Team
Oaxaca Is About Hope….
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From
Monday to Friday our team meets at the park. From 5 years old to 20 years old,
boys and girls run. Joe Newton used to say, ‘’you eat every day, so you should
run daily too.’’ The team is about learning to be consistent and to come to
practice. It’s about feeling good because everyone needs to learn to give his
best effort. It’s about a new
opportunity for some of them. It’s about growing up for the advanced ones. It’s
about making effort and having goals, reaching them, and creating new ones
without fooling oneself.
From
Monday to Saturday, we see smiles while running; mothers with a new hope; fathers
discovering their children; young girls discovering the goodness of running; family
with a new dynamic; and young boys amazed with their progress. This is a special Oaxaca at the park from
4:30 to 6pm.
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The other Oaxaca is on the
other side of the fence. So along the days, I patiently teach and give them
rhythm because as Jaime Roos says:
Parece mentira las cosas que veo por las calles….
During
Easter break, two kids (9 and 10 years old) arrived yawning at their daily physical
activity. ‘’What happened to you?’’ ‘’We got to bed at 11pm last night’’, they
said. Parece mentira las cosas que veo que veo por
las calles…. #Basic Health and Education.
I
left the pool (Jueves Santo). There were two ‘’street kids’’ (niños de la calle)
en la colonia Reforma. We don’t see them
in this part of the city on regular basis. We have associations to provide them
with shelter and food, but the children prefer to live on the street, and it
seems they are moving North of the City. The same end happens to education.
Making a team grow up and having education as way of improving is very
difficult; the adolescents or children prefer to keep up with their lack of
education instead of making the changes to have better opportunities. Do not mistake me. It’s not about fooling
yourself and making ‘heroes de papel.’ It’s about pushing our standards, so our
standards could become world standards. Parece
mentira las cosas que veo por las calles… #Tristes Tropiques and Education. http://teamoaxaca1.blogspot.mx/2011/12/tristes-tropiques-part-3.html
I
saw a mother two weeks ago; she was drinking coca cola with her meal. Well, it
was only the tip of the iceberg. Then, it is not too difficult to understand why
it is so hard for the kids to adapt to a high Performance Program (or, simply
to comply with the standards of a program). There are many tips of the iceberg,
many signs to consider when one tries to grow up with a team. I learnt few of
them in the last 20 years. Parece mentira
las cosas que veo por las calles… #Basic Nutrition Education VERSUS ‘’Gansitos’’ Education.
One
of our Team members was lodging an adolescent from another city who ‘’wanted’’
to train to be a champion. After six months, the adolescent left the program, and
the host found a huge garbage bag full of junk food in the trash. When habits are
learnt at home and are not compatible with the standards, soon or later internal
conflicts arise. #Education matters.
Auckland
World Series 2013, only 30 men and women racing? Why do we have so few? The
same applies with Yokahoma WS, 35 men and 25 women, WC Huatulco, 39 men and 18
women. Why do some Federations have so much power and the athlete almost none? Parece mentira las cosas que veo por las
calles… #Third World Country and Monopolio.
The
State of Oaxaca gives 68,400 US dollars for the Huatulco World Cup, and we do
not have the opportunity to race at the elite level.
The
last 200 places for Monterrey Triathlon were all included and whoever wanted to
compete needed 7000 pesos. Sorry for the last one. It was ‘’conditional
donation’’ to the Triathlon Foundation in order to participate. Parece mentira las cosas que veo que veo por las
calles….#Third World Country and Economy Monopolio.
Our ‘’gobernador’’ says:
‘’Vamos a tropicalizar la educación.’’ Yes,
he said ‘’tropicalizar.’’ See Tristes Tropiques in this blog. Parece mentira las cosas que veo que veo por las
calles…. #Third
World Country and ‘’Adapted Standards’’. Mexico is just 50 years behind in Education. Oaxaca
75, maybe #PISA report.
One
of our boy ran 4:17 1500 metros—'I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light
switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark.’’ Muhamed Ali.
But training for 5k is another issue, and running 5k
after a triathlon another story.
If the same boy really trains, the speed curve gives us a 5k under 16
minutes. #Training, technique and education
count.
Our 12 years old boy runs in 4:35 the 1500 metros. But he will miss the Tuesday session the next
month because he needs to be ‘’the chaperon’’ of his 15 years old sister Fiesta
and practice for it. #See Rich Dad Poor Dad (from Robert Kiyosaki).
Our best shots as a team is 17 minutes almost flat, twice in a Triathlon
Junior World Championship 5k running (girl); 15:29 5k in our Junior National
Championship and 16:00 at the Junior World and 16:02 at the North American
Championship (boy). #Education is deeply needed to get further. Backward process has been
the rule.
Our current process is 10:46 3k run for a 9 years old boy and 10:03 for
the 12 years old boy same distance. Their curve from 1500m to 3km is adequate. Running
winning time at the Mexican Nationals (triathlon Puerto Vallarta) 34 minutes
high and 37 the next man, while 39 and 40 minutes for women. As Dionicio Cerón
will say, competition is outside of Mexico. The winner in the San Diego World
serie ran in 29:35 for the first man and 33:10 for the first women. #Education will dictate the future VERSUS
Virgen de la Guadalupe.
Our best shot as a team in triathlon was one and two in Monterrey,
Panamerican Classified event in 2011.
The bike leg was 27:26 while the run leg was 16:05 with a total time
54:45. This record has not been broken since then in the fast technical bike
course and undulated run course along the canal. #Olympic Triathlon is about SPEED and SMARTNESS.
In the 2013 Monterrey Triathlon, the winner did not have the ‘’2013
marcas mínimas’’ as well as the winner of Copa Continental Mazatlan (no swimming
time). Those athletes are in the fridge as the Federation does not allow them
to race abroad and in any World Cup. #Right
to compete?
Our
Mothers´ Dream Team racing around Oaxaca #Mothers
who wants to be different VS Virgen de la Guadalupe.
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20
years of Social Project in Oaxaca. Learning is never easy; it’s very hard, but
rewarded. #Adios Carnaval. Parece mentira
las cosas que vimos….
And
with no surprise, take the time to listen to one of the greatest champion from
México, it will help you to understand the previous comments:
Every day at the park, the team meets, and
who knows what will happen with all the smiles, the goals. BE the best you can
be.’’
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And
remembering some of the old posts regarding the same subject, read again the
following entries:
Adiós Carnaval….
Parece mentira…
‘’Nos movemos en la mentira con naturalidad.’’
What kind of obstacles the athletes are going
through? In Mexico, the education to success is the big player. Even people
with a high socio-economical-status cannot be successful because their
education is not according to a high socio-economic status for the first
world´s education to be successful in a regular job; and being a professional
triathlete should be considered a regular job for special people. THIS POINT IN
ITSELF IS A VARIABLE THAT CHANGES EASILY THE OUTCOME OF THE TRIATHLETE. After
20 years of empirical research this variable is what has stopped us from
winning a World Championship in triathlon. It is not a matter of “taking a bad
decision.” The culture in which our athletes are in does not allow taking
different decisions; impulsivity, immediate gratification, lack of perseverance
and attention to details are part of the cultural problems they have to
overcome. Octavio Paz, Nobel Prize Winner said, and adding to what it is
mentioned:
Después de siglos
de fracasos, en lo único que creemos los mexicanos es en la Virgen de Guadalupe
y la lotería nacional. (After so many years of failures, the only things
left to believe in are: the Virgin of Guadalupe and the lottery).
‘’I read an article in slowtwitch.com . It is well
informed article and helps to understand the problem of doping. What happened
with the Postal Service Team and the Americans cyclists’ writings affidavits to
“Bañarse en salud,” prompt me to write an article from the medical point of
view. “Bañarse en salud” is an expression in Mexico when people (mainly
politicians) make a comment apposite to ‘’their thinking and behaviors to
please the audience.’’
Should they have a college degree to
compete in the Tour de France? No, humanity and the Tour de France competitors
need less schooling and more education. Education is our strongest point in our
team working with adolescents, but most of the time we are too late to
influence what will come. Once more, as the New Zealand educational program
said:
Conduct problems are the
single most important predictor of later chronic antisocial behaviour problems
including poor mental health, academic underachievement, early school leaving,
teenage parenthood, delinquency, unemployment and substance abuse. The pathway
for many affected young people typically leads on to youth offending, family
violence and, ultimately, through to serious adult crime. The inter-agency plan
aims to counter this trend.
