It has been exactly 1 year since we announced the creation of Dynamo Multisport.  It’s hard to imagine the chain of events that has followed from the announcement, and in many ways, it’s almost storybook.  As I have reflected on the last year, my thoughts immediately turn to this past week, and my experience on the Big Island of Hawaii for the Ironman World Championships supporting Haley Chura and Betty Mills Janelle as coached athletes and Adrienne Anderson as a member of our Select Team.

Throughout the week, the three athletes and their support crew (fellow DMSers Ernie Janelle, Toby Anderson and Micki Donegan) wore our Dynamo shirts and visors everywhere we went – the entire time, morning and night.  Not only were we sporting our GREEN wear, we did so in unison, coordinating our apparel selection so that wherever we were, we appeared to athletes, spectators and race staff/volunteers as a true team.  Walking around Dig Me Beach, eating at Lava Java, attending athlete meetings, even the Awards Ceremony where Betty Mills Janelle sported THE GREEN on stage in front of thousands, all of us wore our DMS gear with our heads held high swelling with pride.  Outside of the professional team CommerzBank, I can easily say that Dynamo Multisport was the most recognizable team at the race.  Wherever we went, heads turned and folks took notice.  On Sunday night after the Awards dinner, 6-time Kona Champion Dave Scott asked us if we were the same Dynamo as the USA Swimming team in Atlanta!  Seriously, how incredibly is that?!!?

But the moment where I was overcome by how much we, as Dynamo Multisport, had accomplished in less than 12 full months was last Wednesday, as I joined Adrienne, Haley and Betty on their last long ride, a reconnaissance workout up to Hawi on the famed highway 270.  Abutted by the Pacific on my left, the sweeping green foothills on my right and a cloudless blue bird Hawaiian sky above me, I pedaled a good 15 meters behind our athletes on this sacred stretch of road.  I watched each one of these powerful, efficient, amazing athletes and was overcome by the irrefutable reality that Dynamo Multisport had gone from an amorphous idea to three incredibly talented, generous and caring athletes composing a team, yes a true team, here on the Big Island at the biggest venue for our sport in less than a year.  My thoughts then immediately turned to ALL of our athletes and coaches and the true team, the true community we have grown in that same period of time.  More important than performances, more important than races, we have built a community of sincere, honest and genuinely caring athletes who help one another out of the shared passion for multisport.  As Richard Quick, my mentor from my Standford days  used to say, we are a team above others, but above all, we are a team.  Mahalo and thanks to all of you, the athletes who make up our community, for making year 1 of Dynamo Multisport such a success.