We are at a new appointment with the triathlon, this time in the competition there will be 2 to represent the PARKINSONAUTI TEAM me and Annalaura Maurin, a friend, caregiver and coach of “Rock steady boxe” who has earned the right to be part of the PARKINSONAUTI TEAM on the field .

Annalaura does not have all the characteristics, she misses Parkinson’s disease, but she is a precious friend, we have already shared many sporting adventures. She each time represented her beloved dad, Marino Maurin, who lived with Parkinson’s for the last 16 years, singing Frank Sinatra’s songs, always looking for the best solution to win his battle against our uncomfortable guest, until July of this year when he left us.

Anna, passionate about cycling, is a triathlete and one of us since the early days. She participated in the “Bike riding for Parkinson 2020 and 2021” making her experience as a traveler available to draw up the stages and conducting the half hour of muscle awakening and stretching every morning at 6.15am.

We will be together at the start on Sunday on the distance of the medium triathlon, in jargon 70.3, also called Half Ironman, 1900 m. swimming, 90 km. by bike and 21 km. quickly. Annalaura has already completed this race in 2019 when I had participated in the Olympic.

I am sure it will be very important to have her by my side in the final leg of the race, we will keep each other company chatting, while we complete our enterprise. We have already confronted each other and we are aware that we have not completed a complete and brilliant preparation, the one that would be necessary to be able to run smoothly for the entire final half marathon.

Willpower will help us when it is time to respond to the self-saboteurs, those little voices that coming directly from the brain, from a certain point onwards, will begin to whisper to us from inside our mind: now enough, you are tired, there is no you can do it, why do you have to do all this effort? What is the reason for staying here instead of being quietly in rooms to rest after a nice shower? Come on, don’t be a hero who pays for it tomorrow, you’re sick, yours is not a smart choice, and so on, I could go on for days.

To get here the road was long and demanding, the preparation began in December 2020, on average I trained every day, going through the difficulties that the Covid period entailed.

But that’s what motivates me! When we set ourselves a goal like this, the first real and very important result is that we keep our body in training. This is the best therapy that, together with the drugs that are sometimes necessary to move, we can adopt: it slows the progression of the disease, it has no side effects, it is our responsibility and we can access it as often as we want at km. zero and low cost.

Someone asks me: how do you do it? Others tell me: okay but you’re trained, then you don’t even look sick. They often add: I would never make it! But then how could I, I don’t have time, this and that hurts me, they are too much or too little, the best come to say: physical activity and sport are okay, but I’m fine even so.

Ask the athletes of the PARKINSONAUTI TEAM, especially those who in recent months have adopted new habits, changing the way they think and act, changing the way they eat and organize their time to pursue goals that, until they have started to act moving in the right direction, they seemed impossible.

Like Marco Ramelli from Sesto Fiorentino and Angelo Gualtieri from Camisano, CR, who in addition to the bike trip from Turin to Venice in June this year took part in their first triathlon competitions.

Or to Stefano Ruaro, from Vicenza, who already practiced triathlon with excellent results before his diagnosis a year and a half ago, but who after that moment had stopped convinced that he was no longer able. This year, in addition to the bike trip with PARKINSONAUTI, he dusted off his triathlon suit and has already completed 3 races, improving every time.

Ask the girls of the Bike riding, like Samantha Vizentin, Antonella Brunacci, Carmela Arancio and Mariagrazia Pastori who in a few months have gone from not cycling, to going there often, and now they do it several times a week feeling much better.

Or to Gianni Cantarelli from Parma, who from being almost unable to ride a bicycle at the beginning of the year, left home alone at the end of August to join us in Civitanova and spend a weekend together, before continuing, always alone. , up to Barletta.

In the first weekend of September we were all together in Civitanova Marche to participate in a paratriathlon competition which is part of the IPS circuit organized by Fitri thanks above all to the commitment of our friend Neil MacLeod. On that occasion, just to prepare for tomorrow’s race in Cervia, I started 2 races in the same morning, a super sprint and a sprint, obtaining a great result, especially in managing the time I had available to finish the first. race and start the second.

I want to thank Marco Tarabelli and the whole organization of the Civitanova triathlon for the hospitality. We had a great time and took part in a perfectly organized event, in a splendid place that the usual Daddo Dario Nardone, official speaker, was able to enhance thanks to a special guest for the world of triathlon, Justine Mattera, who has was able to surprise and fascinate us with the presentation of his book.

Next week we will tell you how it went, in the meantime we get involved, giving the best of ourselves to keep screaming in the face of Parkinson’s, “YOU WON’T STOP”