Deerfield’s annual triathlon was held on Sunday, October 13, where students and faculty competed together in five separate events: girls solo race, girls team race, boys solo race, boys team race, or mixed team race.
The triathlon encouraged community involvement outside of the racers, welcoming volunteers to be stationed around the course. Also, Meat Club was posted outside by the horse’s head, where the race course begins and ends.
The triathlon is a newer edition to Deerfield’s student-run races, including the Race to the Rock, brought back only three years ago by the Dean of Ethical and Spiritual Life Jan Flaska and Ocean Feng ’24. In past years there have been two separate triathlon courses, but Declan Kelley ’25 and Zachary Li ’25, this year’s head organizers for the triathlon, remodelled it so there was a single course and staggered starts between the competitors. The entire triathlon course this year consisted of eight laps of swimming (200 meters), one lap of biking on the Big Loop (3.2 miles), and one lap of running on the Small Loop (1.9 miles).
While Feng ’24 graduated last year, his contributions to the triathlon live on. According to Declan Kelley, “Ocean prepared me and Zach [Li] really well for being able to prepare [for the Triathlon].” Kelly emphasized the importance of communication between faculty and Mr. Flaska’s assistance in organizing the course, setting logistics up, and retrieving the t-shirts.
Like from previous years, racers choose whether to compete on a team or individually. While most people competed in teams, those who competed in the individual category completed the entire course on their own or with a friend. Fiona Van Nice ’25 and Elizabeth Kelly ’25 were this year’s Deerfield Triathlon solo champions.
Van Nice, commenting on her experience, said that she woke on race morning “and it was freezing cold and raining, and I called Elizabeth and was like ‘Are we really going to do this?’” They decided that, despite the conditions, they would still compete.
While neither of them specifically trained for the triathlon, they both regularly condition, running and biking. Elizabeth Kelly is on Deerfield’s varsity swimming team and cross country team and Van Nice trains for rowing yearlong. Their participation in their athletic pursuits allowed them to remain strong competitors, seeing that they won, and were overall happy with their experience.
In recalling the experience, Elizabeth Kelly noted that her favorite part about the triathlon was coming out from swimming the eight laps because it highlighted Deerfield’s community and the support of peers. She said, “everyone was cheering a lot. There were a lot of people in the front by the bikes and we had a good adrenaline rush going into the biking after the run seeing everyone around.”
Declan Kelley commented on the value of organizing the triathlon and Deerfield’s nature races overall: “it’s just seeing people happy and seeing a big group of people connected over one thing on the day of is really special.” He then states that his goal, alongside Li, is to bring people outside, because it unites the Deerfield community and fosters a supportive environment.
Director of Food Services Michael McCarthy remembers a different history of the vegan brownies. The second possible story is that there was a student around 15 years ago from the University of Massachusetts who requested to do an internship in the Deerfield Dining Hall. “For their degree, they have to work in a hospital, in a school setting, there’s a requirement that they spend four months learning outside of the classroom,” Mr. McCarthy said. Her goal was to create a delicious vegan dessert so that students who were vegan or vegetarian could enjoy dessert as much as their peers.