Set a goal, dream beyond, make it happen!

Whether its in business or athletic pursuits, setting high target goals is powerful, dreaming to achieve the impossible is encouraging, but finishing what you’ve started is much more exciting and rewarding!

On the athletic side, I started the year with a 100-mile solo-trail-run and since then my schedule has been a bit demanding. Since January 2022, my Strava app has recorded 4,350 miles of biking with 250,000 feet of elevation gain; 1,050 miles of running with 23,136 feet of elevation gain; and 50,000 yards of swimming. In the past 8 weeks I’ve completed 5 very long-distance endurance races that include Ironman Texas 70.3, Ironman Texas 140.6, Ironman World Championship, 8-day Trans-Portugal mountain bike race, XTerra Off-road National Championship, and last weekend the SWISSMAN Extreme Triathlon.

In the past few years, I’ve completed 6 of these type of endurance races, Iceland Extreme 2x, Alaskaman 2x, Patagonman, and Alohaman. Since 2019, SWISSMAN was on my bucket list; however, as like many other things, it was canceled due to the pandemic…. but the long wait paid off!

This is another chapter of my story, the chapter of a very challenging race, SWISSMAN Extreme Triathlon, the journey, the sacrifices and some details that will hopefully motivate and encourage others to never give up and dream big!

My journey started by having to coordinate work schedule, family commitments, and all the small pieces required for such a difficult endurance race. I thought we had it all figured out; however, our week started with various setbacks. A mandatory support runner was needed for the last part of the race, and a week before, my friend I had invited for that, couldn’t make it. Last minute idea, why not bring my stepbrother from Uruguay? Great solution, except this added lots of details to coordinate but at least I had everything ready… so I thought!

Our luggage did not arrive with us in Zurich… airline response? “Fill out an online report and we will contact you in a couple of days”. Desperate and searching for alternatives, we decided to stay at the airport until the next flight from our connection city. Good news, we got two bags! Wait… the only one missing is the one with the bike… (not good). We waited for another hour and nothing; the next flight would arrive at midnight… what should we do? Well, it was noon and waiting another 11 hours at the airport wasn’t a good plan. So, let’s go to the hotel and comeback later. Long story short, around midnight, the bike finally arrived, and now we were ready!

Next couple of days were full of anniversary-celebration activities with Andrea mixed with some work. Walked through Zurich, answered work emails, attended long midnight conference calls, and picked up my stepbrother Guillermo who arrived two days after. 

After 3 days in Zurich, we traveled to Ascona—the city where the race began. The first couple days included some great weather, amazing landscapes, and awesome food. I also made final race preparations that included some bike assembly, gear and supplies checks, to be ready to go. Well… that’s what we thought! The day before the race we found ourselves sheltering from strong storms and late night from a festival close to the hotel room; anxiety from the impending race began to fill our hearts and minds.

The Race

Switzerland is known for its amazing mountains, full of breathtaking views, and the 2022 SWISSMAN Xtreme Triathlon which gave me an opportunity to experience it all. On June 25th, 235 athletes from 35 countries participated in this challenging endurance race. SWISSMAN is a long-distance triathlon that starts in the south of the country and leads over three steep Alpine passes into the heart of Switzerland. The finish is reached after a final climb at the foot of the massive mountain scenery at Grindelwald. The total distance consists of 2.4 miles of open water swimming, 112 miles of road-mountain-cycling, and 26.2 miles of mountain running; all with a total elevation gain of 18,300 feet. This is a non-supported race, meaning that there are no aid-stations and nobody to help you out there. You must bring your own support crew and make sure you have everything you would need during the day. Finally, before the end, you must have a support runner for the last 8km to reach the top. My support crew included my wife Andrea and stepbrother Guillermo.

The Preparation

Our day started around 1:30AM, luckily I had a great night sleep, not so lucky for Guillermo and Andrea, who couldn’t sleep at all. I ate something and prepared everything needed for the long day ahead. Around 3:00AM the transition area opened ready to leave everything organized to change from the swim to the bike. It was still dark and quiet, with sleepy and anxious faces hoping everything worked as planned. Left everything set in transition, bike, shoes, helmet, and whatever else needed for a grueling 8–10-hour bike ride through the mountains. 

The Starting Line

To get to the starting line, athletes boarded a ferry at 4:00AM towards a small island located 4.2 miles away. Inside the ferry, full of quiet, anxious, and sleepy-crazy-hair athletes, perhaps dreaming for a warm bed or a coffee on their balcony. It took around 30 minutes for the ferry to reach the island, and once there, we offloaded the boat walking into the water towards the starting line. It was an amazing morning with a stunning view of the shore, the mountains a few stars, and a full moon… far away, the one light, the most important one, the one we needed to focus-on to get to the swim exit.  

The Swimming

The water was calm but chilly, with a 65 degrees temperature. The sky was still dark with a few stars and the moon fading out slowly behind the mountains. You could feel the nervousness and excitement of the near 235 people in the water, hoping for a promising long day ahead.

Right at 5:00AM, the race started with the sound of a siren and a firework. Frankly, swimming doesn’t come easy for me, and although I have done hundreds of triathlons, there is always anxiety and nervousness. This time though, I was calm and looking forward to a good race ahead. It took me 1 hour and 27 minutes to reach shore, a bit longer than expected due to some wind and current, and of course, a none-straight swimming towards the end. Nonetheless, as I always do, I exited the water in good spirits, a big smile, and full of energy to tackle the next phase of the race…the crazy bike ride!

The Bike Transition

Out of the water, Andrea was there waiting for me as she always does, and after our usual kiss, we quickly ran towards the transition area. The temperature was perfect; thus, I took off my wetsuit and decided to keep my wet triathlon suit for the rest of the race, I knew it would dry-out quickly and save me some time by not changing all my clothing. With only 5-7 minutes in transition, I started my long ride through the little streets of Ascona towards the mountains.

The Biking

This was a challenging bike route where only the first 10 miles were ‘flat’, after that, oh my gosh, climb, after climb, after climb. Considering the previous days with heavy rain, the conditions now were ideal for cycling. Biking is one of my strengths and I quickly started passing other athletes that came out of the swim before me. Usually, in Ironman-distance races I use a triathlon bike, but this time, due to the amount of climbing, I took my Pinarello road bike. I don’t ride this bike much, but when I do, it is like riding a Ferrari, and although there is no motor (wish it had one), I felt I was on the best bike for this ride. In fact, this bike is so great, that made other athletes turn their heads out saying “wow, great bike”. A few miles passed-by when I made the first mistake taking the wrong turn. I didn’t see the small race signs and kept going. I quickly turned around, but somehow my chain went off and had to stop and put it back in place. It was a stressful moment that makes you wonder how the rest of the day would go. Once I fixed the issue, I kept going and around mile 20 Andrea and Guillermo were waiting for me. I didn’t stop this time and kept going to recoup for the time lost fixing the chain; after that, I stopped every other time I saw them!

Nutrition has been my major challenge for me, and once again, started having stomach issues and stopped eating and drinking except for water and sodas; no gels, no electrolytes, not much of anything but water and sodas.

The uphill… ‘leg breaker` ascents, where sometimes, I questioned myself why was I doing this and why I signed up to this type of pain? What’s wrong with me?  Well, not sure yet but every now and then that feeling went away with the 45-50 miles per hour “fast and furious” descents. Although the views from the top were stunning, I could not appreciate much, had to be very careful and pay attention to make sure there was no mistake; at these speeds, one little mistake, could be fatal. The last few miles where never ending, and I started agonizing to get it done. Finally, after 8 ½  hours of hardcore biking, I arrived at the second transition. This is the place where you leave your bike and change your shoes for the last long marathon running.

The Run Transition

Ideally, Andrea and Guillermo would be waiting for me, but when I got there, nobody showed up. A few minutes of desperation, but quickly realized how much time I had ahead for the long run. Calmed down and simply called Andrea to ask what happened. Apparently, the bike route had many construction sections and they couldn’t turn into the right place, hence their delay. When I heard this, I decided to just patiently wait for them, nothing else I could do, they had my running shoes, hat, sunglasses, etc. When I saw them, it was a big relief and a great feeling of knowing that now I had a good chance to finish the race.

The Running

This was one of those races where I had good energy to start running from the beginning; however, after a few yards, the first section was so steep that walking was the best alternative. After a few hundred yards the squeaky off-road trails started, and when I made my second big mistake. I didn’t see the small race direction signs and turned in the wrong corner. Oh my god… what a negative feeling it was! Luckily, I had downloaded the GPS maps in my Garmin watch… what a smart move! I turned-on the trail-mapping functionality and started following the traces. This was the best decision I made the whole day, I had to follow the map several times due to the amount of turns this route had.

The running path continued thru some off-road single-track trails until we reached a blue-green spectacular lake. Most of the few miles ahead were next to the lake and my mind was only dreaming on jumping in the water. At some point, I saw people barbecuing and thought about stopping by and ask for a beer or a soda… but was to shy for that… I was just dreaming an oasis in the middle of the desert. I couldn’t see Andrea and Guillermo for a long while, until they showed up in the corner of a little town we passed through. It was a great feeling seeing them and getting some water. I was running with a flask bottle, but it was empty already. The challenge for Andrea and Guillermo was the deviations driving thru constructions sites, making them miss several meeting spots for me to hydrate. When I saw them, they were amazed on how fast I was running, and could barely keep-up trying to meet me in different spots (very encouraging). Another strength of mine is to last longer and keep going, so there I was, passing other competitors while shortening the time to accomplish my goal for the race…finishing before dusk!

Reaching the Top

After 21 long miles, the last 5 miles were going to be uphill, torturous steep, climbs. When arrived at the base of the Grindelwald to get my mandatory mountain kit, Andrea and Guillermo had it all checked out. We needed to make sure we had enough water, warming clothing, lights, etc. The only other motivation now was the idea of running this section accompanied by Guillermo, who made it all the way from Uruguay for this moment. Guillermo and I never had a close relationship and running together would be a perfect opportunity to bond and get closer. Although Guillermo was a professional soccer player for 10 years, he never run this much, at least not in these conditions, so we didn’t know what to expect. Well, bringing him with us was the best idea, he was pushing me physically and mentally, placing his hands in my back to help reach the top. You may not think this would help, but it did… big time!

Our mental encouragement increased as we passed other competitors, in fact, we passed at least 4 of them. We suddenly could see what we thought was the finish line and called Andrea to meet us there; however, she was still in the train that would take her to the top. We didn’t understand how we finished that fast, and when we reached what we thought was the end, it was not… it was just a check point! What a disappointment, we had a long way to go yet! The good thing though, now Andrea would have enough time to get to the top and finish the race with us. We had only 2 miles to go and the idea of finishing before dusk kept us going as fast as we could. After near 6 long hours running through trails, mountains, lakes, and small towns, I could visualize the finish line with Andrea waiting  with a big smile. 

The Finish Line

When arriving to the top many things went through my mind… seeing Andrea surrounded by the mystical-wonderful mountains, the flags, the cameras, the lights… it was very emotional. The fact that we spent the whole day, from 1:30AM to now 9:00PM, overcoming obstacle after obstacle, from the long swim to the big steep mountains, running thru difficult quiet trails. Thinking about all the sacrifices we made to be there, from the money spent, to the complicated logistics, the busy schedules, the willingness from Andrea and Guillermo to support me. Just thinking that we were so lucky to be there and experience this…. what a humbling and emotional feeling! Finishing another very challenging event that only few have the motivation, energy, or courage to confront, is such a special sentiment. Realizing that the only thing you can do is to keep going, finish what you started and thanking the universe and those who believed in you, your strengths and grit… nothing more exciting and moving! 

Every chapter in our lives hopefully leaves us with new learnings. For me, this was another opportunity to continue believing that no matter how hard and challenging things gets, there is always a solution to overcome any  obstacle, and at the end, if you put all your energy on something, you will have an amazing experience and the best reward, living life to the fullest! 

One last note, I dedicate this race to my dad who was recently in the hospital for several weeks and is still recovering! I wish he knew how much I love him. This is my gift to him, bringing his two youngest sons together and sharing amazing moments while accomplishing something many would never imagine to even try!

Sponsored by my wife Andrea and Forever Tri