End of an Era

When I signed up for my first triathlon in 2013, I did it through Team Fight, the athletic fundraising arm of the Ulman Cancer Fund.  I’ve been a member of Team Fight each year since, and will continue to be on the team for years to come, I’m sure.  It’s a great cause and I’m proud to fundraise for them.

One perk to team membership was team swim, held once a week at the pool of a local community college.  Our two volunteer coaches taught us proper swim form (and in some cases, taught complete newbies how to swim).  They showed up with workouts, put up with our moaning and groaning, and made triathlon fun.

Even better was the camaraderie that developed among the team members.  Over the past few years, I have met the most amazing people through Team Fight, people who I hope will be lifelong friends.  Knowing that my friends were expecting me made it that much easier to show up at practice.

Unfortunately, on Tuesday, just hours before practice, we received an email that this was our final practice.  The college had increased the rate to rent the pool and it wasn’t worth it for a charity team. Due to the timing of the email, a lot of the team members weren’t able to make the final practice – with big races over the past two weeks, a lot of people are in recovery mode.  So the final crew was a small one, but we were mighty.  It was a bit bittersweet to see this tradition end, but I am hopeful that we will find a new venue.  If nothing else, we’re going to get together and swim, maybe not every week, but often enough that we don’t miss each other too much.