This story originally appeared on the Gents Cafe Newsletter. You can subscribe here.
It all began with the journey to run a marathon. It ended with competing for Hyrox.
I knew 2025 was the year for me to come back to competition. After years of training—alone at the gym, doing HIIT sessions every morning and then some more—I needed some new challenges and more journeys towards a final goal.
I always told myself that I wanted to run a marathon before turning 30, and then I thought, “But why wait? Let’s do it now! Let’s live the present and do what I want to do now.” So everything was settled, the ticket was bought and the 5 months of training awaited right in front of me. As usual when it comes to sport, I had many goals to fulfil, and one race held them all: doing it for my father ,who would come visit and support me; for my grandfather, who would also become my trainer, being himself a successful now-retired runner, but with memory illness; and of course finishing under 3 hours, which would’ve been a great achievement. Full motivation and commitment.
But after two months of intense training and no listening to the messages my body was sending to me, I ended up being badly injured with no chance to run for the remaining three months. I had been too focused on my mental strength and convinced myself it was endurable, but feeling guilty and frustrated I had to gave up on the race.
And here I am, three months later, with a new goal in mind, and the knowledge I have learned from my mistakes. I decided not to blame myself, but rather to understand what happened in order to come out of it strengthened, and set another goal I had in mind: competing for a Hyrox.
Once again, something I kept in the back of my mind for a long time—something that, to me, represents the perfect training, performance and aestheticism. The most famous fitness race in the world, where every competitor has to perform 8 functional exercises running one kilometre in between each station. Running, strength, high intensity training, athletics: basically everything I love to do, with the added bonus of connecting to a community of other people who share a common passion.
It’s all about the journey: the goals and training plan are still there, but in a much wiser way. Even more, it’s all about the people we share this journey with. My father will still try to come and support me for this new competition, and now I am not training alone, but with people, supporting, pushing and helping each other to perform better.
Life is about adaptation, enjoying the moments and following our passions. I deeply love and respect heritage, and with time I realised that for our family it wasn’t about an item—a watch, a car or anything material—but about a passion. The passion for sport, which brings emotions and life lessons.
Three months to go now. Sounds exciting.
So, Gentlemen, let’s catch up after the race. And by the way… I’m still under 30: the marathon will call again.
