I met Jessica Penaherrera when she was on a bridge between two cultures and two worlds. Our destinies brought us together. Our culture kept us together. Yes, she's Ecuadorian and I'm an American, but our culture has kept us together. Culture can be loosely defined as a group of people who have common values, customs, behaviors, language and art. But the shared culture into which Jessica and I were born doesn't involve a spoken language or a land continent. Our culture is our sport. We come from the same tribe, whose name is Alive. We speak the language of movement. And we are daily sculpting and molding our works of art, our bodies.

In Oct 2004 our lives intersected. I was working at Asphalt Green as a personal trainer. Jessica walked in, fresh off the boat, with her cousin as her interpreter and said she was a triathlete who needed a team. I told her I knew nothing about triathlon, but that I was a cyclist and runner and would be her training partner. So she called me (but later admitted that she was afraid to call me for the first time) and we began our journey.

Our journey has taken us on long (unplanned) rides to Nyack and threshold workouts at Riverbank track. We've journeyed together through fear, snow, confusion, injury, illness, flat tires and tostados. And we've also journeyed through joy, bliss, endorphins, blessing, prosperity and (her) new P2 Carbon bike. We've stayed as close as the south Bronx (where we both live) and gone as far as Ecuador. We've become friends, sisters, teammates and co-workers. She's become bilingual, and I've become an English speaking person who can understand a little Spanish.

When it snowed in winter 2004 we turned my living room into a gym. I had no furniture so space wasn't a problem. She rode the rollers for hours while I jump-roped on one leg (the other one was broken) and did pull-ups and pushups. We went through times of unemployment together. Those were the days when we would begin our long rides at 10am and get back from Nyack around 3pm. We traveled to Ecuador and I got the first stamp on my passport. We drove through every city in Ecuador while listening to Juan Luis Guerra on repeat. We climbed Cotopaxi, "the largest active volcano in the world". We had to remind each other that we were endurance athletes, as we stopped for breath every two steps.

At the airport Jessica was secretly hoping that she would miss her flight so she could stay in her beautiful country and not have to return to the urban jungle which was now her new home. I waited with her luggage until the very last second and she made the flight. When we returned to NY I was still unemployed. I had also had it with New York and was planning on moving out of the city. During "my last week" in the city I decided to visit Jessica at SBR while she was working. Ultimately I ended up getting a job at SBR and decided to stay in NY.

This Oct I will have known Jessica for two years. For each of us this season is significant in that we have returned to competition after 2+ years. She has done her first triathlon races in the U.S. and I will be competing in my first duathlon in September. Among many things, Jessica is now teaching me how to swim. Eventually we will be able to compete together in triathlons as well as train together.

The most important I thing I have learned on our journey is that relationships are the meaning behind everything else we do in life. In the end everything will pass away, but our souls and our relationships will last forever. So when you find a similar soul who shares your culture, maximize the moments and the years...and in the end you might just become a triathlete!