His name is Miguel Ángel Tortajada, he is 29 years old, he lives in Valencia and in February he will participate in the Ultraman in Florida along with 40 other background athletes around the world. His challenge, translated into numbers, supposes
Complete in 3 days 10 kilometers swim in open waters, 421 by bicycle and 84.3 kilometers running. Although it is not an adventure available to anyone, Miguel Ángel is not the first Spaniard who will participate in an Ultraman nor will it be the last one (in Florida he will be accompanied by Toni Marsal). But what differentiates him from the majority is that he barely has a handful of background races in his curriculum and two years ago he was not even able to complete a training session of 5 kilometers without suffering.
"My body reacted very badly to physical exercise. I did 5 kilometers and suffered like crazy," he says. What has changed in such a short time for you to now prepare one of the most intense tests on the planet? "Basically I set out to get it. I am very head when I propose something and two years ago I decided that I wanted to do triathlon and background tests." Before that "I was barely played beyond some paddlers with friends."
"I suffered like a madman when I started training, but I am very head and I was very clear that I wanted to see how far I could go,"
Its history starts with a walk on a Saturday afternoon through the port of Valencia. "I saw that there were people preparing a test that was going to be celebrated the next day." It was the medium distance triathlon of Valencia, in March 2012. "I was so struck that the next day I approached to see the test from early until the end.
At that moment it was when he hooked me and I decided that I wanted to do that, that I wanted to be a triathlete ". This is how he began to train ... and discover that his body did not react too well to intense physical exercise. "I had a bad time, but I was very clear that I wanted to see how far I could go."
From Valencia to Switzerland to be an Ironman
His first contact with the background tests was three months later, when he took part in a 10K. "And in September I signed up for a sprint triathlon thinking that I was going to do well, but I suffered like never because I had not prepared. That put me on my site." In 2013, the same test that had hooked to the background sport was released a year earlier:
"It was a great blow of humility. I finished it, but very bad. Throughout the year I had been training on my own, without physio, or coach, or anything, and there I realized that if I wanted to continue doing this I had to count on aid".
Miguel Ángel Tortajada currently has José Vela as coach and has the advice of Carlos Ferrando on nutrition, with which he improved his performance in tests such as marathons, half marathons and triathlons. Until
At the beginning of 2014 he decided to send a request to register in the Ultraman in Florida 2015. "I had not even made an Ironman, but I did not think they were going to accept me. My idea was that they were knowing me to accept me three or four years later".
To his surprise, the organization's organization agreed to process his registration. It should be noted that
In the Florida's ultraman registration form, a list of all the tests in which it has participated during the last three years, including the completed distance and the time must be included. What led the organization to accept a triathlete without a long career behind and that had not even completed an Ironman? "I sincerely think it was because at that time I was the only Spanish who had presented and imagined that they sought to have a wide range of nationalities in the test."
"I signed up for Ironman from Zurich because I wanted to hear about" You're Ironman. "In the last lap, with everyone telling him, he was floating. It was a unique experience.
In recent months Miguel Ángel has intensified his preparation, with the Ultraman de Florida on the horizon. To do this, he decided to sign up for Ironman from Zurich last July. "I wanted to hear about
You're Ironman. I cried on the last round, with people encouraging me. I was floating. It is a unique experience that I recommend living it to everyone. "
His next great appointment is in Florida in February 2015, where he wants to complete his first ultraman: more than 500 kilometers in three days for a man who two years ago was unable to complete 5 kilometers of continuous race without ending disreply.
