My New Triathlon Team

I have no excuses now, I have to get my act together. I'm going to be on a brand-new triathlon team with some fast girls this year! Lucky me!!!

Meet the four girls of the RAHA Women's Triathlon Team: Me, Sara Davis, Lauren Chiodini and Tatiana Vertiz.

(More on RAHA to come.)

The story of how our women's tri team came together is really random, actually. It's a scenario all based on being in the right place at the right time. I'll try to tell it as briefly as possible.

I met Sara Davis back at Vineman, literally on the bike course. We've been super close friends ever since and have dabbled with the idea of teaming up. We sat through the USAT Coaching Clinic together and have bonded during some pretty mega workouts. We like Wahoos. Basically, I love Sara to death and we have a blast whenever we're together.

Then I went to Clearwater and ran into Lauren Chiodini, who I didn't actually know personally at the time, but I knew of her. I quickly befriended her because she's an awesome chick, my age, fast and fun. Good thing I did--she and her mom were like family to me out in Florida. Turns out Lauren and I have led parallel lives (volleyball girls from OC, etc, etc) and we've stayed in touch since 70.3 Worlds.

Then there's Kona star Tatiana Vertiz. I "met" Tatiana in Feb '09 at the Tritonman sprint in Mission Bay. I didn't actually meet her then, but was flabbergasted by the girl who kicked my ass in our AG (she was 1st, I was 2nd). Via the Internet, I found out more about her and that she was living in OC at the time. We met at Edge Cyclesports and soon became FB, blog and real-life friends. The best was having our "warm-up" swim/run before the Santa Barbara Long Course. (It was NOT warm... more like hello freeeeezing water/weather!)

Anyways, none of these girls had ever met each other. They knew of each other, but I was the only one who knew them individually & in person. So in late November-ish, the idea to form a young all-female tri team was seriously propositioned, and I immediately thought of putting these girls together. We're all roughly the same age (22-26) and have similar goals and aspirations in triathlon. Plus, we all like to have FUN, we want to do "good deeds" using sport as our platform and, most importantly, I knew there would be chemistry with our personalities. I contacted them all with the idea, and without even hesitating everyone was on board!

So where does RAHA fit in?

First off, RAHA Sports is based in OC and is a sports-marketing group, owns/operates a professional cycling team and much more. Check out their website and all they're involved with, like the Bahati Foundation. Really some fabulous stuff and I'm proud to be associated with them.

So... Sara's been good friends with RAHA's co-founder Brad Eastham, and she suggested that he take on our idea for a women's tri team. He was stoked out of his mind and immediately expressed interest, as did his partner, Eric Smart.

Fast forward to Monday... after weeks of countless e-mails, phone convos & mini meetings.... and we ALL finally met in person under one roof for lunch in San Clemente (meanwhile, it seemed like the rook was going to blow off with this crazy storm!).

I was definitely correct about there being good chemistry among the girls (and Brad of course). There was never a quiet moment, and I'm sure we all could have chatted for hours longer... that's what happens when you put mega tri freaks at the same table! Between the four of us, we have a lot of racing in store for 2010... some races we'll do together, some apart. But we'll definitely be everywhere this year!

There's so much more, and I'm sooooo excited... but I'll leave it at that for now.

Go RAHA!!!