Ella Se Fue

Alexandra left. Some time about one and a half weeks ago I dropped her off at JFK airport so that she could take a long flight to Australia and join the big kids at XC MTB Worlds. Good for her. I already know how things went, because this blog post takes place in the future. What I mean is that it is about an event in the past. I am proud of her and I miss her already. It was kind of nice to have a training buddy who lived with me. We cooked, danced, and sang together; shared laundry duty, one washing and one folding, and expenses; shared friends, families, and immense amounts of laughter; cried (well, maybe just I cried) and listened; swam in lakes and walked barefoot with the ocean; trained together, did our own thing, then trained together again; raced and rode (a lot) and then rode some more; worked bottle feeds and gel handoffs, encouraged and supported; talked and translated; taught and learned; loved and communicated--we respected and let ourselves be exactly who we are. We were awesome. I learned a lot from that tiny Ecuadorian, and perhaps she learned a little something from me. Looking back, I imagine this is somewhat what it will be like when I find my future best friend (aka my "husband"). Cheers to that.