Welcome to the USA Triathlon – Rocky Mountain Regional newsletter. This special one time email from the national office to all regional USAT members (Utah, Wyoming, El Paso, New Mexico, & Colorado) contains lots of information and an election ballot for 2004 regional officers. If you would like to receive the quarterly email from the Rocky Mountain Region of USAT, please click the link below to join your regional newsgroup.

Rocky Mountain Regional Web site and 2004 tentative calendar link: Please click and bookmark this web site for your 2004 USAT sanctioned races calendar. Remember, only USAT sanctioned races count towards your national USAT ranking.

Message from the regional President Larry Seidman:

Welcome to our last newsletter of the year, a time for evaluation of the past year, and to experiment with something new. Take a look at your race results. Hopefully you are satisfied with your season. If not, try to determine why. If you don’t have a coach maybe try one. If you have one, maybe try a different one. This is also a great time of year to experiment with something new: maybe some new equipment or adjust your bike position, or try some swimming stroke drills. If you haven’t used your Sports Basement coupon yet, you need to use it by the end of the year.

New for 2004 will be the National Age Group Championship qualifying program. As detailed in last year’s July/August edition of Tri-Times, athletes have to finish in the top 33 percent or have a top 5 finish in their age group at an “A” regional championship. For any other sanctioned race, you need to finish in the top 10 percent or win your age group. Whichever is easiest.

Our “A” regional championships are Milkman (Sprint), Loveland Lake to Lake (International Distance), and Defined Fitness (Duathlon). In addition, each region can also designate one “special” Olympic distance event for these top 33 percent or 5 finishers. Our regional special race will be in Yuba, Utah, June 5, 2004.

Within this newsletter, please look over the ballot for Board elections and mail it back to Larry Seidman – President USAT Rocky Mtn Region, 6255 Moorfield Ave., Colorado Springs, CO 80919) or send this ballot via email to usatrockymtn@yahoo.com once you have registered for the quarterly email.

Larry Seidman larryseidman@hotmail.com

Ballot:

Vote for one in your state of residence: (General Board Members)

__ Trajan King - Utah

__ Warren Lemerich – Wyoming

__ Scott Poston – Colorado

Vote for two at Large

__ Jose Valdes – at Large

__ Paul Karlsson – at Large

National Championship Race:

Dateline: Shreveport, October, 2003, USAT Age Group Nationals – by Nancy Kern

Shreveport is quite a change from Colorado. Flat, sea level, green, and lush. The drive from Dallas through the East Texas Piney woods was very pretty but, Shreveport – well, let’s just say I’m not ready to vacate the Colorado Mountains for it.

The swim was to be in a bayou, complete with water-ski jumps and buoys. “’Gators?” we asked tentatively. “No”, they said, “The water-ski boats scare them off.” Uh huh. Except there won’t be anyone water-skiing on the morning of the competition. More incentive to go FAST, we decide.

The bike course was on a four-lane divided highway. The good people of Shreveport, thrilled no doubt to have 1300 triathletes plus assorted families and supporters in town spending $$, agreed to close a piece of a major road to car traffic for a few hours; but not a tremendously long piece of the road. So there were lots of out and back and hairpin turns as the course travels out one southbound lane, back up a northbound lane, back down the other north bound lane, etc., etc. The good news was that the only hills were overpasses. The bad news was that we’ve been training on the hills around Denver and Boulder all year…we don’t do flat!

The run was also flat (are you starting to see a pattern here?) through the streets of a lovely southern neighborhood – all brick ranch houses with magnolias and crepe myrtle and St. Augustine grass lawns. The start and end of this scenic foot race was through the woods around the bayou – a little true “cross-country” thrown in to keep things interesting. Again we were assured that there are no alligators or other critters lying in wait along the course.

The Rocky Mountain region was well represented, but my attention centered on those of us who competed from Celeste Callahan’s Team CWW. Four of us were Nationals alumnae; one was competing in her first Tri Nationals event. Celeste has, of course, been a winner for years (and placed first at World’s in 2002!). Susan Bowles, Rainey Wikstrom, and your humble scribe all “debuted” at Nationals in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho in 2002. (Idaho was slightly more, um, scenic than Louisiana.) Christine Garcia was competing in her first Nationals at Shreveport. We even had a CWW alum, Ann Vitt, join us from Austin, TX. Coach Yoli Casas, who saw five of her charges gearing up for the race, decided to come along. Imagine her delight when she found out Shreveport has real gambling, and not just the slots and poker that Central City and Cripple Creek offer!

Despite fears of heat and humidity among these high-plains, front-range ladies, the days leading up to the race were cool and dry. Familiarization laps were swum/ridden/run in comfort. On race morning a fog hung low over the bayou. The big yellow buoys that marked either end of the elliptical course were invisible in the mist. The warm Louisiana water had cooled in the previous evenings’ uncommonly cool air, and our wetsuits were welcome extra warmth. Once the gun went off for our various starts, all attention was given to the race. Tidbits here and there broke through: a cheer from a spouse; an admonition from Yoli to “Focus!”; a distant roar of spectators. The swim was over in a flash. The bike was uneventful – long, level, thankfully no flats (always my deep, unspoken fear). The concrete streets took their toll on the run. Ooh, my aching feet! And then it was over.

We all had PRs (love no altitude!). Celeste took fifth, securing her spot at World’s in Portugal in May, 2004. The rest of us turned in respectable finishes in our age groups, though not high enough to qualify for World’s. (Let me tell you here and now: those ladies who compete at the National level kick b___! Aging up is no help, because the women in the next age group are just as fast.) Susan, it should be noted, took first place in the Athena 40+ division, and Rainey took third in the Athena 39 and under division.

The main thing about Nationals isn’t your time, or where you place, or whom you beat. It’s about being there; about drinking in the atmosphere of hundreds of dedicated athletes; about being able to talk to others who understand your desires, fears, and triumphs. It’s about six Colorado friends having just a really good time on a weekend in Shreveport, throwing in a little exercise in the process.

Juniors and Under 23 Section:

The first ever Rocky Mountain Region U/23 and Junior draft legal race will be held June 12, 2004 in conjunction with the Rattlesnake Sprint Triathlon at the Aurora Reservoir. There will be two divisions: U/23 (athletes 18-23) and Junior (athletes 16-19). The age of the athlete is determined by their age as of December 31, 2004. The U/23 draft legal race is Olympic Distance and will feature a 2-lap swim, 5-6 lap bike, and a 2-loop run. The Junior race is Sprint Distance and will consist of a 1-lap swim, 3 lap bike, and 1 lap run. The Junior race is designated as the Rocky Mountain Junior Regional Championship.

To help offset costs for the U/23 athletes, 4 travel grants will be awarded to the top two finishers, male and female. The winners of the U/23 race will be awarded a $300 travel grant to travel to the U/23 Draft Legal National Championship (site TBA). The second place finishers will be awarded a $150 travel grant to travel to the U/23 Draft Legal National Championship. To be eligible for the travel grant the athlete must be a full time resident of the Rocky Mountain Region.

For more information, contact the race director Jim Flint at jim.flint@Galileo.com or Matt Eagan at matt@premiermultisport.com.

Collegiate Nationals

The Collegiate Olympic Distance National Championship will be held this year on April 24, 2004 in Lake Havasu, AZ. The University of Colorado (two-time defending National Champions), Air Force Academy, Colorado State University, University of Denver, and the University of New Mexico will be sending teams to compete for the National title. In addition to being the National Championship, this race will be the qualifier for the World University Games to be held in Spain, this June. The top six male and female finishers will qualify for the World University Triathlon Team. The team is fully sponsored by USAT.

The course is an exciting one. A portion of the swim consists of swimming under the actual London Bridge, an extremely hilly bike course and a run that includes running over the famous bridge.

More information about Collegiate Nationals can be found at www.tucsonracing.com

USAT Junior Draft Legal World Qualifier

The USAT Junior Draft Legal World Qualifier will be held March 13, 2004 in Clermont, FL. A junior athlete is an athlete between the ages of 16 and 19. The athlete’s age is determined by their age on December 31, 2004. The race will be held under ITU draft legal rules and is Sprint Distance. There will be two slots available for both male and female athletes. The USAT Junior Draft Legal team is fully sponsored by USAT. The ITU World Triathlon Championships will be held May 8-9 in Madeira, Spain. For further information, contact Ric Rosenkranz at ric@usatriathlon.org.

Club Competition Section: (by Jose Valdes)

The USAT Board of Directors (BOD) approved a scoring methodology for USAT registered clubs competition in early 2003. The first opportunities to “test” the process were at the Rocky Mountain Regional Club Championships at Loveland Lake to Lake and at the National Club Championships at Boulder Peak. Both events proved that the scoring methodology worked, with a couple of minor adjustments.

The process of developing a scoring methodology for club competition began over two years ago and earlier versions were used at two previous national club championship events. However, USAT was instrumental in the last revision and it clearly influenced the decision of the BOD to adopt the 2003 version. With an approved scoring methodology process, it was time to test it.

Loveland Lake to Lake hosted the Regional Club Championships and proved that clubs were willing to enter club competitions. All five club divisions had participation and a couple of hundred athletes registered as club members. Although the scoring process was conducted manually, the club awards were distributed at the awards ceremony, a key concern of the BOD. A second tiebreaker clause was added as a result of an unforeseen situation that was not addressed by the existing tiebreaker rules. It also became evident that manual scoring was impractical with events with more than 200 club participants.

Boulder Peak hosted the National Club Championships for the second year. It was encouraging to notice USAT registered clubs from several states represented. The Columbia Triathlon Club from Missouri registered a delegation of 65 athletes. Club members represented clubs from the west to the east coasts and illustrated that given proper advertising and a quality venue, “they will come”.

Once again the scoring methodology proved to be effective and thanks to the automation of the club scoring results, the awards were distributed at the award ceremony.

USAT received a report detailing the outcomes and observations of scoring both events. The report also included a revised scoring methodology proposal and recommendations.

The prognosis for the scoring methodology is now up to USAT, for the national events. Regions have the option of staying with existing club scoring methodologies and club competition formats or adopting in whole or in part the 2003 proposal. I suspect that the Rocky Mountain Region will, as in 2003, retain the process implemented in 2003. My highly biased opinion is that club competitions are an excellent addition to any duathlon or triathlon and a regional points series/competition would be “great fun”.

My sincerest appreciation to Angela Flannery and Tim Yount, of USAT, whose collaboration and insight were critical to the construction of the scoring methodology. Also, to Gail Moore, Timberline Timing, who graciously developed the algorithm to ensure prompt and accurate results at the National Club Championships and offered her assistance during the final operational phases. I cannot dismiss the unselfish involvement of Larry Seidman who “stepped up” consistently to ensure that both club competitions were successfully scored. Lastly, to Peggy Shockley and Paul Karlsson, two of the best race directors on the planet, whose unwavering support for club competition are commendable.

2003 Financial Section:

The following represents a top level overview of the current 2003 financial status for the Rocky Mountain Region:

INCOME:

Opening Balance 2003 9,029.22

4^th quarter rebate (2002) 482.57

1^st quarter rebate (2003) 1,641.00

Regional Champ fee deposit 700.00

Regional Champ fee deposit 250.00

2^nd quarter rebate (2003) 2,817.00

3^rd quarter rebate (2003) 1,482.00

TOTAL $16,401.79

EXPENSES:

Timberline Timing 2002 Regional Ranking 575.00

Larry Seidman - Reimbursement Regional Ranking Awards 358.81

National Engraving, Inc 2002 Regional Champ awards 853.55

Official travel reimbursement - Larry Seidman travel/ mailing expense 82.77

Nightmare Graphics - Official Shirts 507.61

Helmet purchase 100.00

Regional schedule mailing 34.58

Nightmare Graphics - Official Shirts 48.23

Media Manuals - Regional schedule printing 675.00

Regional Officials Coordinator stipend 500.00

Nighmare Graphics – Official Shirts/Hats 103.72

Helmet purchase 100.00

US Post Office Stamps 37.00

OfficeMax - Office Supplies 66.25

Larry Seidman - Web Site Renewal 80.00

Larry Seidman - Regional Awards mailing 15.00

TOTAL $4,137.52

BALANCE Income $16,401.79

Minus Expenses 4,137.52

Check Book Bal $12,264.27

There are four additional expenses I anticipate we will incur before the end of the year: 1) Regional Championship rebate- at the rate of $200 for each event which would make it a total of $1,200. 2) Travel expense to the regional board meeting. 3) Meal expense for the board meeting. 4) Purchase of a conference phone. As an estimate, I anticipate total expenses for the year at $5787.52 or $1,529.42 more than last year’s budget. Rob Ladewig - Treasurer

Coming Next Newsletter: First person report from Worlds in New Zealand –