Mary Maleta Wright & Melissa McConville
Mary and Melissa have been avid runners and close friends for almost 20 years. Over the years, running has played a huge part in their friendship. More recently they’ve thought, “wouldn’t it be cool if we had a space for women to train and race together in fun way? Women who take running seriously but don’t take themselves too seriously?!” With incredible feedback (thanks to you!) slowly the dream became a reality, and here we are today bringing Arete Women’s Running Team to life.
Mary Maleta Wright, Co-Founder
Mary is a teacher, mother to four children, and has been running for over twenty years. She ran competitively at both Division 1 UCLA and Cornell University. She made it a goal to run her debut marathon under three hours while balancing work life and raising toddlers. She achieved that goal at the California International Marathon in 2015 and had so much fun, she came back and did it again in 2017, running a 2:57.
In the meantime, she realized how much more enjoyable the running journey is surrounded by other strong, positive female runners. She developed a passion for coaching and watching other women set and reach goals and overcome obstacles along the way. She completed USATF Coach Training. She loves being a student of the sport while finding the best ways to train athletes of various levels. She is a true running nerd at heart & loves her Arete ladies!
Melissa McConville, Co-Founder
Melissa has been a competitive runner and active in the running community since high school. After a successful career in marketing, she combined her passion for running and community to create the popular She is Beautiful race series in Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara. By creating a space for authenticity, empowerment, and joy, these races have inspired thousands of women throughout the past seven years. Running and being a part of the local running community adds balance to her career and raising children. Running has given so much to her through the years that she loves to see how it enriches the lives of others in so many ways.
She believes that training doesn’t have to be stressful and you can run your fastest while running with joy. She has run several marathons but completed focused training for the first time in 2019 when she ran a 2:55 marathon at Mountains to Beach Marathon, a PR of 20 minutes.
As an Arete co-founder, she inspires her teammates through her creativity, innovation, and ability to show up for her life and others lives in the most positive way. She is a Mom of three active kids.
Tamara Torlakson, Team Manager
Tamara started the Sacramento chapter of Arete in 2017 when she was connected to Mary by a mutual friend who thought this would be a great community for a team like this. They were right – Sacramento has always been the largest chapter of Arete with over 120 members.
Tamara has run since her freshman year of high school in the year 2000 when she joined the cross-country team. She continued to run in college for UC Santa Cruz, serving as team captain for two years and becoming the first runner in the program to qualify for NCAA DIII Nationals in 2006.
She is an active member of the Sacramento running community – serving on the Sacramento Running Association’s Board of Directors since 2015. SRA puts on CIM each December, one of Arete’s favorite annual meet ups – and also the home of Tamara’s 2:57 marathon PR. Tamara has two kiddos and works for herself as an event planner – putting together nonprofit, political and corporate convenings around the state!
