Radio Mauricio

El viernes pasado antes de salir de la oficina dije que “si gana Chile, el lunes traigo dulces chilenos”. “Los vas a preparar tú?” Me pregunta una colega. “Sip”, respondo yo. Algunas horas después, la victoria 2-0 contra Inglaterra en Wembley tuvo sentimientos encontrados de felicidad y pánico porque ahora tengo que cocinar para la oficina. Evidentemente dejé el trámite para última hora, así que el domingo en la tarde empiezo las preparaciones. Primero revisar qué ingredientes tengo: Tarro de manjar. Fecha de vencimiento: Diciembre 2012. Harina para pan. Fecha de vencimiento: Julio 2011. Maicena. Fecha de vencimiento: Marzo 2011. Parece hay que ir al supermercado. Voy en auto al supermercado grande que no queda cerca, porque los minimercados del barrio no tienen el mismo surtido. Llego y el supermercado ya cerró. Vuelvo al minimercado del barrio. No hay manjar, así que compro leche condensada. No hay coco rallado, así que la receta se hizo más fác...

Hace un poco más de un año decidí correr un triatlón: aprender a nadar, arreglar la bicicleta y ver qué onda. 18 meses después ya no nado a lo perrito, me compré una bici nueva y acabo de terminar el Ironman de Niza. 3.8km de nado, 180 de bici, 42 de trote. Mi primer triatlón fue el “Bananaman” en Septiembre 2012. Las distancias 800m, 30km, 7 km, mucho más cortas. El cuento es que me gustó. Me gustó mucho. Me gustó tanto que 15 días después corrí uno de “distancia olímpica” (1600m, 40km, 10km), y me reconocí enganchado. Lamentablemente Septiembre es otoño acá en Inglaterra, y la temporada de Tri llegó a su fin. El plan entonces es entrenar bien durante el invierno: mejorar el nado y la bici, y hacer una buena temporada 2013. Esa era el plan, hasta que en diciembre 2012 me dio la indiada y me inscribí en el Ironman de Niza. La natación es en mar (yo nunca había nadado en el mar), la bicicleta es en cerro (total 1800 m de ascensión, como subir a Farellones 2 veces) y el trote e...

The race that brought tears to my eyes! Last year this was the last race of the series, and it took place in Pippingford Park in Uckfield. The race was two laps of 4 km, and you start at the top of the valley, run 3 km down in some kind of a zigzag track with a little bit of ups and downs, and then it's 1 km of 10% slope uphill. It was grueling. This year they changed the track so as to make it only one lap, roughly 6 km from top to bottom of the valley, 1 km around lakes and marsh at the bottom, and for home stretch, the infamous 1 km uphill. Having had a good look at the topographic map before the race, my strategy this time was "save the best for last". I knew that if I made a steady race in the first 7 km, I could tackle the last uphill in better than average shape, and get a good result. It was a cold morning. A VERY cold morning. A trickle of snow flakes coming down the gray skies. I get to the start line for the race briefing. They tell us that it's go...

So it snowed over the south of England last night, and everybody is having fun. Last night I treated myself to a walk under the snow to my local for a few pints, and this morning I went for a run to the Heath. On every snow-covered hill all the way to Hampstead Heath, there were parents and children with sleds flying down the slopes having a great day. Many a snowboarder joined the fun too! I would have loved to spend the whole day wandering around snowy London, but since I wanted to be back in Norwich tonight, I decided to do it by daylight, before the snow gets icy and the roads dangerous. So I got to Norwich shortly after dusk and the city is white all over. Now I live on a hill, and there's two ways to get home: the short and fast through Verysteep Street, and the long and slow through Mildslope Road. Being the sensible man that I am, I chose Mildslope Road, and slowly but surely got home. At least at the bottom of the slope that leads to the parking lot behind my block ...

So my friends at Human Race have gone name crazy and in addition to the Iceman, Wildman, Mudman, Tuffman and Trailman cross country and duathlon, they now have the Bananaman and Steelman triathlons. The thing is when I started running some 3 years ago, I wasn't able to do a light run for more than 3 minutes and now I can proudly say I can do a marathon in under 4 hours. So now it's time to crank it up a notch, and I have decided I will try a triathlon. Just as the time I witnessed my sister's first marathon, I noticed that marathon runners don't have three legs or 12 toes (this one I'm not sure) or anything superhuman, so I reckoned I could do it myself, and I did it. Now the same applies to triathletes, right? So what is the baseline? I can't swim. I mean, it's not like I "can't" can't. It's just that I have really poor technique, so after 10 or so braces I have to stop. Pretty much the same sorry running performance of mine...

A crocodile. The first race of 2012 is about trying to catch up with a crocodile. Last year I started running cross country, and signed up for the Asics Off Road series. Most of the races are in Surrey, so since at the time I was living in Reading it was not too far and far enough to be interesting. So for this year's Wildman in Hankley Common it's 15 km of sandy terrain uphill and downhill and uphill and downhill, and in order to keep it fun and competitive, the organizers dressed a guy in a crocodile costume, gave him a 2 minutes head start, and special prizes went to anyone who managed to beat the croc. Racing that is. This being January, the damages of too many a hearty holiday meal, too little training, and all those pints mean that this is not going to be an easy race for me. Well, if stamina is not going to be on my side, strategy might help. One lesson that I learned the hard way is: "know your race". That is, specially in crosscountry, have an idea of...

Y aquí iba yo para mi maratón N°2…..ahora en Chicago y esta vez no estaba sola, mi hermano (que nunca había hecho deporte en su vida !!!) se animó a correr Chicago’09 conmigo….un desafío no menor para él (y para cualquier mortal creo yo) pero entrenando ordenadamente a partir de Febrero, sentía que lo podía hacer dignamente. Ahí estábamos, caminando hacia el guardarropía a las 6.40AM…todo estaba LLENO de gente, había que hacer fila para todo…obvio que el baño era un tema…. Pero primero queríamos dejar las cosas guardadas para luego: 1) baño, 2) precalentar, 3) instalarse en el corral….todo esto con una temperatura de 1°C !!! y yo pensaba…..en Santiago con esta temperatura entrenaba con patas largas, polera manga larga, un polerón que parece bunker de lo abrigado y gorro ….y ahora figuraba con calzas cortas, short, polera sin mangas……. pero al menos con guantes !!! Me tapé con una de las bolsas de basura que llevamos pero la verdad es que con ese frío sólo sirvió para cubrirme del vient...