Sandie Hanlon

Before Prototype had a name, a building, or even a floor to stand on, it had Sandie Hanlon. I’d already been training her for over a year at Boston Sports Club before I ever opened these doors, and when I finally did — back when it was just Coach Brian and I running workouts outdoors on the Westborough High track — she was one of the first people who showed up. Thirteen years and 1,291 logged workouts later, she still shows up.

What I remember about those early days is that Sandie almost didn’t come at all. She told me later she was genuinely nervous about what she’d find here. She’d spent the ’80s and ’90s doing step aerobics — loved it, still can’t believe how much of it she used to do — and she loved being outside, hiking, on her feet. But what she’d seen of “CrossFit” in the media looked like it belonged to people half her age: heavy barbells, grunting, all-out intensity. She figured it was over her head.

So we built things her way. We modified until she could produce real power and endurance, and our coaches kept eyes on everybody’s form so nobody got hurt. Thirteen years in, Sandie hasn’t had a single injury training here. Her aerobic fitness climbed. And somewhere along the way, the gym she was afraid of became the one she couldn’t imagine her life without.

The moment that really changed things for her had nothing to do with a barbell. Sandie has done dog agility for 25 years — running, cutting, and turning alongside her dogs. Early on, she tripped and fractured her wrist, badly. When she brought that to me, we didn’t just work around it. We got to the root of why she was falling in the first place: balance and proprioception. Rebuilding those has been, in her words, a life-changer — not just for agility, but for life in general.

The Life The Training Protects

Sandie doesn’t train for a number on a whiteboard. She trains so she can keep doing the things that make her life hers — walking in the woods with her dogs, standing on her feet at the salon she co-owns, and climbing in and out of the motor home she and her husband Peter bought last year. That last one might be my favorite proof of what this training is actually for.

The same woman who was once too nervous to try CrossFit flew out to Las Vegas, bought an RV she had never driven, learned to drive it from YouTube, rigged up a specialized GPS, plotted the entire route herself, and drove it home across the country — KOA campground by KOA campground. She wanted it so she and Peter would have somewhere to go, people to see, a reason to stay active and social. That kind of confidence doesn’t come from nowhere. These days she climbs those RV steps and carries her own gear without reaching for a handrail, and barely thinks twice about it.

Thirteen years in, this gym has given Sandie something none of us set out to build: a town full of people. She doesn’t have kids, and outside of a few neighbors, she says she’d hardly know anyone in Westborough if it weren’t for Prototype. Instead she’s met dozens of people here — several of whom now come to her for their hair. And it runs the other way, too. On Mondays she coaches dog-agility classes over in Auburn, runs private lessons, and keeps a Facebook group going where her students post their “brags” when they win. She built that community herself. All we did was help make sure she could keep showing up for it.

None of this is why Sandie first walked onto that track thirteen years ago. She came because she trusted me, and she stayed because this place kept quietly handing her back her own capability — the balance to not fall, the strength to carry her own bags up the RV steps, the confidence to try things at 65 that scare people at 35.

If you’re a little older, and the fitness you see online feels like it was built for somebody else — read that last part again. This place isn’t that. The first step is the same one Sandie took: a conversation, no barbell required.

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“I want to stay active as long as I possibly can — to keep going in the woods with my dogs, to keep doing the things I love, and to not have to worry about tripping when I’m in my 70s.”

Sandie is an original at Prototype, she’s been with us even before we opened the doors. She trusted that we had and always will have her best interest in mind to take care of her. It’s that kind of trust that I so gladly appreciate.

And one of the best parts of Sandie is when you meet her, she doesn’t brag or feel entitled in any way that she’s been here much longer than most — it’s actually the opposite. She welcomes folks in, makes friends, tells stories, and gets along with everyone. She works hard and is fun to coach, because even after 14+ years, she knows there is more to get better at and learn.

I’m glad Sandie stuck with us and with Prototype. She is a true original!

This story was developed through a recorded video interview and shaped with the help of AI writing tools. The facts, quotes, and experiences are Sandie’s own — AI helped organize and present them in a format worthy of the story she’s lived.