Magdalena Agata Jedrusik: Il Passatore, I’ll be proud of it as long as I live by Matteo Simone
Magdalena Agata Jedrusik: Il Passatore, I will be proud of it as long as I live
An experience that everyone should try, introspective and mystical
http://www.psicologiadellosport.net
Sooner or later you meet sport in life, in family, at school, with friends, as an adult, individual, in a team, and sometimes you are inclined to a sport to the point of experiencing so much physical and mental well-being that you want to do things extraordinary as a long run of 100km through towns and cities, meadows and valleys, smells and noises, an experience that for many is mystical, in contact with themselves. Here is Magdalena’s experience through answers to some of my questions: What was your path to becoming an athlete? “My ‘sports story’ seems inspired by a third-rate photo novel. As a child I was very plump and clumsy, bespectacled and rather subdued by my peers. Certainly, in addition to the physical appearance, the character, not very expansive, and a certain isolation did not help either. I am an only child and as a child I hardly ever went down to play in the courtyard, because my parents had chosen other pastimes for me, such as study, violin and piano. Not a trace of sport. After all, everyone in the family had convinced themselves that I had no talent for sports. The years passed, bending over the school books and a few flashes of physical education, which was brief and marginal, even if I managed. Once in high school, it started to get serious. I participated in training sessions on 60, 100, 300, 600 meters, struggling like a beast, never reaching the minimum time to get enough. Only in one case did I go well, when we did 3500 meters, but no one, neither the teacher, nor me, let alone mine, understood the meaning of that result. Time continued to pass with (physical) inertia, between university, work, home, everyday life. Until, after the age of 30, at the end of a daring period of restructuring, moving and similar psychophysical torments, I felt I had an excess of energy in my body. Unsuspected, unusual, a form of exuberance to be channeled in some direction. I decided to try the gym. I remember that in the card prepared by the instructor there was the treadmill. I could have walked, but I tried to correct. Training after training, 20 ‘of running, then 30’. My husband, who has always run in his life, even with moderate successes, encouraged me to run outside the gym, led me to overcome an hour, and thanks to his valuable advice, the jump was short. Now I have been running for 8 years: with ups and downs, some injuries, many new great friendships and sincere affections. I have had a lot of satisfaction and also some inevitable disappointments. I finished 15 marathons, 15 half marathons and a lot of shorter races.”
Sooner or later you will find a sport that suits us and then it becomes a very strong passion especially if there is company that encourages and supports: Did you risk giving up? What makes you keep exercising? Sometimes, when it rains heavily and I have to go out and repeat, it weighs me down, I wonder if it’s worth it. At some point I will stop competing, forever or for a period, but I cannot imagine, except for health problems, to stop racing completely.”
If there is motivation and a strong passion there is always a time to play sports, in the athlete’s mind there is always an appointment for a training or a race despite bad weather or other family and work commitments: What factors and people contribute to your well-being or performance? “It is inevitable to mention my husband and friends who run and for this reason they understand me well. As for external factors, paradoxically … the worse the weather, the more I yield. My personal on the marathon, I did it in 2017 in Rome, between continuous showers, puddles and slippery cobblestones. The so-called ‘result without my knowledge’.”
The strong passion allows you to do things considered extraordinary such as long 100km races where you are alone with the effort, the climbs, the long road and you know yourself more and more in overcoming crises and difficulties by bringing out hidden resources: What was the race where did you give your best or did you experience the most beautiful emotions? “I was lucky, I had the privilege of being able to prepare well and enjoy the Passatore last year. I don’t know if I gave my best, difficult to judge a debut over such a distance, but I’ll be proud of it as long as I live. The slow running at night, among the meadows, with the moonlight, then, is an experience that everyone should try. Introspective and mystical.”
Every mistake produces the desire to do better the next time by engaging and taking care of the critical aspects: Your most difficult race? “It’s not all roses and flowers: in the race there is sweat, tears, blisters and blood at times. I have had inevitable disappointments over the years, including the Rome marathon, last year, which I persisted in finishing, in preparation for the Passatore, despite important gastrointestinal problems, or this year’s Roma-Ostia : a race which I really care about and which unfortunately I made a mistake this time, because I had to do it without time references. Fortunately, the disappointment is replaced by a desire for redemption, and as long as this is there, I keep running.”
We must always remember what good we have done in our life, where we are now, what has allowed us to stay in this moment with what is there and appreciate our qualities, abilities, characteristics and resources that we have shown to possess and that sometimes we forget we have: What is your experience that can give you the conviction that you can do it? “Last year’s unfortunate Rome marathon (Lisa Magnago once said that there is no race that cannot be finished: here, I agree with her), of course the Passatore, but also the recovery after the Passatore: I’m back to run two marathons in a few months at my ‘usual’ pace.”
Everything makes sense to us, the more important what we are about to do and the more tension and concern there is but you can be at the start with the awareness that you have done your homework well and now it is just a matter of demonstrating it above all to ourselves what we are worth without pressure or fear of other people’s judgments: What sensations do you experience while doing sport: pre-race, in the race, post-race? “A lot depends on how I am in general, on the goals I set myself: the race itself can be very important for me, so there is tension, mobilization, before and during a race and satisfaction or disappointment afterwards. I don’t hide the fact that I also happened to do some races as if they were tasks to be done, when the goal was different.”
Running does not only include running workouts but also strengthening, abdominal and stretching sessions, you have to take care of many aspects to ensure that the performance has an excellent result: What are the difficulties and risks in your sport? What do you need to pay attention to? “Unfortunately, in Rome you have to pay attention to the cars and the holes … joking aside, in some periods I have to force myself to disconnect, not to channel everything into training and that’s it. For the rest, stretching, gaits, technical things.” What physical or environmental conditions led you to perform less than optimal? “Gastrointestinal disorders are always lurking.”
Magdalena’s approach to injuries is interesting and very valid, it is important to understand them, accept and distract them, take advantage of caring for other gardens that we may have overlooked: How do you overcome any crises, defeats, injuries? “To face the crises and defeats I am very prepared, I have collected many: we turn the page, we analyze and we try to improve. For injuries, or situations that do not depend on me, it is different, it is more difficult to accept them. Fortunately, few have happened to me, in these cases I try to direct my attention to something else, I dedicate time to my other interests and wait for recovery.”
If used well, sport aggregates and allows you to get to know people, cultures and peoples, there are many competitions organized to unite and aggregate, or against violence and others for charity: Was there a risk of running into doping? A message to advise against its use? “No, no doping, I haven’t had opportunities, and I don’t care. I don’t like shortcuts. To whom is tempted I would say: is it really worth it to ruin one’s health? But if the result becomes an obsession, doping can seem an excellent ally.”
Sometimes sport is not included, especially the great effort of preparing for the marathon or for the 100km when you have to do long workouts of hours and hours, even at more unusual times or in adverse weather conditions, but for the athlete all this it is a test to be faced that helps to arrive at the starting grid confident and confident: What do family and friends say about your sport? “My husband has supported me from the very beginning with unrivaled enthusiasm and valuable advice. I have many new sports friends, those who have known me before, as well as my parents, cannot understand. Indeed, I sometimes feel an irritating misunderstanding.”
Magdalena has on her side not only passion and motivation but also a talent that facilitates her training and competitions, she seems to easily find an excellent state of form that allows her to excel in training and competitions: What have you discovered about yourself in practicing physical activity? “I discovered that my stubbornness and willpower, which I already knew, are fortunately also accompanied by the resistance of the body. I’m really lucky.” Do you find the sports psychologist useful? For what aspects and in what stages? “Of course, on a motivational level, but also to prevent the above obsessions.”
Sometimes the sports psychologist can be considered an extra gear for the decisions to be made by athletes, for increasing self-awareness, for increasing personal confidence, for going through crises and injuries that sometimes put athletes to a severe test, to manage demanding races especially before the start that sometimes consume a lot of energy to the athletes making them worry exaggeratedly and unnecessarily: Next goals? Dreams realized and to be realized? “I dream of long distances, where you don’t look at the stopwatch but at the calendar. The return to the Passatore, maybe other ultra, stage races … Milan-San Remo.”
Magdalena seems to be very convinced of her potential and resources to the point of wanting to try very challenging races of hundreds of kilometers: A message for the women of the world? “Here my loquacity diminishes: I would speak easy, not having children and having a steady, rather quiet job. I could say the obvious: do not give up, break through the glass roof, do not get mistreated, make time for yourself … but these are all things that need to be lived in order to be able to speak about them with knowledge of the facts. Besides, why should I only speak to women? Do I not have themes in common with men too? When in doubt, I am silent.”
In fact, even thinking to keep quiet, Magdalena said a lot to both women and men, to women that life is hard for everyone and therefore everyone must face it in the best possible way, and to men that life is hard for them too, not they must delude themselves that they are above all problems.
Matteo SIMONE – 21163@tiscali.it
+393804337230 Psicologo, Psicoterapeuta
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