After several years working in the sport industry in the development of apparel collections for outdoor brands, I decided to move closer to the field side. For a Product Manager field means mostly the stores; there you can observe products displays, competitors brands, buyers and sellers. The field I decided to move closer is the playing field. Although as essential as the sales field it is unfortunately less frequented by Product managers too busy to fullfill strategic Excel spreadsheets and long laudatory PowerPoint presentations. The playground is though where emotions and people meet, where fun and effort as ideas and visions are expressed.

Initially my playground was a long spit of asphalt without charm, the daily area of a marathon runner. At 30 years old surprisingly bored of running after a ball I had decided to replace it just by air and become a long-distance runner. Losing a capricious ball, I had won a loyal friend. Running is like this old girl friend that you have ignored for ages and you rediscover one day at the light of an unexpected event. After several years of practice I decided to vary the efforts and tracks. To running I added swimming and biking and by a sunny afternoon in autumn I became an ”Ironman”. To asphalt I added trails and mountains and I felt into the world of Ultra.

This return to the ground comes with new personal and professional challenges. The first challenge is this adventure in Thailand. I’ve embarked on this project as a I start running on a trail. It is about having fun, reconnecting with ground and with myself, sharing with the others. This challenge will call for other challenges, always keeping in mind that finally the most important is not the goal but the track.