DAVID HAS ZOOM WITH A VIEW
Strict Spanish lockdown forces triathlete David to join in a virtual Tour de France from his balcony
David McNamee’s local sports centre is now a hospital while his girlfriend has swapped sewing wedding dresses for face masks.
Such is the new normal in Girona, in north-east Catalonia.
The Irvine-born triathlete says: “I have done things in the last three or four weeks I never thought I would do in my life, such as dress in my swimsuit and do some pretend swimming on my balcony.”
A normal year for McNamee is centred on an athletics event only a masochist could enjoy – October’s Ironman World Championships.
A 2.4-mile swim is followed by a 112-mile bike race then, for good measure, a 26.2-mile marathon on Kailua-Kona in Hawaii.
In the here and now, though, in the midst of a lockdown stricter than the one his family in Scotland have grown accustomed to, that balcony off the third-floor flat he shares with partner Mireia is his island.
It has been that way since a national state of emergency – barring people from leaving home except for work, food or medicine – was declared in Spain on March 14.
It will be that way until next Sunday at the very least – most likely longer – in one of the countries worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Everybody is getting worn down,” says McNamee, who has lived in Girona for the past five years.
“People here respect all the rules because ultimately they’re scared – and they have every right to be.
“The local sports centre is now a hospital. It is when you hear stuff like that, you’re like: ‘Oh s**t ... I am going to stay inside because the last thing I want to do is get sick and end up at a sports centre.’
“I have been to it a couple of times to watch the local basketball team play. It is crazy to think that it’s a hospital now.
“Girona is a ghost town. Normal traffic flow is down to three per cent of usual so literally nothing is happening. It is usually a vibrant, busy city so it’s strange to see.
“Even if I walk 200 metres to the supermarket before I leave I should print out and sign a certificate with the time and date I left my flat – just in case the police stop me.
“My girlfriend makes wedding dresses for a living but obviously weddings are cancelled right now.
“We have a couple of sewing machines in the house and for the last four weeks she has been making masks as people are encouraged to wear them when walking around.
“She has been making masks for people who need them and for the hospital because they had a big shortage here.
“That’s kept her busy and it’s nice to see. But she’s frustrated because she doesn’t know when people will be able to get married again and doesn’t know when her business will be running normally again.
“One of the frustrating things about this experience is that, as an athlete, I almost feel like I’m a bit useless, that all I’m doing is sitting at home complaining I can’t go running outside.
“There are a lot of people out there helping out in other ways whereas I don’t really have many skills to offer.”
The ones he does have – ones that saw him become the only British man to finish the Ironman World Champs in the top three, first in 2017, then the following year – he is trying his damnedest to maintain.
He had a treadmill but it broke at the beginning of last week. As a result, his first effort at an Ironman virtual reality race last weekend involved running 3km on his balcony in loops of barely more than 20m.
“I got a good three weeks out of it,” says McNamee, who turns 32 tomorrow. “I maybe should’ve spent more than 200 Euros on a treadmill.
“The motor started smoking so it’s done for good.
“You can’t get any form of indoor gym equipment now in Spain for love or money.”
A turbo trainer, allowing him to use his bike, is now in use four hours at a time on his “saving grace”, otherwise known as “Costa del Balcony”.
With it, a world of virtual racing has been opened and McNamee’s daily Twitter logs offer a glimpse of just how immersed he has become in it.
His Day 21 post began: “Raced up Alpe D’huez yesterday with 6000 others. I screamed ‘F***’ when I lost the sprint finish for 75 th ... bit embarrassed explaining it to my gf [ girlfriend] who ran through assuming something awful had happened.”
His earliest opportunity to reenact it in the real world might not be until September. Although for a sport built on international events, the only certainty is that uncertainty will linger for some time to come.
“I’ve been doing quite a lot of virtual cycling competitions just to give me something to focus on,” says McNamee, who represented Scotland at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
“I know it sounds stupid – and I never thought I would be saying this – but it almost feels like a social thing.
“It is completely virtual reality but it seems like I am doing something social, that I am racing against other people stuck on balconies and in flats
all over the world. It gives me an outlet for my competitiveness. It gives me a focus – it is either that or I’d be sitting here counting down the days until I can return to a more normal life.
“Sadly all the money is virtual as well – it doesn’t exist. The sporting economy is getting hit massively.
“A lot of industries are suffering. Athletes will suffer financially, there is no sugarcoating it. Ultimately a lot of my money comes from race winnings. Well, there are no races.
“Some athletes will end up leaving the sport. Our job has stopped and we are unemployed. I am fortunate enough that I have some good sponsors who are helping me through this and
I’ll be able to continue in the sport next year.
“But, for sure, there are athletes who we will lose from sport in general, not just from triathlon.
“There will be a lot of sportspeople out there who will have to look for a job elsewhere.
“The difficult thing is we have no idea when things will go back to normal.
“It is up in the air if we will even have any competitions this year, so it’s hard to focus and say: ‘That’s my goal.’
“Right now I’m just trying to focus on what I can control.
“My aim is to get to t he end of this quarantine period, which should be April 26, and get there physically in okay shape but to also get there in mentally okay shape and not be totally destroyed by this experience.
“A lot of people will finish this period mentally exhausted.”
If there is a silver lining to be found, for McNamee it lies in the fact this crisis has brought his family that little bit closer together. Once-a-week calls back home have become oncea-day affairs, with his sister Claire due to give birth in June.
What lockdown may look like by then in the UK is unclear, with the government warning that f lout ing ex i st ing restrictions may well see our exercise slot removed.
“That would make things a lot harder to cope with,” says McNamee. “I would love to have even a 30-minute slot so I can leave my flat to exercise or to do what I want.
“But that’s four- and- ahalf weeks now when I only leave to walk to the supermarket to get what I need.
“I understand that is what we need to do here in Spain.
“At the end of the day I live here so I follow what the government ask. I suppose I am just jealous of what Britain has right now.”
My aim is to get to the end of this quarantine in physically and mentally okay shape and not be totally destroyed