If you are looking far away from your first 10k, the first climb to Palmas or that early Sunday morning to train, it would be good to pay attention to Chris' story. A testimony that moved me and taught me that the limits are as far as our imagination allows us.

It's a story that, if you look at it from afar, seems like it's already been told. Someone who, for one reason or another, embarked on the adventure of completing a full IronMan. For those in the know, and those who don't, we're talking about swimming 3.8 kilometers, cycling 180 kilometers and completing the 42.2 kilometers of the swim.

But Chris Nikic is not just any young man. At 21, he had already survived two open-heart surgeries and an ear operation. These are the things in life that separate the paths of people and sport. Another important fact: he is a person with Down Syndrome. All the numbers, omens, predictions or calculations place the protagonist of this story far from swimming, riding and running. It is scientifically proven that a person with this condition has poor balance, slow reactions and cognitive and learning difficulties.

However, at the age of 17, Chris's father discovered a special triathlon program that helped him break the barriers of the imaginable. This young man, who had few friends and who nobody dared invite to his parties and birthdays, got it into his head that he could win his own entry to the best of all: the IronMan.

The coach

At this point in the journey, Dan appeared, an experienced athlete with 15 completed IronMans in his suitcase. He decided to join this athlete in his dream of becoming the first person with Down syndrome in the world to finish a competition of this nature. Without help, without shortcuts, just like any person who crosses the starting line. Together they set out on a 13-month journey of training in sessions that lasted no less than 3 hours a day. The most intense sessions lasted 7 hours.

One percent better

Here comes Chris's dad to deliver what would be the philosophy of life for the adventure: One percent better. This premise speaks of small, daily, measurable and motivating progress. Each session, each mile goes on the board. And with its "micro-wins" the certainty that the path to the goal is traveled during the entire calendar, that the race is run in each training day. This same way of thinking is present in the famous marginal gains of cycling and athletics. Each percentage, however small it may seem, leads us to reach the goal faster.

The day of the party

The time has come, on Saturday, November 7, on the coast of Florida, the dawn gave way to Chris' challenge: to finish the IronMan under the time limit (17 hours). And he did it, the boy did it.

Not without first remembering, as his coach said in an interview, that this is a competition of four events instead of three. He says that in addition to swimming, cycling and athletics, the IronMan always has a fourth, unexpected challenge. For Chris there were several, the first of them at kilometer 32 of the cycling. At that point in the race they got off the bike to adjust their shoes, but unfortunately Nikic stopped on a mound of ants. That episode took 25 minutes off them.

At kilometer 50 there was a fall on the asphalt. They say that, instead of getting discouraged, Chris got up with the joy of those of us who are crazy about telling the stories of our scars; instead of tears there was a smile.

In the end, in athletics, he wanted to give up. And it was there that the voices of his family, and of Dan, kept his dream alive. The coach came up with the strategy of inviting him to run ten cones and walk two to make the stretch more bearable. But in the end, after the ants, the fall, the discouragement and the not insignificant fact of being a person with Down Syndrome, Chris Nikic reached the finish line in 16 hours and 46'.

The rest to say is the tears this story brings to my eyes and the push I get every time I think what I'm doing is too much. If Chris could do it, we all can. So, put on your sneakers, trainers or swimming cap and get moving.

Cristian Marín - Alternating Current