At 9RUN6 we never say good bye, even on days like today when someone in the crew leaves to another city for work. Today we said “Until next time”, to Alexia who has been working out with us since 2014 after running her first half marathon in San Francisco at the Nike Women’s Run.
In honor of her moving onto a new job in Yuma, AZ we let her decide the workout. She got creative and drew up her own workout for the group. Today was one of those bust your ass workouts which was pretty tough. While some were able to finish, others didn’t, and some like myself cheated to get through the workout. Rather than writing a workout summary of today, I am going to change it up a bit to get a more appropriate “Until next time” post …
I (Chris) have had the honor to know Alexia for a very long time, I have seen her grow as a youth soccer player, where I first coached her in the Olympic Development Program when she was about 12 years old or so. Our paths then crossed when I was an assistant coach at CSU Stanislaus, where she was dynamic player for the women’s soccer team there. After a couple of seasons working there, our paths crossed again not as a player-coach relationship, but this time as fellow assistant coaches at Delta College in Stockton, where we both took on coaching jobs with the women’s soccer team there.
After leaving Delta College to pursue my professional coaching career with the Sacramento Republic FC, where I coach now, our paths crossed again as friends and fellow running enthusiast at 9RUN6.
Over the course of the last couple of years, we would run with the 9RUN6 group as well as schedule other runs on the weekends and non-9RUN6 days to workout. Those runs also ended up including conversations about career paths and life. During those runs we would talk about how to move up in the beautiful game which both of us are privileged to call a career. At some point in there we discussed about making moves when the game allowed us to in order to reach our goals and dreams within our careers.
I even had an opportunity to chat with the athletic director at her new college where she is going to be the head women’s soccer coach when they called her references. It is amazing how this fitness crazy group has allowed us to help one another stay connected and provide one another with opportunities to chat about career moves.
As a young adult, Alexia is far ahead of many people her age as she takes a major step in her career in Yuma, AZ. I cannot share how happy I am for her and how honored I am to have been a small part of the process.
Alexia, I know that the group is sad to see you move to another state, but we are all excited and proud of the leaps and bounds you have made over the last couple of years. I mean you worked in different roles through the course of your time when you started with 9RUN6 and you even finished your masters program while staying fit!
Oh and let’s not forget to mention the running badass that you have become crushing your half marathon PR and running your first marathon … not only did you run your first marathon, but you qualified for the Boston Marathon in that marathon to boot!
We wish you the best of luck in Yuma and expect to see you at a workout when you come back into Sacramento. So until next time, take care of yourself and continue to do awesome things in running and coaching!
9RUN6 