For the ones that know me personally, you may skip this part ‘cause I’m sure you know I’m not very good with words and even worse when it comes to describing o summarizing my life. Anyway, I will try to make it short so you don’t get bored.
My name is Juan Pablo, I’m 33 and got married almost 3 three years ago with Rebeca. She’s the one with me on the profile picture. I’m the second of four brothers (José Antonio, the oldest, Luis Fernando, the third one and María Isabel, the last one) and I come from a family that makes me proud to be a part of it.
Of the rest of my family I’d say that I was lucky enough to meet all my grandparents although now the only one alive is my grandmother on my father’s side. I have 15 uncles/aunts and more than 60 cousins, not considering the numerous close friends that are just as family. We joined a few years ago my sister-in-law family and more recently my wife’s family to ours.
Both sides of my family come from a northern peruvian city, Pacasmayo, and I believe my best childhood memories come from the summers the whole family used to spend there.
Since we were kids we were always educated with principles and values that up until now still shape the way we act, not because they were imposed but because I consider are solid enough to continue practicing them. I believe my brother does a great job passing on the same values to his 3 kids (for the time being, the only children of the next generation) and I hope one day I’ll do the same with mine.
My connection with sports
At home everyone is keen on sports, some a bit more and some a bit 
less. I’m maybe more sporty. With a family as huge as mine, sport was always a way of interacting between each other. My first sport memories are playing soccer with my older brother and two of my cousins. We used to play the “Juan’s” against the “José’s” or darker against whiter if someone looked at our skin color (I was obviously one of the Juan’s and part of the darker ones along with my cousin Juan Carlos and José Antonio, my brother, was one of the José’s and part of the whiter ones with my cousin José Miguel)
My dad, in his time, was an athlete and he seemed to have been a very good soccer player, or so they say. I never saw him on this stage besides maybe a couple of games when we were really little. My mom played Volleyball always and even today at sixty something (I’m not allowed to disclose the exact information) she still plays regularly. My brothers were pretty good, each one on his own specialty: José Antonio is a good soccer and squash player, Luis Fernando plays Volleyball and had a brief experience at Basketball and my sister María Isabel played Basketball, and got to represent Peru more than once.
On my side, I played mostly Basketball and Soccer but tried out almost every sport I had knowledge of. At school I played everything, from chess to track & field passing through Soccer, Basketball, Volleyball, Ping Pong and even Rowing one time. After school I played Basketball for some years at the Professional Basketball League in Peru, Indoor Soccer in the Peruvian National Championship a couple of years and I still play Soccer in amateur leagues.
Although I tried many sports, I never tried with triathlons, not even one of the three sports involved. I never swam, except when I was a kid and got some lessons just not to get drowned. I tried cycling a couple of times motivated by an uncle but never got into me. And of running, I never did it other than for gaining more physical condition for the other sports I practiced.
My first triathlon was a Half Ironman in Peru, last December, and I ran it without getting prepared for it. I thought that, since I had a good condition for soccer then I might as well run a Half Ironman without too much trouble. I was wrong. I suffered from the first minute I got into the water and started asking myself what was I doing there if I knew that was not my thing. I was in the last place during the whole swimming and more than 55 miles (out of 56!). Finally, after about 4 and a half hours I catch someone and passed him. On the 13 mile run I did a little bit better and passed some other guys too. The important thing was to finish the race and I did after 7 hours and 15 minutes.
How does this campaign was conceived?
Although it might sound odd, since I was just a kid I had the idea of raising funds for a good cause by combining sports, sacrifice and will on behalf of someone else.
I remember watching a movie on tv with my dad about a Canadian young man named Terry Fox who lost one of his legs to cancer. He decided to run across Canada, with an orthopedic leg, raising funds for cancer research. He ran 26 miles a day for 143 days on what he named “The Marathon of Hope”. Unfortunately, he couldn’t finish his run because cancer spread and died at age 22. He managed to raise millions of dollars and up to date the Terry Fox Foundation continues raising millions to help on cancer research.
After watching this amazing story of overcoming adversity and hope, I knew one day, I had no idea when was that going to be, I would have to do something like that. I would combine an extraordinary sport activity with a fund raising project.
The years went by and now I finally find the opportunity of doing this through an Ironman competition, one of the most demanding races in the world covering 112.4 miles in as much as 17 hours.
What drives me to do this?
Mainly I am motivated by the possibility to make a difference for someone. In the specific case of this campaign, I’m driven by the idea we can all support this Children’s Community and help them to continue doing the marvelous work they do today, and also help providing thousands of needy children a decent childhood that will become the foundation for their own individual development in the future.
I am convinced that each and everyone of us can contribute to make this world (district, city, country, etc.) a little better than what is today. Willing to do it is the starting point.
Many of us have excellent ideas to contribute and I think we are only lacking of some action. I hope this is just one of many campaigns that ordinary people like you and me can organize to aid people in need.
I also think that we do not have to wait for a tragedy to occur in our lives to start promoting change.
Our goal: their future
