Run the world

As I told you just a few weeks ago, we athletes have just started the preseason and with its arrival, I encourage you to bet on other sports or to set new goals. I am very restless, I have headed to China to undertake a new challenge. Specifically, I went to Suzhou, a city near Shanghai, in the province of Jiangsu, with more than 6 million inhabitants. There, a competition full of novelties awaited me.

2014 Cup Wuzhong (Suzhou) "Around Taihu" International Race Walking and Walking Multi-day competition. This is the name that has given rise to my new challenge.

A competition as a "Tour" of 4 stages including different distances around the Taihu Lake. It established an individual and team classification and, in addition, offered the possibility for "amateur" walkers to share kilometers with professionals. Why if the amateur runners can compete with the professionals, why not the walkers? Well, in this way we placed more than 5000 people at the starting line to march...AMAZING!

I would like to point out that the professional walkers were judged by different specialized international judges. And with a new regulation. The first card meant a warning, the second card meant a penalty of one minute standing in the box, the third card meant two minutes in the box and the fourth meant disqualification from the race.

Everything era new, except leaving, even my attitude with which I faced this adventure. My shoes had only seen the light of day a few weeks ago, so my priority in Suzhou era not a time or a position, but to let myself be carried away by everything that the present was willing to give me. I decided to go out to compete without a stopwatch, forgetting the responsibilities, the pressure and all that we must do before a big event for which we have prepared. At times I didn't even feel like a professional athlete.

Day 1

Miles people watched the circuit. They left me in "shock" when I got off the bus. As I approached to see the start, I suffered an avalanche of fans who wanted to take pictures. So I did not hesitate to share that moment with them and share their joy.

Suddenly I realized that there were only 15 minutes left to go to the call room and I still had to warm up. But if on another occasion I would have attacked me with nerves because it is essential to perform a proper warm-up, at that moment my mind whispered to me: today enjoyment is more important than performance, so be careful with every detail. And so I did. Of course, I had to respect my muscles and go out at a much more moderate pace in competition as a precaution (take note if you arrive just to a race and you can not warm up. It's better to start the race in progression than to warm up in a hurry).

This attitude led me to enjoy everything that was happening around me even more. I wasn't focused on a time or a result, but on listening to my body and my emotions.

The first stage around Taihu Lake consisted of 11.7km. The kilometers passed and I was "picking up bodies" until I climbed to the fifth position. Only 4 Chinese and the sub-champion of Europe surpassed me. What a surprise I was to see what I got without it being my priority. As a team (along with Feitor and Agdniaszka athletes) we managed to place second behind China and ahead of Russia, with only 20 seconds ahead. POESPO was the name we decided to give to our "Team" (Portugal | Spain | Poland).

With an emotional mix of surprise, enjoyment and waiting for new opportunities I went to bed eager to know what the second stage would bring me.

Day 2

5.30 the alarm clock rang and what a strange feeling, I woke up to compete again. As a long distance athlete I am not used to heats or semi-finals, as they are always straight finals but Qionglong was waiting for me. An area full of beautiful typical architectural spaces. As soon as we got off the bus the priority of most of us era take pictures and more pictures as if we were tourists.

This second stage era 12 kilometers long. A roller coaster circuit of 6km in which we had to go around twice. This time I reserved more time to warm up, but even so, I decided to let the "herd" pass during the first meters. We were racing girls and boys together, so era hard to know what position I was in. I noticed that I was in the second lead group from start to finish. And the kilometers passed and I caught up to the lead group. Sorry, yes, I'm competitive even if I didn't mean to be. But there the battle era much more fun. Finally I managed to get fourth place, climbing one position compared to the previous day. Ahead of me, triumph for the same China Huanhuan, the Ukrainian Olyanovska also repeated second place and third Yingliu (China).

For teams we remained second behind the power of CHINA. And third era no longer RUSSIA but another CHINESE team to which we took 35 seconds difference in the total sum. 15 seconds more advantage than the previous stage (20 seconds difference with respect to the Russian team). The overall classification, both individual and team, is based on the sum of time of each stage.

Day 3

The Chinese "Montseny" was waiting for me, or era my mind imagined. It was said to era a very hard stage, uphill, but shorter. On the way to the place I remembered the bad vision I had of the Montseny before knowing it, thanks to old companions who confessed not to sleep the night before knowing the hard training that awaited them. In the bus I laughed along with my thoughts.

Dongshan did not disappoint either. A garden around the spectacular lake provided eternal peace.

The third stage got underway and with each passing kilometer I expected it to be more demanding and to my surprise none of it era as much as I imagined. Era demanding, very demanding, but my mind built much worse climbs, so everything was easier than expected.

I was in the lead group until the last few meters. A volunteer with a board with my bib number on it showed me the 1 minute pit stop. I could not believe it. Technical penalty. If it is cruel to suffer that stop, imagine seeing the finish line at 300 meters and how your rivals pass while you have to be stopped. All an authentic Chinese torture! After the minute, I completed the remaining meters to finish the race in fifteenth position. This result meant that I was still 3rd in the overall individual classification but only two seconds ahead of the fourth classified. And as a team we were fourth.

At first I was very disappointed but I quickly demanded myself to change my mentality. I had not gone there in search of a result but to enjoy the experience, therefore, I had to work on my attitude to be firm with my goal.

Day 4

Last chance. The longest stage, accumulated fatigue, "reserved" athletes. It was time to play the last card. We had individual and team reference times. The number of the Chinese 207, 204 and 2024 of Russia were the numbers to which I had to be more attentive. I was only a few seconds ahead of all of them, as the previous day's penalty cut into my lead. All of us who led the overall Tour and new Chinese walkers (you could participate in exclusive stages but then did not add up times for the overall classification of the Tour) we did a pineapple. Little by little we were progressing, overtaking many guys.

At km 12 I dropped from the group and later did the Chinese with the number 207. Tenth classified in the last stage. But as I mentioned earlier, not all athletes took the start in the 4 stages so they competed with the advantage of rest.

?In my case the most attractive of this challenge era know how we recovered and how I could maintain the continuous competitive balance. To think that today I competed and tomorrow I will also compete era a curious feeling that kept my restlessness stimulus awake and I loved that. Also, surrounding yourself in an environment where you were watching the rankings of others, watching people resort to home methods or massaging themselves to recover for the next day, it seemed like a survival struggle to find out who would be the best performer.

In the end, I can be fully satisfied. FOURTH in the overall individual classification of the Tour (after the European Sub-Champion in Zurich and two Chinese of the national team) 53 seconds behind the third classified. By teams, THIRD after the powerful China who won gold and silver.

And apart from a surprising result I take the most important thing: to have built a new wonderful experience thanks to "Run the world".

@RaquelGlzCampos