If You Are Into Sports,

here is a lesson in keeping things simple, 

 today it is the Pattaya Triathlon, I only just found out, had I known before I would have entered, as a spectator, but here is the thing with sports, I have seen so many advertisements for running shoes and are they expensive or what? some pairs of running shoes I have seen could feed a family for a week! but take the lady above, 22 year old María Lorena Ramírez, a native Rarámuri woman from Mexico who did not have any professional training or even basic gear,

  not only managed to finish a 50 km race, but actually win it, and she did it wearing a traditional long skirt and sandals made of recycled tire rubber, so throw away your high quality running shoes, compression socks, Lycra suits and energy drinks, María Lorena Ramírez, a sheep herder from Chihuahua, Mexico, showed up at the starting line of a women’s ultramarathon in Puebla in traditional clothing and equipped with just a bottle of water and a handkerchief, she stood out like a sore thumb among the 500 or so other runners from 12 countries around the world, but she didn’t seem to care,

“She carried no special accessories,” said race organiserOrlando Jiménez, “She didn’t bring any gel, nor energy sweets, walking stick, glasses or those very expensive running shoes that everyone wears to run in the mountains, just a bottle of water, her hat and a kerchief.” the 22-year-old was the first to cross the finish line, taking home both the bragging rights and a 6,000 pesos ($320) cash prize, it’s important to note that María Lorena Ramírez had undergone no professional training for the 50-km race, apart from the 10-15 kilometres she walks each day while herding her sheep, interestingly, winning the Cerro Rojo Ultramarathon, in Puebla, central Mexico, on April 29, was not María’s first notable achievement. Last year she came second in the 100-kilometre category of the Caballo Blanco ultramarathon, in Chihuahua, so next time you are in a running shoe store as you hand over your hard earned cash think of María and her sandals made of recycled tire rubber, and think, 'am I wasting my money?'