a marathon runner with 76% physical disability

taketonews

There are stories of self-improvement and then there is Alex Roca Campillo. A 31-year-old from Barcelona, ​​six months later he suffered a herpetic viral encephalitis, a cerebral herpes, which has left him 76% physical disability and cerebral palsy. The doctors issued the worst diagnoses, if he survived he could remain in a vegetative state. This physical disability affects the left side of his body, where he has reduced mobility and has undergone two operations on his foot. She communicates through sign language. Well then, The Barcelona marathon ended on Sunday in less than six hours, at 5.50 specifically. It is no longer time, but the fact of facing 42 kilometers and 195 meters, and more for someone like him.

It was one more feat in the life of a young man who has made sport the way to overcome all your limitations and a communication vehicle. Not in vain he is the author of a book with the title ‘You put the limit on yourself’. Roca is moved by the objective of raising awareness among those like him who live with different abilities. He doesn’t like the word disability. “We like to be treated like everyone else. With sacrifice, attitude and teamwork many challenges can be achieved. When you put yourself ahead, you are afraid but it is something that motivates, “he explains on his social networks. He has 163,000 followers on Instagram.

six months of preparation

His feat, there is no other qualifier, led him to another type of exhaustion yesterday, the one caused by the numerous interviews with the company of his wife, Mari Carme Maza, an interpreter of his sign language. «I am very happy and grateful, very impacted by the echo it has had. And also very tired, I have a hard time walking», He explained in conversation with this newspaper. What less after having done a marathon.

Reaching the finish line on Avenida de Maria Cristina was the fruit of six months of preparation. «I like to divide my challenges into small blocks. So I decided to go from the half marathon to the marathon. In February of last year he put his body to the test when he ran two stockings only a month apart in Miami and New York. «Four years ago I ran in Barcelona for my first average. It was very difficult, almost impossible.”

Something similar happened to him on Sunday. There was no shortage of moments of fainting, even when there was still a long race ahead. «I had three very difficult ones. At kilometer 24 my body was not pulling. Also in 34-35 and 37-38, when my legs hurt a lot and I was mentally exhausted », he recalled. To get out of “those mood lows” it was essential the support of the group of 10 people who accompanied him, made up of family, friends and his personal trainer. His wife was also running.

Mari Carme, today a social education university student, met her when she was starting out in what has become the other axis of her life: inspirational talks and motivational conferences in educational centers, companies and sports entities. «It was six and a half years ago in a school and it was her second conference. He was with her best friend and I was sitting in the front row. He had done his first ‘supersprint’ triathlon and I sent him a message saying that I really liked it.

From then on, a relationship began, already consolidated in the 2017 Orbea Monegros cycling event, which has made them a couple both in athletic events and in conferences. Focusing on the sport was a decision that Alex Roca made after finishing another demanding cycling race (he does them in tandem) like the 2019 Titan Desert. He left behind an accounting job for five years in a ‘family office’ (investment and wealth family business). “We can give 80 conferences in half a year,” Mari Carme specified.

Talk in Tokyo with the Barça Foundation

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These talks take place in Catalonia, but he has also done them in Madrid, La Rioja, Cantabria and Aragón. And also in Miami, New York, Amsterdam and Tokyo. There he took him, at the beginning of this month, at a festival with children with diversity, his status as ambassador of the Fundació FC Barcelona since November 2021, as a benchmark for inclusion and diversity. “It is an honor for me to participate in the projects and conferences of the foundation.” The message of “struggle, perseverance and sacrifice” to overcome all limits was the one he passed on to Japanese children.

Now it is too early to talk about the next challenge. “It’s time to assume what the marathon has been, all the knowledge that I have acquired to be able to transmit it in the conferences”. Little by little he will return to his routine of three days a week in the gym, one as a physiotherapist, three of running or cycling, apart from his psychological work, meditation and relaxation. This is how he has finished a marathon, six half, five triathlons and an aquatlon, and cycling events as demanding as the Titan Desert and the Pilgrim Race. He is a Nike athlete but Alex Roca is typical of ‘Impossible is nothing ‘ by Muhammad Ali which became the famous Adidas motto.



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