cnn
—
Mónica Puig won more than 300 matches during her tennis career and the feeling afterwards was often the same: relief, excitement and satisfaction that the weeks and months of sacrifice and preparation had paid off.
Today, exactly one year after shoulder problems forced her to retire at age 28, Puig can still relive some of those winning emotions without picking up a tennis racket or setting foot on a court.
He's turned to running marathons, first in New York City, then Boston and London on consecutive weekends earlier this year, and is already halfway to his goal of completing the world's top six marathons by the end of 2024.
“Every time I cross the finish line of a marathon and get a new personal best time, I get emotional, I cry,” Puig tells CNN Sport.
“I felt amazed at what I've been doing because I could easily be sitting on the couch crying and feeling sorry for myself. But I tried to channel all that energy I have towards what I had been feeling about my career into something more productive.”
Completing a marathon, Puig says, feels “very similar and very different” to winning a tennis match. In tennis, the stakes seemed higher when ranking points, global recognition and prize money were at stake.
But the sense of personal satisfaction she gets from running has endured, helping her ease the lingering pain of her retirement from tennis.
“It's more about proving to myself that I didn't let myself fall into this big black hole of depression and sadness when I had to end my career so soon,” adds Puig.
“I was able to recover and find something else that motivates me to get out of bed every day, that motivates me to continue being strong, fit and having fun at the same time.”
Puig reached a career-high world ranking of 27th and won a WTA Tour title in 2014. Her crowning moment came two years later, when she won Olympic gold in Rio, Puerto Rico's first gold medal in the games.
As a tennis player, Puig always saw running as a form of punishment, never enjoyment. It became a means to clear his head as he rehabilitated his injuries, and over time he began to increase the distance of his runs: three miles became five, five became eight, then eight became half and full marathons. .
Now, Puig has also set his sights on competing in triathlons, in addition to running the remaining major marathons in Chicago, Berlin and Tokyo. His first half of Ironman (1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike and 13.1-mile run) will be held in Augusta, Georgia, in September, and he plans to run another in Puerto Rico next year.
An amateur runner and triathlete, it's an abrupt transition from her life as one of the best tennis players in the world, although Puig believes her experience in the latter has benefited the former.
“You are competing against yourself,” he says of the three disciplines, “you are your biggest enemy or supporter. What you think can push you or limit you.
“In tennis, I'm not going to say that my mental strength was my strength because many times I didn't know how to deal with negative thoughts, but I feel that everyone matures mentally in their own time.
“Doing marathons and triathlons has really helped my mindset grow and develop this positive attitude towards everything I do. It is also thanks to tennis that I have a certain discipline… All that discipline has really helped me stay in shape and stay true to my goals.”
Elbow surgery in 2019 followed by three shoulder surgeries in three years finally marked the end of Puig's tennis career. He played his first match since 2020 at the Madrid Open last year, but shoulder problems persisted.
There were times, Puig says, that he couldn't sleep on the affected side, such was the pain in his shoulder. Additionally, the mental toll of constant rehab and nearly four years without regularly competing on tour was beginning to mount.
“I felt like I was pushing a rock up a mountain and the rock kept crushing me as I went further and further,” Puig says.
“I obviously believed I could come back, I believed in myself enough. Last year he fully intended to play competitively again.
“But when I saw my surgeon after the last time I was on the court, he said, 'Look, I have to be honest with you, your shoulder isn't right.' And we can’t just keep opening your shoulder to fix it every time it goes wrong.”
Although he is not ready to give up tennis completely, Puig still hopes to play exhibition matches in the future. He returned to the practice court recently and had to temper the expectations of fans, who interpreted the images posted on social media as the beginning of a competitive return.
But Puig has remained involved with the sport as a broadcaster, allowing her to engage with the game in a different way compared to her days as a player.
“When I commentate or watch matches, I notice that my understanding of the game has improved a lot,” he says. “I feel like I'm smarter and I can see things, I can notice things. I study the game much better than when I played.
“My understanding of tennis has grown and I would like to continue playing so I can implement some of the things I see and have that knowledge translate into what I do on the court.”
Puig adds that he still misses tennis, especially when he sees his contemporaries prosper in the Grand Slams.
Since his shoulder will never be the same as it was before the surgeries, he has come to accept his body's limitations and is perfecting his swimming technique to withstand the rigors of Ironman distance triathlons.
“I've learned to manage my shoulder in a different way and knowing that, if there is pain, then it's okay to stop, it's okay to take a break, it's okay to say that you don't feel 100%,” Puig says.
“Usually when I was trying to come back last year, I was playing through pain and that wasn't necessarily something that made me feel very good. “It was very challenging and cost me many tears.”
Instead, what he has developed over the past year is “a new life” and “a new way of doing things.”
“I want to continue doing this all my life; I see people in their fifties and sixties who still practice triathlon and Ironman,” says Puig.
“That's something I want to keep doing… I don't know how far I'll go or anything like that, but the sky's the limit.”
