Unforgettable

By: Mario García

This text has the same name than French Montana´s song “Unforgettable”, which was filmed in the same city where this history took place. The experience I am about to tell was literally unforgettable for me. 

The alarm sounded, and like all the mornings, I took the phone and turned it off to sleep 5min more. But instantly, I realized that day wasn´t a normal day. The room I had around me was not the room I was used to and there was a mosquito net around my bed. I wasn´t at home, I was 5941km away from home, in the middle of Africa. 

After I refreshed my face, I put the Spanish tracksuit on and I went down to have breakfast. It was only 8am and the race was at 3:10pm, I kept thinking about what I could do until race time, without any doubt the morning was going to be very long.

It was a strange feeling to be in a huge dining room with some of the best athletes in the world, “Who would have told me I would be here 6 months ago” I thought. I finished my light breakfast and I went back to my room. In that moment, I knew what to do until the race time. I got my backpack ready, after that, I went over it two or three times, and finally I put my headphones over my ears and I tried to relax. 

I was listening to music for approximately 2 hours, I think I heard the Coldplay´s Spotify playlist almost three times. My phone rang, it was my mom, she´d sent me a WhatsApp message. It said: “Good Luck Mario! We trust in you, if you come in the top 30, I´ll buy you a new car ☺ “My answer was automatic: “Mom, I think you will still be my driver after this championship”. 

I answered to all the people who sent me mood messages and I got ready to go to the XC circuit. 

In that moment, my roomie came into the room and told me that there was already a long row to enter to the circuit, and it was only 1:00pm! I thought that day was going to be hard to forget. 

I took my backpack and I went to the hotel hall where all the Spanish team was. We rode in a bus from Uganda´s army and as when we arrived at the country we were guarded to the XC circuit. When we arrived at the circuit, suddenly I realized that championship wasn´t going to be a normal one. Thousands of people were in the hill around the circuit. I don´t know why but the last hour before the race went by very fast. Somehow, I was in the start race, looking over the other athletes, above all I looked over the Kenyans, Ethiopians, Eritreans, and Ugandans (That was the last time I could see them until the finish line). The gun marked the start of the race, and suddenly hundreds of people surpassed me, “It´s going to be a hard race” I thought. First lap and I couldn’t see the head of the race, sweat completely covered me and there were still three laps left. “Step by step, there is long way to the finish” I tried to focus my efforts. 

Before I realized, I started overtaking a lot of people. The end of the second lap came quickly and next to the lap counter my teammates were supporting us. I breathed deeply, I took a bottle of water and I continued my way. My only distraction was looking at my rival’s names: Nishiyama, Condori, Do Nascimento… I started feeling tired in the last lap, I asked myself if my legs were going to be able to take me to the finish line. All seemed to be OK until the last 600m, suddenly my legs started failing, and I could barely stand. My fight was´t against the other athletes, in that moment my fight was against me and the finish line. I started coming to the end, I could see the finish line, last effort, last sprint… Suddenly a barefoot South African boy over passes me. I was 31th. I came to the finish line, I´d achieved it, in my mind I know I´d done my best performance. I walked just 5 steps when I fell on the arms of our head coach (Manuel Pancorbo). In that moment, the medical service took me to the course hospital. I´d taken my body to the limit, but I must do it against the best athletes in the world. 

Later, totally recovered, after taking photos with some of the athletes who had made history in track and field the previous years, change clothes or conversate with the athletes who had been my rivals in the race, we went back to the hotel, in that moment, walking down the street in the capital of Uganda, is when I realized that I lost a new car when Pakiso Mthembu won me barefoot at the that sprint and that day would be probably one of the most unbelievable days of my whole life.