{"id":236077,"date":"2013-03-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-06T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/failure-not-part-of-padres-execs-extraordinary-life\/"},"modified":"2013-03-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-03-06T08:00:00","slug":"failure-not-part-of-padres-execs-extraordinary-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/failure-not-part-of-padres-execs-extraordinary-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Failure not part of Padres exec\u2019s extraordinary life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since birth, challenges have been where Alex Montoya thrives<\/strong><\/p>\n

David Moy\u00e9 | Noticias del Centro<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2010, Alex Montoya was at a true peak in his life and career: he was working his dream job as Director of Latino Affairs for the San Diego Padres and had just finished a successful tour promoting his first book, \u201cSwinging for the Fences: Choosing to Live an Extraordinary Life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Failure<\/a>
Montoya poses at PetCo Park. He is director of Latino affairs for the San Diego Padres ballclub. (Courtesy Alex Montoya)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, the price of getting what you want is that it becomes what you once wanted.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you achieve that, you want something more,\u201d Montoya confessed.<\/p>\n

The Padres executive decided he might want to attempt to run in that year\u2019s Rock \u2018N\u2019 Roll Marathon since he had never tried endurance sports before; although he knew the training regimen required would be challenging \u2013 he was born without both arms and one leg due to a congenital birth defect.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to understand; each prosthetic adds 10 extra pounds on each limb,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Adding to the difficulty, Montoya decided to turn the experience of training for the marathon into another book, \u201cThe Finish Line,\u201d which was just released.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a big deal because I knew if I didn\u2019t finish, I could be writing about my failure,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s tough knowing everyone else can run at a good speed and you\u2019re just trying to make sure they don\u2019t have to pick you up in the truck at the end of the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Failure<\/a>
Montoya starting his “leg” of the Rock-n-Roll Marathon in 2010. (Courtesy Alex Montoya)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Montoya speaks both English and Spanish, but doesn\u2019t seem to know the word \u201cfailure\u201d in either language. Growing up in San Diego, he dreamed of going to Notre Dame and of working for the Padres.<\/p>\n

He ended up doing both, even though he jokes the college education cost him \u2018an arm and a leg.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my signature line,\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n

Montoya doesn\u2019t back down from a challenge, but he did approach the marathon realistically. He didn\u2019t think he could go the complete 26.2 miles, but was willing to be part of a four-person relay team with his friends, Karen (Madden) Kawachi, Alison Glabe and Colleen McEniry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe divided up the marathon into \u2018legs\u2019 and they allowed me to be the one to cross the finish line,\u201d he said. \u201cI did four miles, but I had to walk two miles to get to where I was supposed to start.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from the usual stressors facing anyone attempting an endurance run, Montoya had other things to overcome, such as lower back pain exacerbated by the prosthetics.<\/p>\n

Oh, and strange looks from people while he was training.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did the training outside of Petco Park,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s almost a mile around the perimeter and people looked at me funny, wondering, \u2018Why is he walking around in circles?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Montoya\u2019s effort tugged at people\u2019s heartstrings during the marathon, he wasn\u2019t doing it for that reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy main goal was to challenge myself and stay in shape,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Looking back, he laughs at the reaction some of the other runners gave him during the marathon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wore a pair of Notre Dame shorts, and people would come up to me, and say, \u2018Good job!\u2019 and then, after seeing the shorts, they\u2019d say, \u2018Irish suck!\u2019\u201d\"Failure<\/a><\/p>\n

With \u201cThe Finish Line\u201d just released, Montoya plans to promote it when he\u2019s not doing his day job with the Padres.<\/p>\n

He also expects to find another challenge to work on, and thinks he has something in mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not married, so that might be the next big thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

To learn more about Montoya\u2019s books and life, find him on Facebook at\u00a0 facebook.com\/pages\/The-Finish-Line\/226105287466835?fref=ts<\/a>\u00a0or follow him on Twitter: @alexmontoya619.<\/p>\n

El nativo de San Diego, David Moye, escribe Weird News para el Huffington Post. Puedes obtener m\u00e1s informaci\u00f3n sobre \u00e9l en huffingtonpost.com\/david-moye.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Since birth, challenges have been where Alex Montoya thrives David Moye | Downtown News In 2010, Alex Montoya was at a true peak in his life and career: he was working his dream job as Director of Latino Affairs for the San Diego Padres and had just finished a successful tour promoting his first book, […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":236078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Failure not part of Padres exec\u2019s extraordinary life","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11600,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-sdnews","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}