Arame Tall: “To know you, suffer”

Don’t run to escape something, run to find yourself

Haruki Murakami, What I talk about when I talk about running

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–My first Ironman, the one I competed in Vitoria-Gasteiz (July 14), was everything I had not expected – Arame Tall (28) tells me, speaking to me with his Sevillian accent.

–…?

–I was nervous and anxious, I thought I wouldn’t be able to finish it, or that I would have problems with the bike and I wouldn’t know how to solve them. And then there was the weather.

–How much doubt!

–I live in Manchester, in the cold and the rain. And in those days in Vitoria a great heat was expected. But do you know one thing? My hair stands on end every time I think about the talk they gave us just before the honk, when we were in front of the lake (the swimming was held in the Ullibarri-Gamboa lake, in Landa park).

-Because?

–A girl turned around and asked me: ‘Why are you crying? If this is to enjoy it!’. And I thought about the hours of training that I had put in for three years, about my mother (Eva), who had come to see me from Wales, where she lives…

–And what happened?

–After the honk I immersed myself in another dimension. The 3,800m swim was easy, there were only two turns, unlike my hundreds of turns in the Manchester pools. And on the bike (180km) I already seemed energetic, I only suffered in the final stretch, when the heat hit. There I began to talk to myself, to convince myself that I would finish the final marathon, as I did, in 11h07m. I can’t say anything negative about Vitoria. The Ironman in Nice, two months later, was another story…

-Because?

–I guess I trusted myself.

(And trusting yourself, when you are on the eve of an Ironman, is reckless, you can imagine, dear reader).

In Nice I was empowered: among thousands of triathletes there were only four black women; “I was proud of that minority.”

Arame Talliron woman

–How could you trust yourself on the eve of an Ironman?

–If I had had such a good time in Vitoria, Nice was supposed to be my big show… In reality, I was risking a lot and I hadn’t realized it. After Vitoria, he had barely had six days of rest. If I competed in it, it is because it was a test for the World Championships, and because in Vitoria I had earned a place for that World Championship. The thing is that I arrived in Nice burned and with tendinitis in my left foot that I still have. The Mediterranean was rough, I almost vomited, at times I became disoriented.

–What agony!

–On the bicycle, the route was absolutely different from that in Vitoria: full of hills, torture. And in the running race I was suffering from tendinitis and I thought I would have to walk. My mother and my boyfriend didn’t come to see me… I finished in 1:05 p.m., I still don’t know how I did it.

–And where did you learn more?

–In Nice, of course.

–…?

–In Vitoria I experienced a storybook Ironman. It was not normal to enjoy so much and finish so well. In Nice I discovered my capacity for resilience, when I moved forward thinking about training alone, at dawn, when I asked myself why I was doing that. What I discovered is that, if you want to know yourself deeply, you must suffer. Also, something happened that empowered me.

-The fact that?

–Among the thousands of participants, I only saw four black women. I felt proud to be one of the members of such a minority community in such a test.

–Do you plan to do another one?

(Arame Tall is silent for a few moments).

–I would like to do it. But first I need to compete in the Ironman 70.3 in Valencia next April (an Ironman 70.3 involves a 1,900m swim, 90km bike ride and a half marathon). And if that goes well, then I will enter the 70.3 of the World Cup in Marbella, in October.

–And why do you pose these challenges?

–And why not? As a child he kayaked at the Seville Nautical Club. I had teammates who have been Olympians (Pablo Martínez was in Tokyo 2020). And when I arrived in Manchester (twelve years ago, due to the family move), I had tried boxing. I became an under-18 international for England, but there I understood that I didn’t box because I liked it, but because I was good at it. So I left it. What I’m looking for are escape routes.

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