{"id":2893,"date":"2026-04-17T08:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T08:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/?p=2893"},"modified":"2026-04-18T02:09:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T02:09:13","slug":"do-panico-a-meta-com-algumas-bracadas-pelo-meio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/do-panico-a-meta-com-algumas-bracadas-pelo-meio\/","title":{"rendered":"From panic to the finish line (with a few strokes in between)"},"content":{"rendered":"

He said, \u201cI miss swimming\u201d \u2014 I took it way too seriously.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know if you saw Gon\u00e7alo Domingues\u2019s post, where he said \u201csomeone challenged me to do a Half Ironman\u201d \u2014 guilty! \ud83d\ude4b\u200d\u2640\ufe0f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It all started one day when we went for a walk in Cascais and, without quite realizing how, we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a huge crowd. Of course, we stayed to watch\u2026 and it turned out to be a triathlon race. It really stirred something in me. I was impressed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But since I couldn\u2019t even swim\u2026 I didn\u2019t even consider the idea (or at least that\u2019s what I thought at the time \ud83d\ude05).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did we go from that to swimming\u2026 swimming in the sea\u2026 and on top of that, signing up for a Half Ironman?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, it all started with Gon\u00e7alo (and he won\u2019t deny it), always saying he missed swimming, that he\u2019d like to get back to it\u2026 but he just needed a little push to move past the \u201cone day I will\u201d \ud83d\ude04<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until one day I said to him:
Okay, I\u2019ll go with you. I\u2019ll sign up for swimming lessons, and you\u2019ll swim freestyle at the same time. But if it goes well\u2026 we\u2019ll sign up for a triathlon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I should\u2019ve filmed his reaction. But he said yes \u2014 having no idea what he was getting himself into \ud83d\ude04<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we started looking for a pool and ended up at Cidade Universit\u00e1ria. I went there for lessons for a while, but I felt like I wasn\u2019t quite fitting in. So I decided to try Jamor\u2026 but the feeling remained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until one day, by coincidence (or fate), a Swim4Fun story popped up on my Instagram. I don\u2019t even remember exactly what I saw, but I ended up on the classes section for Jamor and thought: \u201cwhy not?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I joined in December 2025\u2026 and what a turnaround!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, everything started to make sense in the water. The technique, the breathing, the control\u2026 everything was falling into place. First in the pool\u2026 and then came the next challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a training session at Jamor, coach Bibiana asked \u2014 with full conviction \u2014 why we still hadn\u2019t signed up for the Set\u00fabal Open Water Race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My answer was immediate:
I\u2019ve never swum in the sea\u2026 I don\u2019t even have a wetsuit yet!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly, that wasn\u2019t a problem \ud83d\ude04
In just over a week, I already had a wetsuit\u2026 and was signed up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s how the adventure in the sea began (earlier than I expected).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>
\n

My first class was\u2026 a shock. Cold, dark, 7 a.m.\u2026 and freezing water. Everything was wrong \ud83d\ude05<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were four of us, plus coach Anabela. I saw everyone going in\u2026 and, afraid of being left behind, I jumped in without thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The moment I put my face in the water\u2026 panic. It felt like I was drowning. Suddenly, I didn\u2019t know how to breathe \u2014 neither in the water nor out of it. All I could think was: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But yesterday you were in the pool and you knew how to do this!<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>
\n

But I insisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And after a few very clumsy strokes\u2026 it started to happen. My breathing came back, my body calmed down\u2026 and suddenly, I was swimming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good or bad\u2026 but I was!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s how it went in the following practices. Always a bit chaotic at first\u2026 but always managing to pull through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\u00e9 que chegou o grande dia: a minha primeira prova em \u00e1guas abertas \u2014 o Set\u00fabal Open Water Race.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Inscrevi-me nos 750 metros, e continuo a dizer: foi a melhor decis\u00e3o. Permitiu-me viver tudo sem press\u00e3o \u2014 o ambiente, o dia, a equipa, a energia incr\u00edvel \u00e0 volta da prova. Quando chegou a minha vez\u2026 n\u00e3o estava nervosa (o que \u00e9 raro!). Estava entusiasmada. Confiante. Sabia que o trabalho estava feito.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And everything went well. I came out of the water happy. Really happy. With that wonderful feeling of \u201cI did it\u201d \u2014 and an even stronger desire to go back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that moment, I realized: I\u2019m truly on the right path to the Half Ironman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And of course\u2026 this didn\u2019t stop here. Fueled by the excitement of this first race, I\u2019ve already signed up for 3 more open water races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next stop? The Oeiras Open Water Race \u2014 this time, 1500 meters \ud83d\udc40<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there\u2019s one thing I learned from all this, it\u2019s that I just needed to start.
Now it\u2019s just a matter of keeping going\u2026 because stopping is no longer an option \ud83d\ude04<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ana Cal\u00e7\u00e3o<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ele disse \u201ctenho saudades de nadar\u201d \u2014 eu levei a s\u00e9rio demais. N\u00e3o sei se viram o post do Gon\u00e7alo Domingues, onde ele disse que \u201calgu\u00e9m me desafiou a fazer um Half Ironman\u201d \u2014 culpada! \ud83d\ude4b\u200d\u2640\ufe0f Tudo come\u00e7ou num dia em que fomos passear a Cascais e, sem percebermos muito bem como, demos por n\u00f3s … <\/p>\n

Read more “Do p\u00e2nico \u00e0 meta (com algumas bra\u00e7adas pelo meio)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sem-categoria-en"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-3.png","author_info":{"display_name":"Clube Swim4fun","author_link":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/author\/geralclube-swim4fun-pt\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2893"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2903,"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2893\/revisions\/2903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}