Small World

About ten years ago I was working on my very first Short Track Speed Skating World Cup. We were working on the list of VIP accreditation and my boss told us to add two for "USOC Reps". I was so nervous to have people from the Olympic Committee at my first event! So of course we took really good care of them and they were really nice and end of story.

So about two months ago I saw this woman in the office who only comes in once a week. Her face and her name felt really familiar and I realized hey, she's that USOC lady from the Short Track event! So I sort of nervously asked her if she had been in Provo for that World Cup and she laughed and said yes. Turns out her husband had been a skater and a coach and back then Speedskating was one of the sports she managed.

We ended up hitting it off and I found out she is some kind of CRAZY cyclist/runner/swimming fiend who seriously does at least two of those things every single day. In between being a kick ass mom and working one day a week for us. Girl crush to say the least. Yesterday she emailed to see if I wanted to do a bike ride tonight after work. She and my boss are friends so the three of us ended up heading out together.

I probably should have known when I got to her house ON A HILL and we headed DOWN that hill that um-the very end up of our ride would be a somewhat brutal climb. That doesn't really say great things about the rest of the ride now does it?

We did 27 miles and she made sure to take us on one of nastiest hills in Colorado Springs. There were several points at which I weighed the embarrassment of telling them they would need to come back for me with the fact that my lungs were straight going to explode. Instead I put my head down and kept grinding and felt like a complete rock star when I came up over the last bump and her husband told us how tough we were.

It was a great ride and I probably have lots to say about how this might be the healthiest era of my life and how much I am enjoying finding my inner athlete. But mostly it was just fun to think about how you absolutely never know how and when people will float in and out of your life. And how glad I am that I learned from a young age by watching my mother that it's better to be nice to people. They might come back in ten years in kick your butt on a random Tuesday...in the best possible way.