Goodbye Team Odwalla. It was Fun!

Notification came today - Team Odwalla is no more.


The ActiveAmbassadors email said Odwalla is taking the season off, but that ActiveAmbassadors is hoping to expand our (my) reach by offering sponsorships from other brands. Stay tuned.

So as I depart from Team Odwalla I want to say Thank You Odwalla for offering me the opportunity this past year to learn what it means to be an Ambassador.

As a member of Team Odwalla, I was given tri-shorts and a tri-top (both of which I love), running shorts (never fit me right) and a run shirt (love it), a podium shirt (love it, too, though I never wore it on a podium), a jacket (nice and warm) and a visor.

Another perk of being a member of Team Odwalla was the LOOT!

I got several cases of bars during the year - about 1,000 bars all together. Odwalla gave me lots of coupons for free drinks and LOTS of coupons for 55cents off of drinks ($1.10 off a drink if you went to a store that doubles coupons). Yes, lots of LOOT that I shared with the Riverside Bicycle Club and  my Jazzercise friends and athletes at triathlons where I was competing and students in classes I taught.

I confess that I did hog the Banana Nut bars because they are my favorite. I did hand some out, just so I would not feel guilty, but the majority went into my mouth and mouths of my friends.

Another great perk of being a Team Odwalla Ambassador was that I talked the "team managers" into forking over about $120 to buy a tree for Alcott Elementary School's Native California garden. We planted the tree during the school's Jump Rope for Heart Day and I handed out Odwalla bars to the kids.

It was fun to dress in the Team Odwalla clothes and participate in various runs and triathlons during the year!

So now my Odwalla clothes will be my practice clothes and not my race day clothes.

But no worries because ActiveAmbassadors are going to help me expand my reach by offering sponsorships from other brands. Well, Odwalla and I fit together not because I am a fast triathlete, but because I am a triathlete that is also a Master Composter. Odwalla's green thinking meshed with mine. We were on the same page about the environment, recycling, replanting.

I think something happened when Odwalla was bought by the Coca-Cola Company.

Oh well, now I am open to other possibilities. I've been making a list of other sponsorships that come my way and it is kind of limiting. I am thinking that most of the sponsoring companies are looking for fast athletes who are going stand on a podium. And that's not me, though I have improved enough this year to make it to the top 10 at several events.

No, I am thinking that the only sponsorships I will be offered this year will be from a company that knows I can represent them in other ways than just being an athlete.

I'll be waiting for their call.

In the meantime, I need to find a new profile photograph and hide that last carton of Odwalla bars I still have.