I'm finally back from my 7 day trip down to the Caribbean (Saint Maarten and Grand Cayman). You would think that traveling to two tropical islands such as those that I wouldn't ever want to come home BUT after a while living out of a suitcase and sleeping in hotel beds starts to wear you down! I had such a great time both places but traveling to and from the islands wasn't as easy as I thought it'd be. First things first, I almost missed my first flight out of Charlotte because instead of going straight to the airport Kristi and I (Kristi Castlin, one of my training partners) decided that a quick trip to the mall was in order before we jet set out the country. Long story short, "someone" *cough cough* took EXTRA long in the mall so we had to RUSH to get to the airport, park, go through SECURITY and then run to our gate. Now, I'm the type of person that openly laughs at people who I see running through the airport so that day I KNOW we were the object of ridicule. I had to RUN to get to the gate and no, I'm not talking about a slow trot or jog, I'm talking about a full out sprint through Charlotte airport while our names were being called over the airport intercom saying, "Paging Harrison and Castlin, the gate is about to close". LOL!! I'm laughing just thinking about it! BUT we made the flight!
Then, on our leg from Miami to Saint Maarten, there was a huge storm over SM so after a couple scary attempts to try and land in the midst of the storm, our pilots decided that it was safer to detour to San Juan, Puerto Rico and try to wait it out. I guess the weather over there stayed really bad b/c we ended up having to spend the night in PR and leave early in the morning the next day! AND to top it off, my bag didn't make our flight from Miami soo I was stranded in only my travel gear! BUT I AIN'T COMPLAINING! lol
Of course I was down there for "business" but that didn't stop me from enjoying myself and taking in some of the sights that each place had to offer. At both places our hotel was on the beach so I HAD to sit out and put my feet in the clear water for a little while! In Saint Maarten after I was done competing we had a whole extra day there so we went to this festival called "fish day" that they had on the French side of the island. It was sooo fun! They had music, vendors, dancing and lots and lots of food! Here's a pic of the stage where they had a "whine ya body" contest and the HUGE fish dinner that I had!!!
I had a lot of fun in Saint Maarten but I think that my time in Grand Cayman was my favorite out of the two. I competed at the Cayman Invitational and it was the first time this meet had ever been held so it felt good to be a part of the inaugural event! The hotel, the beach, the people, the weather and everything was LOVELY! In addition the atmosphere at the track meet was exciting with all the people cheering (mainly for Jamaica BUT it's all good lol).
Ok, this is getting long haha. Let me wrap it up with how I did on the TRACK. Whoop whoop! I ran 12.9 for 6th place in the 100 hurdles in Saint Maarten and I ran 56.8 in the 400 hurdles for 3rd place at the Cayman Invitational. There were some really great ladies in both of my races and although I obviously didn't get the results that I would have hoped for, I was really happy to be back on the track and able to finish the races healthily after hurting my quad/hip flexor a couple weeks ago! I'm a fierce competitor and I don't take losing very well, no matter what's the reason! :) Now that I got that first 400 hurdle race under my belt it's back to intense training for the next couple weeks here in SC before I jet back out of the States over to Europe to run a couple races there (Ostrava, Hengelo and then Rome)! It can get tough traveling so much but I LOVE what I do and wouldn't trade it for anything!!
Thanks for checking me out y'all! I'll be back soon but in the mean time, keep up with ya girl on my website QueenHarrison.com, my FB page, or @goQueengo on twitter.
SMOOCHES!
