2020. The longest year in triathlon history.

Littered with rescheduled races, cancelled races, new rules and restrictions for racing, masks, sanitisers, lockdowns, curfews, training limitations, no refunds, partial refunds, frustration, uncertainty and fear.

Covid-19 came like a thief in the night and turned the whole world upside down. If you were not affected by this, then you are obviously living on Mars (or Antartica, where there is currently no Covid).

As the year draws to a close, there will be a lot of blogs about this year, what people learned and how to adjust for our new normal that awaits us in 2021. This is not what you will find here. Instead, I am choosing to end the year by sharing this amazing chocolate brownie recipe with you.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of patience

1/2  cup of thoughtfulness

250ml of understanding

3 cups of guts, determination and perseverance, melted until GRIT appears.

Method:

Take a 2020 mixing bowl, add the patience and thoughtfulness together and mix gently. Slowly add the 250ml of understanding whilst stirring. Once an even batter has formed, take the GRIT and fold it in gently.

Place baking paper in your 2021 baking pan, add the batter en spread out evenly.

Place in a 180 degree, preheated New Years’ oven at 23:40, set the timer for 20 min. Once the buzzer as gone off at 00:00, take the brownies out (toss away the 2020 bowl), let it cool down, cut into squares and dust with a little bit of hope before serving.

Enjoy!

P.S. I never said it will be a REAL recipe…Like in life, there is always interpretation and the small print we always miss.

As a coach, I had my share of athletes diagnosed with Covid, who struggled to deal with job losses, financial strain and a whole spectrum of related problems this year has brought. Check-ins with athletes moved from training talk to talking about family, life and work, depression and motivation. As much as I want my athletes to focus on training and fitness goals, I cannot separate them from being parents, workers, students, spouses. The one always influences the other and being a new parent myself, I realised the importance of this balance. At the end of the day it is all about the balance, the juggling routine…

My recipe is taking me into 2021. I don’t know what the year will hold in for training, racing and my coaching business. I know that the uncertainty will cause anxiety in my athletes as well as myself. I am hoping that they will start to truly realise that triathlon can be a lifestyle and should not be race dependent. I also believe that my tribe has faith in themselves and their ability to adapt to anything life throws at them.

Here is to you 2020 and the people that you could not break…

Coach Jarryd, Estelle, Jacky, Sarah, Jaco, Andrew (Andy), Brendon, Chantelle R, Chantelle W, Herléne, Corné, Chris, Franca, Gerard, Julie, Nicolette, Samantha, Sumara, Melody, Dries, Yolanda, San-Mari, Dicky, Annamarie, André, Andrew and Nikita.

To Infinitude and beyond…