Now I understand what Forrest Gump felt when Jenny shouted at him to run; but the scene on this occasion was different, I was in the final of a Ultimate Frisbee Tournament and it was a force in my heart who was screaming me to continue.

^{📷 Photography: courtesy of the organization of the event.}

I was absent from the network the last two weeks due to my participation in the Ciudad del Duende 2018 Tournament in Villa del Rosario, Norte de Santander, in Colombia. I attended representation of Venezuela with the state team Táchira, "Sin Fronteras Mix", in the mixed category And we won! But it is not victory as such the reason for this post.

📌 In total, 12 teams from different departments of the country participated. The competition lasted three days, in which we played six games (four of the round, the semifinal, and the final) each with a duration of 60 minutes.

Since I saw the speech of the basketball player Kevin Durant when receiving the award as the Most Valuable Player of the NBA in 2014, I apply that of "when something good happens to me I observe what it was that got me there".

At the end of the tournament I did a review of before and during, concluding that the difficult thing to reach a final isn't to compete with the other best team of the tournament, it is to compete with yourself.

Only by taking the maximum we can know what we are capable of, that is why the preparation of an athlete must be physical, psychological and spiritual, since achieving a balance between these factors is how we develop the best level of our skills.

Behind an athlete there are sacrifices, and when I talk about taking ourselves to the maximum, I don't mean only performance, but to accept and meet the challenges that demand to reach there, and achieve success.

Before the competition we must follow the training plan, feed ourselves healthy, get enough rest, and through the achievements we obtain in each working day we also strengthen our mind, all this fighting to keep the focus, this being the starting point the competition with ourselves.

An Ultimate Frisbee tournament is quite demanding, due to the number of matches, the duration of each one, and the dynamics in the field. In each new game the difficulty is greater, because you must overcome the performance you had in the previous one.

What is the limit?

The limit is subjective. The "I can't anymore" is usually considered as the maximum, but I swear that there is always a little more to give, and it is the love for what we do that energy that drives us.

While I was in that final game I thought I "could not do it anymore" when I felt every muscle in my legs burning, when I found myself without strength, when I realized that the movements of my body were directed by inertia.

I thought that at any moment I was going to fall flat on the floor, but in my mind there was still a "Go Milka! Go!", because I thought about the effort my colleagues were making and what it had cost me attend the tournament, and I don't know how, but even though the pain killed me, my body continued to respond.

Minutes later we were receiving the prize as champions, and I learned that by winning that tournament, I had not beaten the other 11 teams, in fact it was surpassing me, physical and mental wear, and more than a medal, the True trophy was having learned to play with the heart when the legs could not go on anymore.

If we are sure of loving what we do, and we respect the effort of those who help us to conquer our goals, and above all, we respect our effort, there will be nothing to stop us, not even the pain, because passion is the fuel of an athlete.

⚪ If you want to know a little more about the Ultimate Frisbee, I recommend you read "I didn't catch the frisbee, the frisbee caught me".

📣 My native language is Spanish, sorry if I use any expression you don't understand, I try to translate the text as best as possible, but if you have any questions you can ask me.