August 14, 2026
Winpenny Co. Magazine Now and in the Future
Here at the home of Winpenny Co. Magazine, August has always felt like a beautiful pause this time of year.
The heat is still here, hovering over the pavement and settling into the trees, but there is also a stillness to this month that’s worth savoring. A sense of ease lingers before school begins and chaos ensues. The days are still long enough to feel generous, and the mornings still greet us with birdsong, swaying green leaves, and the quiet invitation to step outside before the world becomes too hot.
It is a month for gathering what has grown. Flowers from the garden. Tomatoes from the vine. The final golden hours of summer before school calendars return, routines tighten, and the season begins its subtle shift toward something new.
These Augusts in Virginia feel different than any August spent in Oklahoma.
When we lived out west, this time of year meant dry air, open sky, and the kind of heat that made every outdoor effort feel both miserable yet euphoric. But we went outside anyway. We found movement in the midst of the swelter. We ran, rode, walked, climbed, and explored beneath that wide, unforgiving sun.
The cover of this issue was photographed during an early sunrise session in the Wichita Mountains with a dear friend and coworker who had recently taken up cycling. She told me that riding had become a way for her to get outside and escape whatever was weighing her down. When she returned from a ride, unstrapping her shoes and hoisting her bike back onto her car, she always seemed lighter. Rejuvenated. Closer to herself.
There is something sacred about choosing to greet the day before most people have even hit snooze for the first time. So many athletes understand this instinctively. They take to the pavement, the trail, the water, or the road not simply to train, but to begin again. To press refresh before stepping into the unpredictable lists, demands, questions, and responsibilities waiting on the other side of dawn.
This issue celebrates the go-getters and early risers. The women who push limits, challenge expectations, and pursue movement not only as discipline, but as devotion.
Inside, you’ll read about The Speed Project, an unsanctioned relay from Santa Monica to Las Vegas, all across an unmarked course that asks athletes to meet the edges of their motivation, strength, grit, and perseverance.
We also explore how collegiate athletics shape not only competitors, but future leaders, mothers, business owners, and women willing to keep saying yes to new challenges despite having to try and try again. These stories remind us that passion does not have to remain fixed in one season of life. It can evolve. It can surprise us. It can follow us into motherhood, entrepreneurship, reinvention, and every brave beginning that comes after.
This issue also marks one full year of Winpenny Co. Magazine.
When I began, I hoped we might reach this milestone, though I was never entirely sure how. The idea was simple at first: I would write a few articles, share my photography, and create something meaningful to ME and my portfolio.
But over time, it became something far greater than that. It became a collection of stories about goal-driven women who are unafraid to step outside their comfort zones, pursue big dreams, honor their ambition, and navigate life, sport, business, and motherhood with confidence and grace.
You may be surprised to learn this may be the final issue of Winpenny Co. Magazine. Or perhaps it is not. Publishing this magazine has required more than I expected. More time. More energy. More courage. More faith. But I am truly in awe of how far it has come, and even more in awe of the women it has allowed me to meet, photograph, interview, and get to know.
Doing this solo has been trial after trial. But also, triumph after triumph.
Either way, I hope this publication has served as a reminder that creativity is worth pursuing. That the desire to make something beautiful, thoughtful, and lasting beyond the ordinary is never wasted. That the work we pour into passion projects, even when it is heavy, expensive, inconvenient, and uncertain, can still become one of the most meaningful ventures of our lives.
Somewhere along the way, this stopped feeling like my magazine alone.
It became yours, too.
Thank you for reading, for sharing, for encouraging, and for believing in a project built from love, creativity, passion, and purpose. I hope, wherever Winpenny Co. goes from here, you will always see this first year as what it was: a beautiful beginning built on a community worth joining.
With gratitude,
Maxann
Comments