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By Amy Rinaldo In this new era where time ebbs and flows sporadically and it feels impossible to ever know what day it is, where reality can change at the drop of a hat while also carrying a mind-numbing monotony, where we have lived and continue to live through “unprecedented times” and grow increasingly tired of such overused phrases, all I can say is…thank goodness for this team! It’s March 2022 and I’m long overdue for our 2021 retrospective, but I hope you will join me down memory lane and look back at the ways we helped each other stay healthy and sane last year. The start to the year found our team engaged in off-season training despite being in the depths of winter and facing an uncertain year ahead: weekly bike trainer rides led on Zoom by Richard, Sunday all-weather runs led by yours truly, and weekly Zoom strength sessions led by PT extraordinaire Malia. As the snow melted, vaccines for the-virus-which-shall-not-be-named became available and news of races returning promised a much different and more optimistic year than 2020. As Race Manager Anne began sharing news of race confirmations, many teammates excitedly began planning their triumphant return to the starting line. Returning to racing was exciting, but perhaps equally exciting was the June return of Sharman’s weekly race reports, highlighting all the teammates competing in a given week and providing equal parts kudos and hilarious commentary. We raced and volunteered all summer at team favorite triathlons like Harvest, Hyannis, Patriot, Mass State, Boston, Pilgrimman, and many more. We worked hard to prep for those races; team training picked up in the spring with the popular Tuesday training tris led by Anne, Wednesday morning track workouts led by Morgan, Thursday swims in the Upper Mystic, the infamous twice monthly hill (read: hell) rides with Brendan, and tons of fun, impromptu activities like Harvard stadium runs with Keiko, scone-focused rides to the Harvard General Store with Richard, and hikes and rides with Kristi. And, Coach Will of Tri-Hard Coaching developed a useful training plan for our team based around our weekly training events. Beyond training and racing, we had plenty of other fun last year. Teammates participated in a Mystic Lakes cleanup and breakfast social in May, we had our first Training Weekend since 2019 in June, an open water swim clinic at Walden Pond, our annual “No Sleep ‘Til P-Town” ride led by Jon, our annual Boston to Portland ride led by Anne, our annual DIY triathlon led by Sunny, and a fall cider donut ride led by Richard. At our Year-End-Party hosted in Mare’s beautiful backyard, we celebrated the year’s accomplishments and continued camaraderie, modeled our new team swim caps and gear bags, and did what triathletes do best: pigged out on delicious food. We thanked Amy Moody for all of her wonderful work as team president and welcomed a new presidential triumvirate of Brendan, Marina, and Morgan. Last year we also created a diversity scholarship, designed to make our team and the sport of triathlon more welcoming and accessible to underrepresented groups. So much going on in the world right now is far more important than triathlon, but I have been incredibly proud of how our team has united these past few years and worked hard to maintain a safe, supportive, and much needed community. Thank you everyone for being a part of WWMS and making our team so special! Comments are closed.
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