It has been a long while since I showed my face at Elk/Beaver Lake, but Sunday felt like 6 years ago. I pulled up to the gravel parking lot, meeting Simon to help him out with a workout. What I didn't expect to see was the rest of the triathletes preparing for the Grand Final in Australia. Old training partners with new coaches and all of us, older and wiser(?). My schedule called for a long run of 18k or so, so I decided to run the 18k with some fast km's thrown in. Earlier in the week, I had mentioned to Simon that if he needed a running partner for some workouts, I would be happy to help however I could. He emailed back syaing "Great! 6 x 1 mile on Sunday. See you there!" What that ends up looking like is me running 1k repeats while Simon completes 1 mile repeats on 1 minute rest. This means I run less and get more rest which allows me to stay just ahead of him for the middle km of the mile repeat (and I give myself a 150m lead as well). I ran hard and to try to stay away, trying to stay with him as long as I could each time he caught me. It was fun to run with a purpose greater than just trying to get faster.
But, man, it was hard. And it was fun. The day definitely reminded me of why I used to love training at the NTC; working hard with friends in the pursuit of excellence. I know that sounds cliche, but after watching Jasper and Tereza (both old training partners) have great races at Ironman Canada this past weekend and seeing Jordan Rapp (who trained with Simon and Team BAMF last year) win it, there is definitely a way to find excellence. Knowing that I would never attain the highest echelons of sport, I relished the role of teammate, doing what I could to help my friends in their pursuit. And Sunday reminded me of those times as I was, once again, happy to be a teammate.
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