Meet & Greet

LAHP (Lauren A-something Harrison Pataky) and I are already witnessing our blog's impact on the triathlon world--err, family and friends--seeing as last Saturday, our coach, Paulo, purchased a membership at Costco. This is a great first step, but to fully capitalize on the benefits of membership, one must know how to pack and plan ahead. Never again should you be forced to pay $4.64 for THREE kitchen sponges at CVS nor buy the egregiously priced dried fruit/nut snack from SBUX to curb emergency hunger. I'll save Part II on our Big Box Store Series for another day, or rather, month, and instead, chat about how LAHP and I met and decided to share a blog.

Around this time last year I was getting ready for a 9-day "vacation" in Las Cruces, NM, my introduction to Paulo and the posse. Lauren and I were paired as roommates. Naturally, before arriving at training camp, I googled the hell out of her name with "results" or "triathlon" in the search field. My sleuthing told me she was the top amateur at Escape from Alcatraz the prior year--impressive. I didn't have much racing under my belt, but was excited with my biking and running improvements and thought I could try to hang with her.

Seeing as LAHP arrived five days into camp, it was a struggle holding her pace. I watched in disbelief as she easily ascended the stairs to our third floor hotel room between workouts. Eventually, broken down and tired, LAHP came clean on HER stalkerish tendencies and rattled off my best times from swimming. I looked at her blankly.

Anyway, after suffering and triumphing together for several days (which is roughly 1 zillion workouts), we bonded and have supported each other since then--updating each other on races, how workouts are coming along, the # of days that have passed without me needing to snack in the middle of the night, the # of animal crackers I ate with my morning coffee, etc. We feel these mind-numbing stories are truly gems and must be shared with the world.

UNRELATED: Tomorrow morning I'm running the No Rail on the Trail 10k. Sadly, the Capital Crescent Trail can NOT be saved as METRO is moving forward with plans to build a new rail line that follows the route of this beloved path. The race participants will stubbornly run out and back in a last-ditch effort to save it... some how... some way...

RELATED: Race results for a 10k I am running tomorrow will be available online for all to see within a few days at: http://www.therunningcompany.net/norailonthetrail10k.html.