“We fight till the end, we never give up, we try to gain inches in every play” – said by me under heavy medication, probably came straight out of my subconscious. I guess I must have been trying to channel a combination of Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday and Sylvester Stalone in Rocky Balboa. That has been my mentality since I started competing at a high level in Triathlons and it was clearly reflected in the hospital. As days passed and I continued to improve, I drove my nurses crazy, as I wanted to be allowed to walk around the TICU (Trauma Intensive Care Unit) to show the doctors and nurses I was ready to get the hell out of the TICU and moved to a more relaxed and less intense room in the burn unit.

Me posing next to a Rocky mural in Wynwood, 2 blocks from where the accident happened

The lesson here is pretty clear, if you’re in the TICU of a major hospital, odds are there’s going to be some serious blood, sweat and tears (literally happened) shed, to get back to sprinting up a bridge on Key Biscayne at 6am. I’ve been blessed to have developed a mentality that doesn’t accept complacency, but instead one that’s constantly focused on the next fight. Life just beat the shit out of me, so now it was my turn to prove to myself that life would have to kill me before I would stop trying to be the better version of myself. I was in an excruciating amount of pain, but deep inside me I knew that no matter what, I needed to keep moving forward. I needed to prove to myself I would get out of this mess walking and show my family and loved ones that I would be back, that I was stronger than ever. I got to experience what I am really made of. Despite being under ungodly amounts of medication on a daily basis, either trying to keep me stable, or out of pain, my subconscious was running a million miles/hour trying to get mentally better and fight to get off this medication and back to my normal day to day as quickly as possible. No amount of medication could keep me subdued to the point where I wasn’t able to plan the next step of my recovery every day, even if it was walking two steps more than I took the day before. Ironically I don’t think I have ever been so in-tune with my body, seeing it improve every single day was magical. I think those first few days set the tone for the rest of me recovery. I showed that was ready to put everything on the line and give it my all, in order to recover beyond any of the doctors’ expectations.

I became very grateful for being able to walk, became aware that walking is a gift, it really is. It’s a shame it took an event of this magnitude, for me to realize how beautiful it is to walk. They say it takes a certain darkness to see the stars, I guess it is true in my case. I identify profoundly with a quote from Dr. Robert Holden: “The miracle of gratitude is that it shifts your perception to such an extent that it changes the world you see”

Below I have included a short clip of my coach Boris motivating me to walk around the hospital so you guys can get a better idea of the mindset. That same day the decision was made that I will do the Miami Half Marathon, which was a little over 2 months away. We set a huge, daunting goal (given the state I was in), but setting that goal gave me a little extra drive to train for it, get healthier and accomplish it as you will find out later on.