About a year ago, I wrote in this space about Challenge Day, always celebrated on the last Wednesday of May, an action of international reach whose agent in Brazil is Sesc. The event encourages people to take part in a sporting activity – and, ideally, after that, to enjoy the thing.
Sports is one of the pillars of Sesc’s activities, and, despite the differences between each state, this quickly becomes clear to anyone who visits any headquarters. For many people from São Paulo, for example, these units are perhaps the only pools they will ever visit in their lives – this is not the case for this columnist, who has been to several, but actually learned to swim in the São Paulo pool at Sesc Consolação, in the early 1980s called Sesc Vila Nova.
(A very happy memory of those days remains: when, swimming doggystyle, I crossed perhaps a meter and a half, two meters across a section of the smaller pool – in other words: I finally swam. It’s a shame I don’t remember the teacher’s name – or the teacher.)
This year, Sesc will once again hold Challenge Day, on Wednesday (27), but will also organize, next weekend, races in all states, an endorphinic way of also celebrating the entity’s 80th anniversary. For São Paulo residents, the race takes place on the beach, in Bertioga, on Sunday (17th), and will feature some related activities, such as an open self-massage class for runners and an obstacle course for children aged 6 and over, both the day before, on Saturday (16th).
It is not a stage that is so different from those that already occur throughout the year, on the racing circuit. He returns to the capital on August 2, at the “country” unit of Interlagos, and to the metropolitan region, at the new Sesc Guarulhos, at the end of October. There are always musical attractions for those who just want to enjoy and follow the event.
It is important to be able to register, as the kit costs R$20 to R$40 and those with full credentials, the prerogative of commercial workers and their families, have preference. Despite the price, the kit leaves nothing to be desired, with a great quality t-shirt, as I could attest when I ran the stage in the historic center of São Paulo, in March. As a comparison, a 5, 10 or 15 km race on the popular Circuito das Estações, for example, costs R$ 199.99 (it’s worth mentioning that the Circuito das Estações kit also comes with a bottle and backpack).
Anyway, Sesc is one of those things that is always good to praise, and that’s because up until now nothing has been said about dental care, the cafeterias – even though some units in the capital have abolished their lunches all the time – and the very rich cultural program.
Don’t worry, there’s yet another challenge: despite the cultural program, sometimes my motivation for going to Sesc Belenzinho at night isn’t exactly the show or the play, but the combination with the third half at the renowned pizzeria Ideal, right next door, whose sliced pizzas are, as an old colleague says, worth eating while praying. And, as there are no chairs there, only in the adjoining room, you can eat standing up.
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