viernes, 3 de junio de 2016
martes, 24 de mayo de 2016
jueves, 19 de mayo de 2016
Trailwalker Olot - St. Feliu de Guíxols
If you looked hard enough, you could tell the silhouettes of several fellow walkers, some of them close, some far away, but all of them walking in a slow, methodical manner, as if they didn't want their feet to touch the dusty road too much. They, almost assuredly, were wondering why, exactly, were they there, walking on a Saturday night at 3 a.m., instead of sleeping in the comfort of their homes or cozily having a glass of wine with a like-minded peer. How much is left until the next stop? You could almost read the thoughts of the walkers making their way through the dark, lonely forest, small speech bubbles soaring above everyone's heads. They could have been. But they were here, with their tired minds and bodies and a hammering pain in their feet and legs which simply refused to go away, no matter what good-natured healing efforts were made. One step. Two steps. Slowly but surely, getting to their destiny.
Completing the Trailwalker is something that few people will ever do in their lifetime and something that always gets underestimated in terms of how hard and difficult it is. This is no standard sports event, this is no common mainstream walk, this is something that, when you get to the difficult part (the halfway stop in Girona) it requires an absolute mental strength and fortitude to keep going. In a way, it's a two-faced test, a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, it's cheers and laughs in the first half and silence and pain in the second one. But when the first rays of sun start shining through, true human nature is revealed: we are day-dwelling creatures; we crave the energy of the sun, its warmth, its welcoming familiarity.
When approaching the end, you can feel the sea breeze touching your face. You can hear the bystanders, cheering you up and telling you how close you are to the end. There it is. The finish line! The sight you have been waiting for the last twenty-eight hours. You cross it, and the world seems to go in slow motion for a few moments, cameras capturing that long-sought moment, you and your team members hugging and celebrating the achievement, people cheering and shouting. At that moment, you tend to forget how difficult and testing the journey really was.
After a few days, that feeling continues. It wasn't that hard. I feel good now! It's fine, the human mind tends to do that, idealize things. It has served us as a species. Next year, you will be there again, hoping to enjoy that experience which, for some reason, you cannot get out or your head, craving that feeling again of crossing the line, of getting home, sleeping, and feeling more rested than in the last ten years.
Trailwalker may be a grueling, sometimes cruel experience, but it is also something that stays on your mind forever, for the rest of your life. And in the world that we live in, something as unique, something as special, is something worth doing every single time.
Completing the Trailwalker is something that few people will ever do in their lifetime and something that always gets underestimated in terms of how hard and difficult it is. This is no standard sports event, this is no common mainstream walk, this is something that, when you get to the difficult part (the halfway stop in Girona) it requires an absolute mental strength and fortitude to keep going. In a way, it's a two-faced test, a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, it's cheers and laughs in the first half and silence and pain in the second one. But when the first rays of sun start shining through, true human nature is revealed: we are day-dwelling creatures; we crave the energy of the sun, its warmth, its welcoming familiarity.
When approaching the end, you can feel the sea breeze touching your face. You can hear the bystanders, cheering you up and telling you how close you are to the end. There it is. The finish line! The sight you have been waiting for the last twenty-eight hours. You cross it, and the world seems to go in slow motion for a few moments, cameras capturing that long-sought moment, you and your team members hugging and celebrating the achievement, people cheering and shouting. At that moment, you tend to forget how difficult and testing the journey really was.
After a few days, that feeling continues. It wasn't that hard. I feel good now! It's fine, the human mind tends to do that, idealize things. It has served us as a species. Next year, you will be there again, hoping to enjoy that experience which, for some reason, you cannot get out or your head, craving that feeling again of crossing the line, of getting home, sleeping, and feeling more rested than in the last ten years.
Trailwalker may be a grueling, sometimes cruel experience, but it is also something that stays on your mind forever, for the rest of your life. And in the world that we live in, something as unique, something as special, is something worth doing every single time.
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