The Preliminaries

I arrived in Fort Lauderdale on Feb,11. I had the oportunity to meet César Vieira, a doctor, musician and athlete with infinite credentials and Maria Fernanda, his wife. They kindly received a ton of food, sports drinks, gels, bars and all the stuff I´d eat during the race. We talked a little, had coffee in Starbucks, and soon I was on my way to Orlando.

César, Fernanda e I in Fort Lauderdale.

When I was arriving in Orlando I took a detour in order to pass through some streets and roads that were part of the Ultraman bike course. My heart started beating hard when I stepped on the course that I´d be racing for real in one week. I went to Lake Conway hoping to swim a little but there was a frustrating sign of "NO SWIMMING" standing on the entrance... that meant no open water swim untill race day.

On Feb, 14 I raced on the Sebring 100 miles, a cycling race that would be my last "tune up". I had during the race the oportunity to meet the super champion Cláudio Clarindo, an ÜberUltraCyclist and multiple RAAM top finisher that I met for the first time in 2006, in the 24 hours of Fortaleza. Since then I´m a big fan of him and his acomplishments. He is a very determined competitor, a true ultra distance warrior, at the same time he is the humblest person, a true champion to look up to! Clarindo was racing on the 24 hour race, not my "kid´s category" 100 mile!

Through the race I met Wayne Dowd and Patrick Autissier, we formed a small peloton and hammered the pedals hard! These guys are from another world, I couldn´t believe because they were on such a strong pace. While riding with them I´d be thinking:"How the hell do they keep this pace for 12 hours? I can barely keep up and I´m only riding for 5 hours!" Their riding style reminded me of the famous Steve Prefontaine quote: “The only good race pace is suicide pace, and today looks like a good day to die.”

Cláudio Clarindo and I before the race start, as cold as it gets!

Me, Wayne and Patrick hammering the pedals in Sebring!

Sebring 100 was a very good race but it was so cold! We started the race with 0 C (32 F) and when I got to the finish line, 5 hours later, it was 10 C (50 F). I woke up on sunday with a sore throat and feeling loppy. I spent the day resting, took tons of cough syrup and expectorated half of my body weight. That made me very tense because I wasn´t supposed to get sick now (at least, not in my plans). I contacted Brazil and told them to bring some antibiotics, just in case.

The rest day was good and I woke up feeling much better on monday. I did not want to wear myself out but I really had to do some training. I jumped in the YMCA pool that was beside the hotel and swam 3000m (3300 yds). In the end of the day I went to one of the dirt roads that were part of the run course and ran 17 km (10.5 mi) in order to get used to the race course. My body reacted well to this "easy day" and the only thing left was a noisy cough. My parents arrived by the end of the day, it was very good to meet them, I hadn´t seem them since christmas.

Leaving the pool at the Y.

Seizing the end of the day with a 17 km run.

Carol, my wife, Guilherme, my brother and Team Captain, arrived on Tuesday. It was good to see them again!

On wednesday we went to the Kennedy Space Center. I´d been there before when I was 15 but it was much more fun this time, after having an Engineering degree. I was really tense during the day and I was thrilled when I heard Pres. Kennedy´s speech saying: "We choose to go to the moon and do other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard!" - I immediately associated that with the challenge I´d be facing in two days. Challenges move us and make we evolve. Bigger challenges make us see the importance of consistency, regularity, discipline, hard work and all the effort we put in to conquer them.

When we got back to the hotel André was already waiting for us. Now the whole team was complete - Guilherme - the Captain, Carol - my love, André - The UltraSpiritual Leader, and Dave - Mr Marathon Man.

On thursday we got all the stuff from the race directors, We arrived on the breakfast of the pre-race briefing and got all the stuff, stickers, numbers, cooler and the most important of all: the binder that had all the information, rules, courses and phone numbers. I was able to get to know more about the other competitors, they were introduced by Mr. Steve King (the voice of Ultraman), he introduced each of the athletes telling their credentials, tens of marathons, Ironmen, Epic 5, Badwater and so on... I was scared to be in the middle of those ultra-distance beasts!

Athletes, volunteers and crews. Ohana (family)

Sway´s (race director) first words were to tell us that the race start would be postponed for 2 hours because of the cold weather. It was really cold and the forecast wasn´t good for the next two days. I thought it was the best news we could have although we´d pay the price having 2 hours less resting between the 1st and 2nd day.

After the briefing we went to the supermarket and bought all the food that the team would carry in the car. Bread, cheese, ham, snacks, coke, red bull and more stuff. Later we went to a dive shop to buy neoprene gloves and boots. I thought that would be the only option to get out of the water not in an ice cube.

In the end of the afternoon I focused on cleaning and greasing my bike while Carol, André and Guilherme would prepare the "Rock´n´Roll Van" (named by Guilherme) and all the foods.

Rock´n´roll van being prepared by the world´s best crew

At night we went to the "Bahama Breeze", keeping up with the same nutrition strategy I had in the last few days I ordered chicken breast, mashed potatoes and a salad. While we were eating Carol came with a surprise. On the last months before the Ultraman she contacted many friends and some top ultra-distance athletes and explained them that I would be racing the Ultraman and asked them to record a message. To hear those messages gave me butterflies in my stomach. That also put some more 10 tons of responsibility over my shoulder! Thank you all for the voice messages and videos, thank you for all the Ohana spirit!

The Rock´n´Roll Van ready for the first day of the Ultraman
and the Rock´n´Roll Crew