Great book!

A few days ago, my colleague Rafa Ramos told me about Andre Agassi’s book: Open, an autobiography. I have to say that Andre Agassi wasn’t one of my favourite players, but Rafa insisted saying that the book was worth it and that it was a very interesting story. I thought, then, that maybe I would give it a chance.

Days later, Rafa opened his backpack and took out this book and he gave it to me. He said it was a present for me. Even though I was reading another book that Rafa recommend me long time ago: A Short History of Nearly Everything of Bill Bryson, I decided to make a pause and start reading my new book.

I read the first pages in the plane when we went to London and I continued when we got back. Once I was back in Barcelona, I couldn’t leave the book. The story of Andre Agassi is great! He starts saying that he hates tennis! One of the best players of the last years, number one of the world and he says that he hates tennis? I couldn’t believe it.

Since the first page, the book catches your attention: his father trying to build a champion after failing with his older brothers and sister, his experience at the Nick Bollieteri’s academy, his hair problem, his behavior, his wins, his defeats, his mentality… And, of course, his career as one of the best tennis player who won eight Grand Slams, the Davis Cup or a gold medal in the Olympics.

As I said, I wasn’t very keen on Agassi even tough, as he got older, I did start to like him. Obviously, he had talent but, in the other hand, he was forced to play a sport maybe he would have never chosen. In the end, he became a great tennis player and a nice guy who won the respect of all of his rivals. And, as Rafa said, he has a happy ending marrying the woman he always wanted to: Steffi Graff.

The biography of Andre Agassi is a great book. You see how a great champion is built and all the episodes he has to overcome to achieve all the success he did. If you can, don't miss the opportunity and read the book.

My first year

Today, 8 of December, my blog celebrates its first year. This was a project that I started because Ben Cardew told us to in an English course I did last year. I remember that when he told me in our previous interview that he was thinking of this activity, I said it would be great.

I have always wanted to write a blog. I like writing. That is one of the things I do for living. However, normally, I always write about the same things and I get a bit tired. As a journalist, I think that there are a lot of subjects, news... to write about and give my point of view.

When Ben told us to start the blog I thought it was great. First, because, as I said, I like writing. And, in second place, and probably more importantly, because it was in English. For some years now, I have been looking for the way to keep practising my English. I try to listen to the news every morning, I watch series in English and I try to read book as well. I know I am able to hold a conversation with anybody that speaks English, but I also know I do some mistakes. That is the reason I try to improve and get better.

After a year, I think I can be happy. First of all, because I have been able to write a few posts (except in summer) and I try to keep updated my blog. Sometimes I have ideas when I am running, but then I forget about them. The good thing about it is that I have plenty of time to improve and it is a new challenge. One of my doubts to get more visits it’s to twitter or facebook my posts... I am sure that I would get more visits as I did when I started, but it is not my aim. What I really want is to keep writing in English and trying to improve every day. I know I don’t have many fans, but don’t worry: I promise I will keep updating my blog and writing about my running thoughts or anything that I consider important.

Christmas has arrived

One of the moments I like more is when we decorate our flat with the Christmas ornaments. I am not like my father, who starts decorating his office in November, but time goes so fast that I think that you have to enjoy such a nice time like Christmas.

We start decorating our Nativity display, with all our figures and animals. Next week that we are on holiday, we will visit Santa Llúcia’s market and as we do every year, we will buy a new figure. I honestly think there aren’t much left but we will try to find one that we don’t have.

I think we can be proud of it and we have done a good job between us. The only problem is that some of the figures keep falling when we open the cupboards. The solution is easy: put them back up.

Once we finished with our Nativity display, we started with our Christmas tree. Jéssica thought that the best idea was to decorate it only with read balls as we did last year and also put all the nice ornaments we have bought in shops or in London, where we will try to buy some others this year. Before we turn on the lights, we sang Our Christmas tree as Ben Affleck does in Surviving Christmas.

Our tree is really nice and it looks great with the lights. Now we are only waiting for Father Christmas to bring us a lot of presents, because we have been very good and we deserved them. I really do love Christmas. For me, and as the song says, it is the most wonderful time of the year. It is a shame that it is not a bit colder, but as we are going to London this weekend we will get full of Christmas spirit. I am looking forward for it!

Sants was great

As I wrote a few days ago, last Sunday I ran the Cros of Sants, one of my favourite races that I try not to miss since 2009. The day didn’t start very well because last weekend we had a lot of rain in Barcelona. Therefore, during the race it didn’t rain much and it wasn’t really cold so the environment wasn’t as bad as you could think before it started.

For me it was an important race because I have been training hard during this months and I hoped to do as good as I did in the Cursa de la Tardor of Sant Andreu de la Barca. Sants  is a difficult race, with continuous up and downs and narrow streets. In the other hand, it is good because you go pass a lot of places that are familiar.

I started quite behind because I met Patricia before the race and I decided it to be with her until the start. Once we passed the start line, I began to run and try to go pass all the people I had in front. I think this was one of the worst moments, because it is very difficult to keep the same rhythm and you are sprinting and slowing down constantly.

Until we didn’t get to the second kilometre, more or less, I didn’t feel really comfortable. There was Jéssica to cheer me and give me some help. I finished the first lap a bit over 23 minutes and I was a bit worried because I knew that the second half of the race was more difficult. However, for the first time in a many years, I improved my mark.

This year they changed a bit the circuit and I think that it was faster even though the last kilometre is hard because you go along carretera de Sants. In the end, I took me 45.52’ personal best of this race and much better than last year (nearly two minutes). I went under 23 minutes in the second lap and I finished with the feeling I could have gone a bit faster. I am also very happy with Patricia’s performance because she was able to finish.

This was my last race in 2014. It hasn’t been a bad year but I have to keep trying. In January I will ran Sant Antoni and later the half marathon of Barcelona, where I will try, once more, to finish below 1h 40 mins. Now it is time to train and to rest.