Match Day Madness!

Today was my first day in Florida for the second phase of camp (I call it, the anaerobic phase...) with Lanny and the crew. I knew that I was going to be super nervous for the match so we filled up the morning with some amazing training. The morning ride wasn't exactly what I had planned, as Lanny said it would be an "easy" 22mph ride. On the way out I said to Lanny- I don't know if it's my nerves or my fitness, but this ain't easy! He assured me it was my nerves. The fact that the roads were soaking wet and I was getting pelted with rocks in the face from the tire in front of me didn't help...

Then on the way home I figured it would get easier since it wasn't against the wind. Then I realized that I was clicking into bigger and bigger gears until I was maxed out. And cars weren't really whizzing by us as fast as they had been. I asked Lanny how fast we were going (which is a fun feat when your heart rate is 178. We were traveling at 28.5 mph. On the freaking flat. This went on for about 15 miles. I almost died. Seriously. And TOMORROW is the hard ride. Lovely.

Anywhoo, I didn't die, but we all did get absolutely COATED in grime. Sometimes getting dirty can be fun

:-)

This is me after the ride, posing how I felt- as though I had been run over by a truck



Lanny:



My friend Anita, who hosted me on her boat at Steelhead last year:



Lanny and I, posing in our matching, grime covered jerseys



Then after the ride we went to the pool for 3000 meters (again, to keep my mind off the match..) I felt really bad on the ride, but felt like a million bucks in the pool. Every once in awhile there is a day where it just feels like I'm flying over the water instead of in it. That was today. A former collegiate swimmer was in the pool and told me that I have a great stroke. What a compliment!

Unfortunately the swim had to end and I had to do the inevitable. Wait for the match results. We counted down the minutes to noon waiting for the big email (my whole class was sitting in a big room celebrating together). At noon, no email. 12:05 no email. Classmates were excitedly posting on facebook their match results. Still nothing. So my great friend and former roommate Matt walked over to the big room where they have their ceremony to find out where I"ll be spending the next 4 years of my life and gave me a call....



DENVER!!!!!

I was so excited and relieved I can't even really explain it. It was such a tough decision for me. I changed my rank list twice in the last week before the deadline and ended up ranking Denver first. There are a multitude of reasons, but here are a few:

One of my very best friends and former roommate of 4 years, Colleen and her most amazing husband Eric. Colleen will be my colleague once again as she is blazing a trail as an intern in Emergency at Denver General right now. She was an amazing mentor and support person throughout this craziness



My brother and his family. We aren't related by blood but we grew up together just the same. He and his family have been in Denver for years and years and I can't WAIT to spend more time with them!



Fast Will and Stephanie are up in Denver. Just awesome people



Big Will (on the right of the picture) and his family are also up in Boulder. I haven't seen him in years and hope to be able to pop up there to visit the crew.



And rounding out the Boulder gang (although I think about half of Team Timex is up there and I'll soon have even more semi-local peeps!) is MarkyV, self proclaimed king of the camera self-portrait. But of course, I'm posting a pic that he actually DIDN'T take of himself!



So all in all, I am completely thrilled with the day and the match. Lanny bought a nice bottle of Champagne and we are having a dinner party in a couple hours. Then of course, that "hard" ride tomorrow. yippeee.....