Ah yes. Good ol Ireland. Growing up I would always tell my mom I was going to find our family in Ireland. You see when we she was younger she received a family invitation from someone in Ireland. She of course never went because it seemed a little far fetched. Who would have thought that I would actually get there. And if you are wondering , no I didn’t find our family (if we even have any there), I was to busy trying to find my luggage !!

I don’t know what it is with me and luggage but for whatever reason it seems like it has a hard time staying with me. Like it is just intentionally trying to get lost ? Or maybe it was trying to stay in London or Brussels. I’m not sure where it was and neither was the airline when I asked where it was. I was really confused as to why they were unaware of where my luggage was and made me question the purpose of those bag check tag stickers they give us if they don’t even keep track of our luggage. They’re wasting paper.

Any how. I spent the first day in Cork silently panicking over whether or not I was going to see my luggage again. Yes they are material things that can be replaced but they are my material things that I spent good money on (I take forever to buy things I like and if I bought it it means I really wanted it, not a frivolous spender)! After going through about 7 stages of emotional stress I finally calmed down. I started with the ” I can’t believe this actually happened ” emotional phase. Why ? Because while in Brussels I told the check in lady I specifically did not want to check my bag. Her response was that it was a full flight and some bags where going to be checked and had me try to fit my bag in that stupid bag check thing. I made it very clear that checking my bag was something I was not interested in and then put my bag in that stupid thing, of course my wheels wouldn’t fit (due to ill packing on my part) so I had to check it. I specifically told her that my bag has been “lost”(the “” will be explained when I do my post on Nova Scotia) before which is why I bring a carry on. I let her know I had very important things in the bag that would allow me to do the job that needed to be done once I landed in Cork. I then told her that I was trusting her to get my bag to Cork and she giggled and said not to trust her, in which I looked at her like ” “explicit word” my luggage better get to Cork” face. After watching my bag be taken away on the conveyor belt I met back up with another athlete that was traveling to cork for the meet and explained my luggage story. Of course they reassured me my luggage would be ok and land in Cork.

When in Cork…

So I landed in Cork and it felt great ! Final stop of the european tour. Got off the plane and walked down to baggage claim to claim my luggage. Watched every single person grab their luggage and frolic off to family and friends and carry on about their trip. Finally there were 4 people left in the entire baggage claim area. Me, the other track person, and two other guys whose luggage some how magically did not make it on a plane that was delayed for an hour !! Of course now I am disbelief (emotional phase disbelief and laughter ). Like I can’t believe this happened and of course the other track person is also in disbelief because I said that this has happened before and it would be my luck to happened again. Walk over to the luggage information desk tell the lady what has happened give her that sticker and she says there is no luggage attached to it. Now I’m angry crying mad on the inside and calm on the outside. Yelling at her or causing a scene wasn’t going to find my luggage and she is not the one to blame for my luggage not being there.  She also mentions that apparently luggage  from Heathrow to Cork gets lost or shows up on later flights all the time. So this is something that happens often. Not that that was reassuring and made me feel better. Then I started thinking, maybe somebody stole my bag or maybe it’s still london.

I walked out of baggage claim and meet Ina, a representative with Cork City Sports. The sweetest lady in the world. I let her know my luggage was lost. She reassured me that it will turn up and if it doesn’t she will have everything taken care of. I then proceed to the information desk to ask if there is anything I can do on my end to find my luggage. Emotional phase sad and frustrated. I’m almost positive that I was crying while I was talking, but I’m not sure because I was trying to hold it in and I didn’t want they guy at the desk to feel guilty for loosing my luggage, but I’m pretty sure I did. He was calling all types of people to try to find my luggage lol but there was really nothing he could do about it either. He did let me know there was one more flight coming in later and it may be on that plane. That made me feel a little better, not really, just enough to compose myself.

We leave the airport and head to where all the athletes are staying. By the time I got there all of the staff was aware of the fact that I had no luggage. News travels fast. The good thing was that the sporting store that sponsors the event was willing to fit me out for the meet. Which I thought was pretty awesome. I’m not sure a sports company in the states would do that.

A few hours pass and now it time to head back to airport to see if my luggage shows up. The flight from Heathrow to Cork was delayed an hour again !! So we patiently waited. The flight gets in ….. verdict? … NO LUGGAGE … I have now come to the conclusion that they have lost my luggage or someone stole it lol. Emotional phase laughter and stress. Get back to the place of stay and go to sleep.

Long story medium. When I wake up Ina lets me know she is coming to get me to take  me to the sports store to get some gear. As we head to the store Mark (They guy I rode with to the airport at 12pm at night to pick up other athletes getting in and the guy who helped track down my luggage) calls and lets us know my luggage has arrived. (sidenote: Mark, Ina and Maria are my surrogate parents in Cork, they made sure I was ok and taken care of while I was there. ) Great timing right ! Now I’m kinda sad because I was over my luggage and excited for new gear, but we head to the airport and I get my luggage and head back for the competition.

Now I’m ready to go !

Warm up and get ready to go. I feel good. Legs straight (feeling good) and mind focused. Gun goes off. I’m out of there feeling good and lead leg dropping. Somewhere in the race turnover kicked up a notch and hurdle 7 was a lot closer than normal….

Catch my race below…. You can start at 3:26:00.. If you want to hear the announcement about me loosing my luggage you can start at 3:24:00….

Cork City sports 100 Hurdles

My thoughts during the perpetual fall I was embarking upon… ah that hurts … oop let’s bail out.. oh wait I’m in a race.. Let’s go over here.. oh wait I’ll get dq’d if I step in her lane.. what about over here.. oop can’t do that either.. hurdle.. oh crap.. well I guess I’ll just jog now..The fact that I was able to think about that many things in 3 steps lets me know how much of my brain is not being used on a daily basis !

All in all I’m happy with that run. Regardless of the fact that I didn’t finish how I wanted. I’m figuring things out as they come. Fix one part in your race and another part changes. I had an amazing time in Cork despite everything that happened. I adopted 3 more parents, Ina , Mark and Maria and had the opportunity to race against some great competition ! Looking forward to racing there again !