Five years ago I celebrated the Fourth of July by swimming the 200 Backstroke at the 2008 US Olympic Swimming Trials. I walked away from the pool with a 37th place finish, feeling pretty darn good about officially hanging up my cap and goggles. After nearly two decades in the sport, I was ready for retirement!!
But life doesn’t always turn out like you think. Fast forward to July 4, 2013, and not only do I still own plenty of caps and goggles, but on my five year retire-iversary I found myself standing in the pro women’s start corral at the US 10k Championships. The 10k RUNNING Championships!
This year, Atlanta’s own Peachtree Road Race served as the US 10k Championship and thanks to an amazing opportunity from the Atlanta Track Club I got to line up behind the likes of Sara Hall and Steph Rothstein Bruce!
The men’s field was equally impressive and while I was geeking out about being in the same warm-up area as Ryan Hall and Meb Keflezighi, I ran into local super runner Sarah Darvill Norwood. Sarah played soccer at UGA and when she isn’t tearing it up at road races she actually works at my old firm. I’m pretty sure Bennett Thrasher was the best represented accounting firm in the Peachtree pro field!
Sarah and I both ran great races, and while my 37:56 didn’t quite get me across the line with the Kenyans, it was still wildly awesome to start with such amazing athletes.
The real celebs of this year’s Peachtree were Brent and Kyle Pease. My favorite team of brothers were the first athletes ever to run the World’s Largest Road Race in the “assisted athlete” category. Their trail blazing ways even got them a spot on the local news! Check it out here.
Peachtree kicked off the annual Dynamo Multisport Fourth of July Gaps Camp weekend! Three big days of riding in the mountains were made even better by the addition of Baltimore’s own Ironman superstar Alyssa Godesky.
Me, Betty, and Alyssa ready for some truly Smashfest-worthy training!
Constant rain made the weekend feel a bit more like a swim camp than cycling camp, but complaints about the weather aren’t in my teammates’ vocabulary. We have a special group for sure!
I’m coming out of the camp with some good training under my belt and an even greater appreciation for the amazing people I get to call friends and teammates. We support and push each other to new levels in training and I can’t wait to see it pay off at the races! And I actually have a couple races coming up!!
I’ll be super excited to have my parents cheering me on in Racine and Mont Tremblant will actually mark my first ever trip to Canada. Pretty much guaranteed fun, eh? I can’t wait!!
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That is super exciting about racing in the elite field! AND yay IMMT! See you there!
YESS!! An update! I was just talking to some folks about you and that I was needing an update via haleychura.com. Glad to see you are still doing well!