Today, July 14th, is the 2 year anniversary of the day I set out to start gymnastike. 2 years ago I poured all of myself into this and its amazing to see how far its come in this short time. I spent July 14, 2008 downing a few cups of coffee and started making a map of the US with thumbnails of all the gyms, colleges, and people I wanted to visit. This map started out with about 80 locations and since then has grown to about 800. Next step was to go out and get some content for the then nonexistent website so I planed my very first trip down to Houston, Texas, just a short drive from my house in Austin.

This trip was rather interesting. No one knew who I was as the website did not even exist yet. It was just me, a camera, and the idea. This made for quite the challenge! I'm pretty sure a lot of people thought I was crazy but soon enough the doors started opening. On this first trip the main places I visited were Houston Gymnastics Club, Houston Gymnastics Academy, and WGA Texans. The first person I ever interviewed was Sean Golden and the first workouts I ever filmed were at HGA with Tyler Mizoguchi who is now on the US Senior National team, and at HGC with Alexander Alexandrov who is now the coach of the Russian National Team.

Today, I spent the day at Texas Dreams with Kim Zmeskal-Burdette, Chris Burdette, and their elite team. All I have to say is watch out for them in August! (or in their Workout Wednesday video coming soon). Kim and Chris are just a few of the great people that I've had the chance to get to know over the past few years on my gymnastike adventures and it was wonderful spending the day with them. The coolest part is that they surprised me with a cake! Check it out:

Anyway, on my drive back to Austin today I found myself reflecting on the last 2 years and realizing how far I've come since that first day of wandering into gyms and praying they would let me in! I just want to send out a huge thank you to everyone along the way who has welcomed me into your gyms and homes, given me feedback, and supported gymnastike in any capacity. It has truly been an incredible 2 years.

Looking forward, just one month from today I'll be in Hartford covering the final day of the 2010 US Championships, and one week from tomorrow I'll be heading to Chicago for coverage of the Classic! The actual 2nd anniversary of gymnastike, the day the website went live with the very first video is coming up on July 23rd. Perhaps I'll commemorate with a video if I can squeeze it in during the Classic.

Thank you to everyone who has made these past 2 years possible. It's been a dream come true. Now let's make these next 2 years even better!