45km swim + 180km kayak + 900km bike + 180km run
This year I have chosen for security reasons Cancun in Mexico instead of Sta. Barbara, California, like last year, for my record. Bush really destroyed the world's security!
Mexico is a country full of contrasts and mixes races. Its present is the result of its indigent past. It's a mix between culture and "playa" (beach), desert and wilderness, ruins and rich buildings in colonial style. Mexico offers 9000km of coast and pleases so all beach boys like me.
Cancun is tecnically an island; a 20km large beach with granulated, white sand. This island inculdes the City of Cancun which the Mexican gouvernment decided to build in 1970 on a tight piece of beach that embraces a lagoon in Yucatan. The temperature of the turquoise coloured water is very pleasant.
For my record I chose Playa del Carmen, a beach in the south of Cancun, to avoid the Grand Gotel and the tourists and to feel completely immerged in the Riviera Maya, together with my beautiful fiancée who is a valid ultradistance-athlet. She assisted me with love and enthusiasm during all the phases of my record.
Also the official cronometrist Gary Catona, who was always present during my former records, joined me from Sta. Barbara. As there was a high pressure arriving, I decided to anticipate the beginning of my record to find the perfect conditions for swimming and kayaking in the open sea.
With my new Pro Limit wetsuit, which is very soft and waterproof (helps you to swim faster). I enter in the perfect tempered water and start my first challenge: 45km swimming. I feel very strong mentally, but also physically because of my large training sessions in kitesurf, which made my arms and shoulders much tougher. It's funny: With 60 years I swim much faster than I did when I was a youngster of 50!
My girlfriend assists and sometimes she swims with me. Every 2nd kilometre she brings me some food and something to drink, and after a short break I continue. It's nice to swim at night. The water seems to be phosphorescent and reflects the light of the big stars. During a break, looking up to the sky I show my girlfriend the Southern Cross. It's beautiful and fulfills us with strong emotions. The night passes by quickly; the morning arrives and I continue swimming. Meanwhile I tell myself many nice stories from my past, but also from my future. My mind is so light that I receive even sensations that still belong to the future and it helps me to join them.
It's afternoon. I've been swimming for 30 hours and finally I can have a break and sleep during 20 minutes. In the future, I'll sleep for 20 minutes every 10 hours. my girlfriend passes me a bottle with 1 liter of water and a tin of Red Bull in it. It's my favourite drink and I'm so used to it that my body askes me for it whenever he needs it.
Finally after 36 hours and 26 minutes Gary stops the cronometer for the 1st time and my girlfriend brings my kayak, an Australian surfski in carbon.
Kayaking is probably one of the best ways of meditation. The coast and the ocean take my thoughts far away on strange and unexployed pathswhich deliver from stress and contamination. Besides of kitesurfing, kayaking is my favourite sport. Sometimes my girlfriend paddles with me with her surfski and entertains me a little bit. She's always wearing colorful tops from Shore Break. A nice contrast to the turquoise ocean! I need 22 hours and 12 minutes to kayak the 180km.
I don't sleep very much and as I start biking I'm a little bit confused. I have to bike 900km, fortunately in a flat circuit. I try to do the best I can, but sometimes it seems to me that I fall asleep for one or two seconds, so I drink some Red Bull which gives me energy and helps me to keep my eyes open. Sometimes I'm a little bit jealous of
my girlfriend, because she's allowed to sleep more often and longer. It's already the 3rd racing day and until now, I slept only for 50 minutes. Still two hours until I can have another break and sleep 20 minutes! So long time! But I may not allow my mind to abandon myself. I have to believe in myself! Inside me I'll find the
power to keep going. Inside me I'll find the will to resist. Life's adversities present us to ourselfes and now I know who I am. Everybody has his place in life, you just have to find it. But I think too much. Heroes don't think, they act. Probably I'm not a heroe, though. I fall asleep on the bike
and crash to the asphalt. At least I didn't go fast because of being tired. I fall on my left ellbow and this shock helps me to wake up completely.
my girlfriend shows up inmediately and brings some ice to put on my injury. Right away I continue to pedal. Like this my muscles won't cool down and the pain won't increase. And so, little by little I finish the 900km biking. I need 44 hours and 2 minutes. My elbow hurts a lot and is swollen. Fortunately I don't
have to use my arms for running the last 180km! my girlfriend is nearly always by my side, because she understood that the pain makes me to suffer a lot and her positivity and courage transmit themselves to my blood which was already losing vital energy. It's only thanks to her that I could establish this record; It's up to her love, her dedication and her intelligence. And because of her being by my side I manage to finish after 31 hours and 48 minutes the run, although I was more jumping than running.
Totally I needed 134 hours and 28 minutes for my record. Five-and-a-half endless days non-stop, with only 2 hours of sleep. Amor omnia vincit et vis grata puellae.