You can take the girl from TIMEX.. . .

. . . But you can't take TIMEX from the girl!!!!!!

Not long ago my former Team, my beloved Timex, came trolling ;) through Boulder for a Timex Training Camp. The whole team couldn't make it in, but many of the athletes did, and I was honored and touched to have been invited to join their weekend o' fun. I was not in any athletic shape to do their 120 mile ride through the mountains of 10,000ft elevation, but I decided to join them for their warmup (1 hour for me). Plenty. :)

6:45am. I was the first to arrive at Amantes Coffee Shop in North Boulder - the meeting spot for the team. I was walking up towards the entrance when all of a sudden I heard screaming and a honking car, and people shrieking, "Shaaaaaaarrpieeeeee!!!!"  Good Lord. :)  I turn to see Trista Francis, Tim Hola and team mgr Tristan Brown spastically waving from the moving Timex Car.

I just shook my head and laughed.

Within minutes the others began rolling in: Will Kelsey, Erin Kummer, Laura Tingle, Eric Bean, Denny Meeker, Christine Anderson, Jackie Arendt, Juli Fiocca, Barry Siff...

Any slight nervousness I had about how the team would feel about me being with them for their "team weekend" was immediately erased as everyone tackled me. (!!)   I was greeted by warm hugs, kisses and enthusiastic hellos. It felt like putting on that favorite pair of old, comfortable jeans that you'd put away for the summer. When you grab them again and put them on, they fit just right, and you realize these are your favorite jeans in the world and you'd DIE if you ever ripped them.  Plus they make your ass look great. :)  Everyone was as happy to see me as I was to see them, which warmed my heart - in a very real sense, I was seeing my family again . . . and it felt like this:


ha!

Chatting with Christine and Jackie, with Tim and Eric in the background:

Surrounded by a team who still very much feel like my family:

I love that this picture is right under the phrase "An Italian Experience" .  You know it, baby!    And "Amante" - it's loose translation in Italian is to be fond of, or a lover of.    Most apropos, indeed!

Props to the Timex Dad, Tristan Brown.  He drove the support car (he just wanted an excuse to come to Boulder - but who wouldn't if you live in Wisconsin?? Ha...)  ..... plus provided his usual tireless encouragement and support for his troops.   He also helped maneuver the Timex car in such a way during the ride so I could squat & pee with a bit of privacy ... but that's another story...

 
So it was bittersweet and lovely (a combination!) to be around these beautiful people who all mean so very much to me as former teammates on a notoriously close team - but also because these people are my friends.  I've missed seeing everyone ... and it was great to be in the circle again.   I love you, my Timex Family!

There are only two things on the planet that could have ripped me from the folds of that team.  Truly, only two things, indeed:

1.  Charlie Patten.  Period.   This visionary man behind the Rev3tri series, and Trakkers, lured me in to help bring Trakkers (the company and the team) into the limelight.   You only have to meet Charlie one time to understand why everyone respects him so much, and why we all follow him anywhere he tells us to go.  While he is my boss, more than that over the last 5 years he has become one of the greatest friends of my lifetime ... and I often tease him that I have never felt such loyalty for a man I am not romantically involved with.  : ) ha.  His family is like my own, and I appreciate more than anything that sense of belonging he has brought back to my world.

...and the second reason.... being so sentimentally attached to the Timex Team, I didn't think I could feel such genuine affection for anyone else.  I am incredibly grateful to have been wrong.
The Green Team, this awesome, enthusiastic, character-filled, hilarious group of AMAZING people continue to make me proud to be just a small, small part of them.
I mean, seriously, look at us!!:

Really??   Who wouldn't want to be a part of THIS???!

2. The second reason, Team Trakkers.  They are probably the only people who could keep me from Timex.... and this is the greatest compliment I could give both teams.

"Me minus you is such a lonely ride.... reunited .... and it feels so good!"