6 months ago I decided that my total focus would be on the Triathlon National Championships in Alabama on September 26th, thus making it difficult to race the relay the week prior. Unfortunately I backed out of my said team obligations with "Team Awesome", whom ended up doing amazing this year as the #2 mixed team to finish overall. As most of you know, I ended up competing in the relay but with a different yet awesome team from the Compass group who asked me last minute to join in the fun.
My triathlon career was fairly short lived with nationals and etc after life got very chaotic for a couples of months in which my training completely disappeared. Life/God has a funny way of changing things that you have set in stone for the future. I am not sure why things have happened the way they have at this point, but looking back to last weekend its clear. I would have never met some of these amazing people whom where on my relay team. Everyone had their own interesting story and personality but everyone was very open to chatting with me about who I was and where I come from, the usual.
After leaving Charlotte, crammed into a van, then waiting around in mooresville for the other van, we finally reached West Jefferson around 8pm. Our van headed right to the meeting spot for dinner and chowed down! It was awesome that Compass actually covered dinner because we had a great meal and most of us had a couple beers to loosen up the conversation a bit. Waking up in the am, Gene, my roommate and I went straight to the coffee bar and had some muffins. We greeted some other teams downstairs and prepped for the journey. Upon arriving to the start line, every time I turned my head I saw someone I knew, it was magnificent seeing so many local runners joining in for this amazing adventure of which was my 4th time.
"Bear in Mind" started at 9:30am with team members, Judy, Joan, Lee, Gene, myself and Cheryl we set off downhill, literally. We each blazed our 1st legs faster than our time sheets had us predicted and handed off with a nice 25 minute cushion of time. Upon looking back over my garmin, I did exactly what I instructed everyone else not to do and that was to run real hard on the 1st leg. My 1st mile which was basically a gradual downhill I was swinging for the fences lets just say. As the relay winded along, we managed to get a few wash-ups, even a shower, some good grub and had plenty of gatorade and snacks thanks to the Compass group and Food Lion as our sponsors.
All in all the legs were very difficult, at points I wished I had run faster but what can you do, its the mountains! My team did an amazing job, I was so proud of everyone. This was the 1st time in the BRR competition that no one on my van had conflict! Yes I blew up the last time I raced but it was because I literally was lying everything on the line when I ran, to be followed by no rest and to eventually losing our lead. Live and learn people! All in all I think everyone was pleased, we finished 11th overall and 5th in the co-ed division. if it wasn't for 2 co-ed teams based from charlotte whom both broke the co-ed record, we would have been top 3 easy. After our legs were complete we managed to shower it up at the YMCA and even grab a couple cases of beer to sip on while we waited for van #2 to come through.
Thank you to CRC for letting me tag along with my yoga mat and bookbag while at Mellow Mushroom! We had an interesting brief drive back with Billy Shue who somehow missed the exit to I-40 3 times before Anne Falcon basically jumped from the back row to manhandle Billy, well verbally anyways. The ride back was just as fun as the journey in itself despite half of the van passed out. After sleeping forever on sunday, I came to realize that my calf pains were a bit more than I was used to, in fact it was in my Achilles tendon. After having Dr. Clay from Greenapple Sports & Wellness work on my legs he advised me to take 36hrs off with lots of heat, ice, and using the stick. My 1st run back tonight, actually went pretty well, I needed to vent some stress away, so my bounce felt like it was back. The 1st couple of miles felt amazing, but the last couple didn't feel quite as good, but I am coming around.
Thanks so much to the Compass Group for letting me be apart of your squad, Cheryl Todd for inviting me to watch you "girl" several guys on the course, Gene for being an awesome roommate, Kevin for communicating with me about logistics(and retrieving my car), and everyone else I encountered along the way.
Off the top of my head, I saw these people during the relay;
Mike Beigay, Ben Hovis, Danielle Crockford, Billy Shue, Allen strickland, mo campbell, stephen hudzik, colleen angstadt, chris cummins, scott woodbury, kevin lisska, borianna balkcheta?, brian mcmahon, john compton, paul mainwaring, kirk ward, emily hansen, todd patterson, shenna kevorkian, sarah neumann, jocelyn sikora, alice rogers, dusti jensen, caleb boyd, karin helmbrecht, melissa bell and joey church.
I am sure I missed some people but hey, thats a big list!!!
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