In the next few posts I am going to try to recount my athletic career, not that it is over or anything but I wanted to write it down just in case I forget and in case my kids want to read it one day. This will be a sort of an athletic autobiography. My dad who is 86 now apparently wants to write one about his life so I wanted to write something down and not wait another 40 years.
I was born in Ibagué Colombia and moved to Bogotá when I was less than one year old. I lived with my Grandmother and my uncle in a middle class neighborhood. We were not rich by any means but there was food and shelter. I went to Kinder Garden two doors down and although I was capable I really did not apply myself initially. I loved numbers and playing but I was always talking and goofing off in class. I still have my report cards with notes about my behavior. There was no such thing as athletics or PE that I can remember. For second and third grade I went to another school around the corner. We had to wear uniforms. I think all kids should wear uniforms today. But in any case something happened in third grade. In order to pass to the next grade you have to not fail more that 2 subjects. Of course I aced math but I am sure I failed “ortografia” which is basically spelling and knowing how to write and also failed another two subjects. So I failed third grade. Oh boy! Can you spell corporal punishment? Never mind getting grounded. My grandmother destroyed my toys. Did I say I was an honor student the next year and the year after? Well not quite honors but I became a good student all of a sudden.
Right around this time I had my first experience with swimming. Bogotá is a very high altitude city and swimming is not really an option as the temperature is fairly cold. But if you drive away from Bogotá for a couple of hours you go way down in elevation and it gets quite warm. My uncle took me on this trip to a warm place. I have no idea where it was but I ended up at this house or club were all the kids were swimming. One lady came over and asked me if I knew how to swim. I answered yes. Liar, liar pants on fire! The pool looked amazing to me. So I walked over to the pool to try to get this ball that was floating in the middle. I stuck my hand in the water and pushed the water towards me so as to get the ball to come towards me. It works well. The problem was that I had shoes and I slipped into the deep end of the pool. No one saw me. I remember calling out for my uncle and I even came up for air but went under once again. Finally after what it seemed like an eternity someone pulled me out. I had swallowed quite a bit of water but I was still conscious. They had to force my mouth open and gave me some CPR. I was still there and remember hearing everyone around as I slowly regained my breathing and was fine. Just writing this is a little weird for me. But it ended well. They got me some shorts and put me right back in the pool so I could have some fun. They just kept an eye on me. But guess what? I went back to the deep end again and they pulled me out immediately this time. What does that say about me? I can see some of this sort of behavior in my son Camilo.
In Colombia soccer is king so every kid played soccer during breaks. Soccer was not really organized. Someone brought a ball and we played. We played soccer in the basketball court. The idea was to hit the posts that held the baskets. I was not very good for a kid. I remember that many other kids could really dribble. I was not one of them. I loved soccer and watching the National team on TV. I do remember watching the Olympic qualifying tournament and Colombia needed to tie with Argentina to qualify for the Olympics. Colombia got behind 1-0 early and I was crying. But later in the game Colombia scored and we went nuts. I remember going on the street and everyone was out honking their horns. It was wild and very fun. Colombia was going to the Olympics in Soccer, and just tied mighty Argentina.
In the fourth grade I went to “Colegio Americano” in the North of Bogota by 100th street. I do not think I learned one word of English there so I am not sure why it was called American but none the less it was a really good school. We played a lot of soccer and I became a goalkeeper. I got so good at goalkeeping that I was getting picked first when it was time to pick teams. I was stopping penalty kicks from older kids. It was really fun.
The other thing I learned in the fourth grade was to box. You got it. I boxed! Whenever there were kids arguing or fighting in class. This happened quite a bit by the way. The teacher got the gloves out and let them get it over with this way. Talk about “details at 10”. This would be in the National headlines if it happened in the US today. But I got good at it and sometimes I had to box older kids and get my head knocked around quite a bit.
In the fifth grade I went to a boarding school in a small town called Nemocón. This was my first experience with endurance athletics. I had a couple of friends and we ran everywhere. We were always racing each other. One weekend when we were able to go hang at the town park we decided to run to the hospital which is way out there in the other side of the town. I am sure that if I went back today it may have only been a couple of miles but for a ten year old this was a marathon. We did it and were very proud of it. We were bragging to all the girls. Not sure why as we were too young to be interested.
Another athletic experience in Nemocón was via one of our teachers. The town had a running race. I am going to guess it was a half marathon. That race was long and it took a while for the teacher to complete. The course was laps around the main part of the town. My buddies and I decided that we were going to take turns and run with the teacher. So I did one lap with the teacher. I can not remember if I lasted a lap or not but we tried. The teacher looked great. That had to be inspiring. I really believe that the best way to teach kids is by showing them instead of telling them.
Have you ever seen race walking? It is a funny looking sport eh? Well I have done it in Nemocón also. We actually had a couple’s race walking race. I was paired with a girl from the class and we raced other couples. I think we got third. Girls were sort of the enemy back then so I am not sure how I held hands with one for a whole race but we were out to win so it was fun.
My other experience was my introduction to cycling. I watched some local bike races and also watched some cyclist training on some rollers. The rollers were really loud and the guys on it looked like the real thing. Cycling is big in Colombia and the “Vuelta a Colombia” is a national event carried live on the radio. Also there was one guy that did an endurance ride were he rode for about 24 hours around the town park. That was crazy even for today. The park was across from the school so I remember peaking out to see him go around and around. It looked really lonely.
As I write this I realize that Nemocón and the fifth grade is what really inspired me to be in athletics. We had mini soccer tournaments and although I was not on the team for my grade. Our grade team kicked butt on other older grades. The tournaments were incredible. The whole school was out and the students cheered. It was like a Duke Basketball home game.
I was only in Nemocón for a year but it was the start of something. The next year I went to Tocancipá to live and athletics were not that big there. I attended the local public school and I played a lot of pick up soccer and I remember that I had a big scoring streak going. I was scoring a goal in about every game. One related experience was a day hike I did from Tocancipá to a lake called Guatavita. We hiked over the mountains. It was great. We made trail sometimes and took our dog. The crazy thing was that we let our dog bring us back. He knew exactly were to go. I did this hike with Andres and Manolo. Andres is the kid on the right on the picture above. That hill was just the beginning of the mountains behind. I still keep in touch with them to this day. They want me to visit in Colombia of course. Maybe I will visit in a few years.
Tocancipá is right in the “Avenida Norte”. North avenue off Bogotá and every once is a while there were packs of what seemed to be professional cyclist on the Avenue. The road is basically a 2 lane two way highway. I always wondered how they survived the cars.
The next post will continue with my move to Puerto Rico were I found out that swimming was my sport.