{"id":3459,"date":"2026-10-02T08:42:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T08:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/?p=3459"},"modified":"2026-09-29T13:30:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T13:30:02","slug":"3459-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/3459-2\/","title":{"rendered":"And next year I\u2019ll be there again"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On September 14, 2025, I said something that, at the time, seemed like nothing more than a distant wish: \u201cNext year, that\u2019ll be me there.\u201d
Today I realize that that sentence changed far more than I ever imagined.
It\u2019s been a year since I started swimming in open water. It may not seem like much time, but sometimes I feel as though I\u2019ve lived an entire lifetime within this year. There have been challenges, achievements, fears, doubts, and moments when I surprised myself.
Because the truth is, I was afraid of the sea.
Even though I knew how to swim, I didn\u2019t like going anywhere I couldn\u2019t touch the bottom. Not being able to see the seabed made me uncomfortable. I felt anxious. I felt insecure. And for a long time, I let that fear define my limits.
So when I look back, I don\u2019t just see someone who learned to swim better. I see someone who decided to face what scared her.
Over the past year, I trained with one very clear goal: to complete the Guadiana River Crossing.
I trained on the days when I was motivated and on the days when I wasn\u2019t. I woke up early, pushed myself to exhaustion, overcame difficulties, and imagined crossing the finish line countless times. I really wanted to experience that moment.
But life, like the water, doesn\u2019t always follow the course we plan.
On race day, the current was stronger than I was. I fought against it for as long as I could. I tried to adapt. I tried to find solutions. But eventually, I had to accept that I wasn\u2019t going to finish.
And giving up was one of the hardest decisions I\u2019ve ever had to make.
For a few minutes, I felt an enormous emptiness. I felt frustrated. I felt sad. I felt like I had failed.
But as my emotions began to settle, I started to realize something.
Failure wasn\u2019t not reaching the finish line.
Failure would have been never signing up.
Failure would have been staying on the shore, watching others do what I believed I wasn\u2019t capable of doing.
Failure would have been letting fear continue to control me.
The truth is that this crossing gave me exactly what I was looking for, although not in the way I had imagined.
It taught me that we can prepare as much as possible and still, there will always be things we can\u2019t control.
But it also showed me that our strength isn\u2019t measured only by the goals we achieve. It\u2019s measured by how we respond when things don\u2019t go the way we want.
Today, I don\u2019t look back on this experience as a defeat.
I look back on it and see a woman who, a year ago, was afraid of the sea and who now enters it with confidence, respect, and the determination to keep going.
And to me, that transformation is worth far more than any medal.
So, if you\u2019re putting off a dream because you\u2019re afraid, because you think you\u2019re not ready yet, or because you don\u2019t believe you\u2019re capable, let me tell you this:
I thought that too for a long time.
But sometimes, the greatest victory isn\u2019t in reaching the finish line.
It\u2019s simply having the courage to start.
And me?
I\u2019ll be back.
Because the story that began with \u201cNext year, that\u2019ll be me there\u201d isn\u2019t over yet.
\ud83c\udf0a\ud83d\udc99\ud83d\udcaa\ud83c\udffb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatriz Nobre<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No dia 14 de setembro de 2025 disse uma frase que, na altura, pareceu apenas um desejo distante: “Para o ano sou eu ali.”Hoje percebo que aquela frase mudou muito mais do que imaginava.Faz um ano que comecei a nadar em \u00e1guas abertas. Parece pouco tempo, mas \u00e0s vezes sinto que vivi uma vida inteira … <\/p>\n

Read more “E para o ano estarei a\u00ed de novo”<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3459","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\/09\/image-9.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\/3459","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=3459"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3464,"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3459\/revisions\/3464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}