Delfí Vilaseca: Not everyone is Kilian Jornet, you have to know how to listen to your body

BarcelonaDelfí Vilaseca (Berga, 1970) has spent half his life running after a ball. But once he left football, he discovered he can keep running without a ball. At 46, he decided to run his first marathon and now he has run more than thirty-five. He recounts this experience in the book Fin: you run, we all run, the proceeds of which are donated to pancreatic cancer research. Vilaseca, head of IT at a company, wants to send a message to everyone: it's never too late to start.

You arrived late to the marathon world. You didn't run your first until you were 46 years old.

— Yes, I had always played football; I reached playing in the Preferent category. I spent my whole life playing it. So I continued doing it with the veterans once I retired. And, in my case, one of the strong points I had was my physique, I liked to run.

You have to imagine yourself as a midfielder with lungs that don't stop.

— It is like that. I played as an attacking midfielder, the classic football player who runs up and down.

And how do you make the leap to marathons and races?

— If you have always played sports, you cannot stop. It is never easy to quit a sport, and, so as not to stay still at home, I started training on my own. You start running alone and then you sign up for a 5 km or 10 km race. But I saw that I was physically well and I decided to do a half marathon. And since I felt comfortable, I chose to try the queen distance of athletics, which is the marathon. Ten years ago I did it in Barcelona. And I haven't been able to stop since.

What attracts about a marathon?

— Hard to say, as I suffered it a lot. I suffered the first one, more than enjoyed it. But I did see that it had something special that hooked me. And I have been discovering until today all the good things it brings me. It allows you to listen to your body and persevere. In this sense, my past in football has helped me, which had brought me discipline. Sport teaches you to win and to lose. It teaches you to enjoy victory, but it also allows you to understand that you have to know how to lose.

This discipline helps with marathons, I guess.

— Correct. It requires a lot of discipline and willpower. You have to learn to go without things. This doesn't mean you can't enjoy life's pleasures. Obviously, everyone can do whatever they want, but without excess. This summer we reached 38 ºC in Berga and many days it was difficult to go out. And I did. Would it have been easier to stay home? Sure. But if you go out, you feel better afterwards. Many rainy days you want to stay watching television on the sofa with your wife and daughter, but now they tell me to go out, that I will feel better. This training allows you to finish marathons when you suffer.

Do you always suffer from it?

— In a way, yes. That's why you need to train well. You do a 20 km run in intense heat or in the rain. And it works. This is the consistency that a marathon requires, because no one gives you anything for free. And with marathons, the wall always appears, that moment that is so difficult. It doesn't matter if you've trained a lot, there's always a moment when it's tough. The famous wall exists. It always appears.

Is every marathon different?

— Yes. Also, I am a very competitive and very demanding person. I always want to improve on my last marathon time and, to do so, discipline is necessary to be prepared for when it's time to suffer.

You use the verb to suffer a lot...

— You suffer, but it captivates you. A marathon surprises you, it's very difficult for everything to go as you imagined. Mood, physical condition, weather influence... It's not easy, but it's a challenge. And it's never the same. It's never monotonous. All the marathons I've run, I've experienced them differently. Besides, if you have a job that requires a lot of concentration, it frees you up. You stop thinking about work. It's a kind of therapy that helps a lot, as the effort is so great that you forget other things. In the first one I ran, I didn't even see the Sagrada Familia, or anything. I was just focused on the race.

It's not common for someone over 45 to enter the world of marathons... What would you tell someone of that age who is reading this and has never run such a race?

— I would tell him that it is never too late. I don't consider myself better or worse than anyone, but I want to show that anyone who sets any goal can achieve it with a lot of effort and work. The process has been beautiful, as I didn't know much about marathons and I've been learning along the way.

You have learned, for example, that you cannot run many marathons in a year.

— Correct. I've done three in a row now and my whole body hurts. I'm doing the next one this October in Munich, then I'm going to Malaga and before Christmas, to Pisa. But it's true that I can't do many more in the same year. There comes a point where if you don't give your body time to recover, you'll have to suffer. I can do about six competitive ones a year, but I'll have to live with the pain.

Marathons have become fashionable. They don't stop growing. But not everyone has the same body or the same age. Are imprudences committed?

— Yes, one must have good sense to prevent the marathon, which is a beautiful thing, from turning into a small hell. I always say that not everyone can be Kilian Jornet, you have to know how to listen to your body. There is only one Kilian, with his body and genetics. Many want to do what he does, and it's a mistake. In this sense, can everyone run a marathon? Everyone can, but with their own path, training, and goals. Each body is different, a marathon affects the body of a short person differently than a person who is 1.90 m tall. We must learn to enjoy sport, so that it makes us better and helps us. But competing against ourselves, not against others.

How does the idea for the book to help pancreatic cancer research originate?

— After the races, I would come home and write things down. And from here the idea of doing it arose, to encourage and help whoever wants to be encouraged. I chose to donate the money to research this very serious illness, as it has affected me closely with two people.