1h 40 mins

I imagine that some people will find it funny that in a blog about running I don’t write usually about this sport. As I said when I started, it has to do more with my thoughts or things that happen than with running. But, this time, I am going to do an exception and I am going to explain my last half marathon.

It was last Sunday. For the fifth year on the row, I decided to run the half marathon. For me it is one of the competitions I can’t miss because I really enjoy it and I like it. And also, I was still thinking about running in a month time the Barcelona marathon.

As usually I got up, had my breakfast and caught the metro to Arc de Triomf. All the carriages were full of people that were going to the same point; it was great. This is one of the things I like more and, specially, when you find people from other countries.

When you run you normally have an aim: finish the course, improve your personal best, enjoy the time. Before I started running I really thought that I will be happy finishing the 21,097 meters and finish between 1h 40mins – 1h 45mins. But once I started running, I felt great and I decided to try to get below 1h.40 mins and improve my personal best.

Everything was going great until the kilometer 15. I had plenty of time in advance and I calculated I could lose a few seconds every kilometer and I still be under 1h 40mins. Somehow, everything started to go wrong. I started to feel tired, thinking of giving up because I didn’t have any strength in my legs. Again, in the last kilometers, I threw all the good job I had done in the previous kilometers.

The worst thing about it was that I was really concerned about my difficulties when it came to the Vila Olímpica and again I failed. In the end, I finished with a time of 1h 40 mins and 6 seconds; my personal best of all time but I wasn’t happy. So I Imagine I will have to go back next year to achieve my aim.

Don’t play with time

As you get you older you repeat it more frequently: “Time flies”. When you are a child, you don’t think about it; it is normal. In a way, you still have a lot of years ahead of you and, normally, THE DESIRE is to get older because you think your life will be better.

Lately, I have watched two films that have made me think about this topic. About time and Click focus in this subject. I am not going to analyze the films as a film critic; don’t expect that. What I liked of these two films is the message: don’t play with time.

The two main characters of the films can use time in their own benefit. They can play with it and step forward those moments they don’t like or go back to a particular point of their lives. They are like gods who can do whatever they want. Nothing is for free and, obviously, it has its consequences.

I am the first who would fast forward some moments of my life. There are episodes I don’t like and I wish they would go as fast as possible. It is absolutely normal. However, after watching these two films, I have been thinking about it and I consider that maybe you have to change this viewpoint.

Both main characters discover, in the end, that their lives are better if they let time go pass. If they fast forward they miss things that they will never experiment or remember. And that is worse than living those difficult moments. The two characters decide not to use their power, because they learn that one of the most important things is to live every moment and try to enjoy them.

I know it is difficult. We leave very fast and, normally, we don’t have time to sit down and think, but I hardly recommend watching the films to change our point of view.

Time flies and before you notice, the day has finished, you get to the end of the month and the year passes away. And have you enjoyed your time? My opinion is that you have to try to live every moment deeply, enjoy your time with your wife, husband... family, parents, friend, teammates, colleagues... everybody important for you in your life. Those memories will go with you along you entire existence; they will always be in your head, in your heart.

Memories are important for us and every tinny moment will go along with you. Don’t play with time. Try to enjoy those short moments, the minutes with your family, your friends... Sometimes it is hard, because we don’t see any further but we have to try to do it. It would be good for all of us!

Happy anniversary, EFE!

Today, 13th of February, the main news agency in Spanish, EFE, celebrates its 75th anniversary. This post is very special for me because I had the honour to work for EFE a few years ago.

I am not going to write about the story of EFE along the years. If you search on the Internet, you can find a lot of information. This time I am going to write about my experience.

In 2002 I was still studying and I decided to do further practice. They gave me the opportunity to work for EFE as an intern for the Financial section. I remember I was scared because I thought I wasn’t ready to work for this section. I also have to say that I really wasn’t very interested, but everything changed when I started working there.

They were only four months, but they were great. I learnt a lot, specially from Marcos Lamelas, a great journalist who is always after the news. In the end I really enjoyed my time there and many times I wondered what would have happened had I accepted the offer they made me when I finished my university career. I will never know.

After a few years working for Blanc i Blau, on November 2005 I received a phone call from Javier Giraldo, who was working for EFE at the time, asking me to have a meeting with Paco Ávila, the sport division manager. I became RCD Espanyol correspondent and I helped with everything I could (Barcelona, handball, basketball...).

I worked for them until July 2010. It was really great. I wrote about some of the best stories of the team even though they left me out of important moments like the Spanish Cup final or the UEFA final. I worked hard and I think I did quite well. My time there was very important in my career.

If I could, I would like to work for EFE again. The news agency gives you the opportunity to explain stories and even though times are changing, you don’t have the same pressure. When you write in a newspaper you have to empty full pages; there is no negotiation and, a lot of times, you finish writing about stupid stories to fill up the empty page. In a news agency you can really write about those piece of news interesting; it is different.

I will never forget my experience at the Agencia EFE. I really enjoyed my time with Paco, Jesús, Ginés, Alex, Javi and all the people that made possible that the sports section worked so well. I know that now things are difficult and they have their problems, but who doesn’t?

Happy anniversary!

My basketball team

One of the things I liked more when I was younger was playing basketball. For the few boys that we studied at Salesianas it was the only sport we could practice. I think most of us would have preferred to play football, but the school didn’t give us the option. And, after so many years, I don’t regret because basketball has been one of the best things in my life. I remember the first match we played. It was against the Jesuitas de Caspe. We lost 69-29 I think, but, as they say in Spanish, we ‘won in the offices’ because they only had five players and you need seven in the minutes. I also remember I scored the first two points of my team; a team that became really good through the years. We were in 6th year and we finished that League winning the championship. We won for about 40 points in the final. We were a terrific team. It was easy to play with my actual friends like Marc o Albert and others like David, Jordi, Miguel, Pedro, Jaume, Pepe or Héctor. I remember training and the matches and I miss it, because playing in a team is something special and you learnt a lot of things. I also remember my coach Sergio Albors, he taught us everything and he built a great team. He had bad temper and once he got annoyed after a match that we won 59-2 (they only scored two free throws points). He said we did terrible! Another day he said we were not doing anything, running... We were sweating terrible! We look each other thinking that he was mad. He always tried to get the best of us and I think he did quite well. I also remember the last two matches we played. We had new teammates like Julio, Emilio, Jordi de la Mata or Emilio. We played the final of the school league and we lost that match. We could have won, but a teammate lost the ball in the worst moment. It was our last official match. We tried to carry on, but it wasn’t possible. It was a shame that the school didn’t do an effort, because I think we could have done well and it would have been good for everybody. That team met a year later to play the last match. We all got together to remember Iván, one of our friends who died in October the 16th of 1999. One day I will write about him, but not today. It was a sad day. Basketball has been my sport.  Now I play football with my friends (Marc and Albert are still there after 26 years) and we have fun, but those days in the school, training, playing, loosing and winning where one of the best of my life. Basketball is a great sport and many times I miss not playing it, however, sometimes in your life you have to step forward. I will never forget those days; they bring me great memories and I think all of my teammates will always remember our basketball team.

50 cents

One of the funniest sequences of ‘'The father of the bride'  is when Steve Martin, the father, runs into a supermarket to buy buy hot dogs and hot dogs buns. It is only two minutes and it is worth it, because he is absolutely right. Why the packets of hot dogs or sausages and hot dog buns are not even? I don’t understand! 

 

Normally, the hot dogs come in packs of four and the hot dog buns in packs of six. Then, there are two over. If you get a second pack of hot dogs, you will be two over again. The only way to match them is getting three packs of hot dogs and two of hot dog buns. But, who eats so many hot dogs? Unless you have a very big family, you will have many hot dogs and hot dogs buns over and, probably, half of them will finish in the bin because they will go off.

After this silly thought, I would like to point out another one pretty similar. When I go shopping, I take my trolley with me. Since they stole us the one we had before, Jéssica has forced me to always lock the trolley. Obviously, I am not going to argue because she is right and I really like our new trolley. Until here, everything is fine.

Most of the times I go to Mercadona to do my shopping. To put away the trolley you need a 50 cent coin. And here comes my question: wouldn’t be easier to give the option to pay with a one euro coin? I don’t know you but, first of all, I don’t usually have many coins in my pocket because most of the times I pay by card. However, when I do have coins it is very rare that one of them is a 50 cent coin. Honestly, I don’t think it is a very popular coin and Mercadona should reconsider their policy.

What really annoys me is when you ask for change to one of the cashiers and they give you that look as if you were asking for gold. “Sorry! It is not my fault that you only give the option to pay with a 50 cent coin!” Another solution could be to install machines that will give you change automatically. This way the cashiers wouldn’t lose their time giving coins to people like me and I wouldn’t have to see their nasty faces.

I have to say that not all Mercadona employees are as bad as I said before and most of them give you change without any problem. In any case, I think it will be better if they give more options. Think about it!

These things can’t happen

On Saturday I woke up and read this piece of news. Once I finished, I really felt sorry for that eight year old child. Children can be very cruel and they don’t have any problem to go against that person who is different or has different ideas. I really think it is terrible that kind of behaviour, and I am sure parents are responsible because children of that age usually repeat what they listen at home or hear from their parents.

Poor girl! Espanyol supporters are used to these type of things, but when you get to an age, it doesn’t affect you too much. However, I imagine that for an eight year old girl it has to be really terrible.

There are few things I would like to point out. First of all, I think it will not be fair that we say that in Catalonia Espanyol supporters live apartheid. Some of my best friends are FC Barcelona supporters and I don’t have any problems with them. I have always been the only perico supporter until I got to University and I didn’t have any problem.

It is true that Barcelona supporters are not able to understand what we feel and some of the situations that we live are totally unfair, but I do believe in respect. The good thing of being perico is that you grow stronger and, in a way, you become special but I also think that you can find stupid persons irrelevant which team they support.

What I really think that is disappointing and terrible is the teacher’s reaction. “They are only kids”. How can a teacher say that? He should address to all the class and explain that people are free to support any team they want, that it doesn’t make you worst or better and he should tell them that in life there are different opinions and feelings and all of them are respectable.

In this case, we are talking about football, but this is an example for many situations in life. I know that they are young; however, we have to build a society where everybody respects the other. What will these children think about someone gay? Or someone that doesn’t believe in a independent Catalonia?

As I said I haven’t had any problem for being an Espanyol supporter. It is something I am proud of and I always say when I talk about football. However, I am worried because I think that many times the big majorities forget that there are a lot of people that do not think alike and, in this sense, parents and teachers have a very important rol because they have to teach and explain that one of the best things in life is to find people who have other feelings thoughts or views.

It is true that lately if you are not with the majority you feel alone and IT shouldn’t be like that. In a world that is getting more and more global, people should be more open minded and respect the other. As you can read in the article, we have a lot of work to do.

Journalists, stand up for yourselves!

I remember when I began working as a journalist. In the year 2000 I started working for Blanc i Blau, a newspaper that no longer exists but where I learnt many things. Obviously, I worked hard and many hours for not much money but I was younger and I wanted to do my best. Honestly, I think I did even though the newspaper finally closed.

In Catalonia there are thousands of journalists. Of course, there are a lot of young boys and girls who want to start their careers and they do all the efforts that are necessary. I understand because in these difficult days it is normal that you try to do your best to obtain a profit in the future.

However, what I dislike a lot is that people work for free. Nowadays you can find a lot of media with young people that don’t earn any money for their job. The other day somebody showed me an offer of a radio that even asked the journalists to pay 100 € to work for a program. Are we crazy?

Being a journalist was something that people just to admire in the past. However, I think it has changed and a lot of people think that is a job full of lies. I also think that journalists are the first who are destroying the good name of this job.

It is absolutely terrible that people work for free. I think you have to stand for yourself and give value to your profession. We already have too many people working that don’t have the education or come from other fields.

I understand these young people who are starting but we have to stand up for ourselves, we need that journalism turns again into a respectable profession and the first who have to believe and try hard are all the people that work in media or press departments.