16 Dec Speeding Heart Beat
Speeding Heart Beat
Three Jerónimo Martins employees guide us through their favorite extreme sports and the ways they experience adrenaline
FRANCISCA SANTOS
AGE
27 YEARS OLD
POSITION
CATEGORY MANAGER AT PINGO DOCE
CURRENT CITY
LISBON, PORTUGAL
FACING NATURE’S CHALLENGES
Francisca Pereira dos Santos started surfing when she was 12 years old and her older sister asked her “to go with her for a surf lesson”, to which she “naturally said yes”. Naturally because, ever since the age of 8, Francisca has been a big fan of sports activities such as “basketball, swimming, gymnastics and roller skating”, the latter which she did between classes. Nowadays, she surfs two or three times a week, usually in Costa da Caparica and Ericeira.
She considers surf to be different than other sports because of the connection to the sea and “the adrenaline of being exposed to nature’s challenges”. And because you “cannot control nature”, the ocean can “get scary and challenging”, but Francisca loves to push her own limits: “you have to adapt and face it”, which brings her “pure excitement”. Surfing can demand a lot physically resulting in a pretty complete sport.
The best feeling in the world, in Francisca’s mind, is to surf because it’s just “you, your friends and the sea”, as well as the natural feeling of being “fully connected to nature”. While no other sport may give her quite the same sensation of feeling “alive and younger”, Francisca would like to try snowboarding in the future.
“You cannot control nature but facing it is pure excitement”.
TULIO JIMENEZ P.
AGE
32 YEARS OLD
POSITION
PRIVATE LABEL MANAGER
LIVING IN
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA
RIPPING THE SAVANNAH
Tulio has practiced enduro, a form of motorcycle sport that is run on courses off-road, for four years. Because this sport implies obstacles and challenges, Tulio practices around the “savannah of Bogota, Guatanita, Villa de Leyva, Neusa, la Calera, etc”. The soft spot for the sport comes from childhood because his father “always had one”. Tulio still remembers sitting “in front of him on the bike” and “doing a day’s ride around the farm”.
Three of four times a month, trips are organized so they can last a whole weekend, allowing Tulio to forget “all the problems and the daily stress”. It’s demanding and enduro requires “physical performance every day” in order to “overcome barriers that sometimes the bike cannot”. The feeling of overcoming these obstacles that he considers, at first, impossible is what fascinates him about the sport. In the future, he’de like to try his hand at mountain biking and skydiving.
Tulio bikes through obstacles and challenges to overcome all barriers.
ANNA MENDRZYCKA
AGE
30 YEARS OLD
POSITION
STORE MANAGER AT HEBE
LIVING IN
LODZ, POLAND
FLYING HIGH
Anna Mendrzycka doesn’t believe in the impossible but the idea of skydiving was, at first, “unimaginable”. However, for her 25th birthday, her friends gifted her a skydiving jump. According to Anna, “words can’t describe that feeling”. As the adrenaline kicked in, the view from above was so “amazing” that as soon as she landed she “wanted to be in the sky again”. One month later, her fiancé challenged her to try flying an airplane with an instructor. These made them want to start seizing new adrenaline-fueled activities as they began to realize they “really love adrenaline”.
After that, they tried a slew of experiences: jumping in Wroclaw stadium; riding a monster truck and a motorcycle; scuba diving and diving; windsurfing; indoor skydiving and a spontaneous zip-line adventure during a trip to Montenegro. Anna recounts the experience by highlighting how “unique and unforgettable” it was. For her, the best part is that they do these things “together” and the fact that they “share feelings and support each other”.
Impossible is nothing, unimaginable is doable. That’s why Anna falls from the sky, simply to get her heartpulse to a faster beat.
