épico

Gosto de vitórias épicas, contra as previsões dos entendidos!
Para além do enorme orgulho pela prestação de Nélson Évora, domingo nos Europeus de pista coberta, tivemos a brilhante vitória de Jakub Holusa!
Quem diria que a 100 mts da meta, o vencedor seria outro, que não o queniano naturalizado turco?

O sorriso esconde muita coisa...

Não podia descrever melhor o que sinto...
Aprendi há alguns anos, com o meu Amigo Mário Lima, a esconder emoções menos positivas, através de um sorriso... é um grande truque!
Bela entrevista da grande campeã Nuria Picas ao site Carreras por Montaña

O que se passa dentro da cabeça dele

Excelente texto de Pedro Candeias, para perdurar...
Um fantástico atleta e um grande exemplo para todos nós!

Foto do facebook da FPA

Obrigado ao Nélson Évora e também ao seu grande técnico João Ganço!