Friday, February 4, 2011
this weekend
this weekend students from 5 different area high schools will compete in the Hensley Offroad Series!! The DREAM is coming true for more high school multisport teams!
Friday, January 28, 2011
A new season
This year starts the fifth year of training for triathlons with youth. I can't believe it's been so long yet at the same time so short! I can still remember my first practices where running even a mile was torture, where biking up the small hills in Fresno was pain! Now a mile is a warmup (and a short one at that), and biking is one of my greatest joys - be it on the road or mountain!
Last weekend's Hensley Duathlon series was a success, with my students camping and doing very well. We had a record 20 youth camping friday night to help with saturday's race and setting up... despite some transportation problems it all turned out ok. At around 1am on Saturday morning/Friday night, the Madera County Sheriff came and asked who had called 911! It was none of us, but I guess someone had called and said they were at Hensley Lake... after we let them know it wasn't us they let us go on their way and no harm was done except we were a little bit more tired.
Looking forward to two more weekends of it all! Then a break from hosting races and in March/April we start competing!
Last weekend's Hensley Duathlon series was a success, with my students camping and doing very well. We had a record 20 youth camping friday night to help with saturday's race and setting up... despite some transportation problems it all turned out ok. At around 1am on Saturday morning/Friday night, the Madera County Sheriff came and asked who had called 911! It was none of us, but I guess someone had called and said they were at Hensley Lake... after we let them know it wasn't us they let us go on their way and no harm was done except we were a little bit more tired.
Looking forward to two more weekends of it all! Then a break from hosting races and in March/April we start competing!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Where Tri-This! is (probably!) going
It's been almost half a year since i really wrote anything on here because i've honestly been constantly busy. Getting Married, teaching 4 prep's, coaching water polo, and my own training and that of the kids...
So here's where Tri-This! Inc is strategically headed for the rest of 2010 and 2011/beyond.
1) Growth
A few months ago my new Board Secretary looked at me quite candidly and asked me, "So if your goal was to start a high school triathlon team, you've done that. Now what?".
I guess I looked around and realized that for all intents and purposes, the fact that I take kids to do triathlon/duathlons/running/biking races on a regular basis means that yes, we've accomplished that goal.
The current idea is to have preferably a staff member at each school site that wants a triathlon/mtb team organize practices, etc. BUT, hopefully thanks to funding through after school programs, we hope to expand upon the Einstein Park model and pay former Tri-This! members to do that as well. Sovann Mey, who was an original TT member in 2007, is doing an excellent job at our Einstein Park Community Multi-sport Center. We are in talks or currently training kids at McLane, Hoover, Yosemite, Edison and perhaps Reedley High Schools as well as Kings Canyon Middle School.
Program Details
- I want each kid to have a bike at home; preferably they find a bike at a garage sale and fix it up themselves through the tri-this program. Working on finding money for that part...
- Clear guidelines have been given to the kids especially in regards to grades - if they're improving, keep going! If not, we take it back. Also in regards to races - they need to let me know and give me $5 a week before the race or else I will not let them race. It's about teaching responsibility and being tough because there are plenty of races; one race isn't going to be the difference between them connecting with the group or not.
- Camping and other trips take on a renewed importance as we go from McLane and Mr. Dorman being at every event to more mentors and sites.
Funding
- Events will continue to provide us with more than half of our funding
- This year our projected budget was $15,000. Next year it will be $50,000. Not counting the Kids Triathlon, Tri-This! Inc has brought in more $16,000 this year of non-grant income - all of it has been spent on students and events!
- Next year there will be more paid positions in Tri-This! and an increased push for more volunteers to do the work effectively; including budgeting money for a storage facility and/or office to handle events and have more of a community presence.
The programs may be changing and expanding, but Tri-This! is committed to continuing to make the sport of triathlon/multisport available to all youth in the Central Valley. We are well poised to deal with donations and host events/camps to help expand the multisport community at the grassroots level! 2011 will be the most exciting time of the triathlon adventure yet!
So here's where Tri-This! Inc is strategically headed for the rest of 2010 and 2011/beyond.
1) Growth
A few months ago my new Board Secretary looked at me quite candidly and asked me, "So if your goal was to start a high school triathlon team, you've done that. Now what?".
I guess I looked around and realized that for all intents and purposes, the fact that I take kids to do triathlon/duathlons/running/biking races on a regular basis means that yes, we've accomplished that goal.
The current idea is to have preferably a staff member at each school site that wants a triathlon/mtb team organize practices, etc. BUT, hopefully thanks to funding through after school programs, we hope to expand upon the Einstein Park model and pay former Tri-This! members to do that as well. Sovann Mey, who was an original TT member in 2007, is doing an excellent job at our Einstein Park Community Multi-sport Center. We are in talks or currently training kids at McLane, Hoover, Yosemite, Edison and perhaps Reedley High Schools as well as Kings Canyon Middle School.
Program Details
- I want each kid to have a bike at home; preferably they find a bike at a garage sale and fix it up themselves through the tri-this program. Working on finding money for that part...
- Clear guidelines have been given to the kids especially in regards to grades - if they're improving, keep going! If not, we take it back. Also in regards to races - they need to let me know and give me $5 a week before the race or else I will not let them race. It's about teaching responsibility and being tough because there are plenty of races; one race isn't going to be the difference between them connecting with the group or not.
- Camping and other trips take on a renewed importance as we go from McLane and Mr. Dorman being at every event to more mentors and sites.
Funding
- Events will continue to provide us with more than half of our funding
- This year our projected budget was $15,000. Next year it will be $50,000. Not counting the Kids Triathlon, Tri-This! Inc has brought in more $16,000 this year of non-grant income - all of it has been spent on students and events!
- Next year there will be more paid positions in Tri-This! and an increased push for more volunteers to do the work effectively; including budgeting money for a storage facility and/or office to handle events and have more of a community presence.
The programs may be changing and expanding, but Tri-This! is committed to continuing to make the sport of triathlon/multisport available to all youth in the Central Valley. We are well poised to deal with donations and host events/camps to help expand the multisport community at the grassroots level! 2011 will be the most exciting time of the triathlon adventure yet!
Monday, September 13, 2010
Continued
Well, a lot has changed since the last post!
We did several triathlons that went really well, but in regards to Einstein Park here's the really exciting parts:
- We will offer once a week classes for kids
- We will offer weekly classes for the kids and their parents too! (free)
- We will teach bike repair classes for kids to train them to fix their peers bikes and operate this bike repair shop out of the center!
so excited to start October 6th I can't hardly wait!
We did several triathlons that went really well, but in regards to Einstein Park here's the really exciting parts:
- We will offer once a week classes for kids
- We will offer weekly classes for the kids and their parents too! (free)
- We will teach bike repair classes for kids to train them to fix their peers bikes and operate this bike repair shop out of the center!
so excited to start October 6th I can't hardly wait!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
huge news! ($9,999 reasons to love Fresno!)
In march or so the City of Fresno announced they were going to have to close 11 community centers due to lack of funds. After going to a meeting it seemed like something that would be good for Tri-This. We applied with a fairly detailed proposal and a month later found out we were approved as a secondary provider. This means that we aren't taking over all of the services at the center but hopefully can plug in to whoever takes over all of the programs and help out with our own services.
So we wrote a grant to the Fresno Regional Foundation with some help from quite a variety of people to expand our triathlon program to the center at Einstein Park.
Two weeks ago was the week before my wedding. I found out on Wednesday as I was going to a graduation of a Tri-This! kid (who was on the field with me today to receive the check) that we had gotten the grant in the full amount but I wasn't allowed to tell! That night I got a flat tire after the kids' graduation to bring me back down to earth! :-)
Three days later was my wedding which was amazing, a week later the honeyooon. I almost forgot to sign and return the grant agreement I was so excited with everything going on!
The plan is for us to offer once or twice a week classes teaching kids from the community about bike repair, running form and offer running classes for kids of all ages, easy kid-focused nutrition information, and other stuff along the lines of our free summer bike races. All kids will become USA Triathlon members and we hope of course to be able to track them throughout the next year and get them involved in as many Tri-This! events as possible (camps,races, etc.).
So here's the breakdown of funds so everyone's clear:
1) Salaries: $3600: this pays a little to the program manager (me), and most of it goes to hire two people to teach lessons once a week for 2 hours - former Tri-This! kids who have now graduated are the first picks obviously and interviews will be held by an unbiased panel.
2) office equipment: $1500: Part of being a non-profit is that whenever we get money donated/raised, we want to spend it on program activities! But that's no good if it means photocopies of fliers and such come from my own pocket. With this money we also hope to make some signs/banners for Tri-This! that can also be used at events, etc.
3) Equipment: $2,399: Bike repairs, heart rate monitors, shoes in an emergency, bike lights, etc. We have several bikes that would be great for kids that need money to be fixed up including several nice bike frames and now we have the money to make sure all of our bikes are safe! Tri-This! currently has 8 working road or hybrid bikes that kids have either taken home to use or are at my house. We have 5 mountain bikes. This is a far cry from the 3 bikes we started with in 2007 and thanks only to the community's donations!
4) Summer Bike Races: $500. We think community events like the summer races are an integral part of what Tri-This! SHOULD be doing. Thus we included some money for the bike races to cover overhead like equipment for them, insurance costs, and things like clipboards.
5) Insurance: $2,000. It's only $5 per kid to become a USAT member, so with this much money we budgeted in Directors and Officers Insurance for the year ($650 from USAT) to make sure the Tri-This! board is covered as we increase our risk, as well as $250 general liability insurance for next year. The rest can be applied towards paying for kids USAT memberships when they can't afford it. We will keep all of that information on file to continue to track those kids and help keep them fit. Hope to be able to coordinate with other youth sports organizations as well.
So the core expenses of Tri-This! are NOT covered in this grant... perhaps not the smartest move on our part, but what's done is done. We have not all the way covered our expenses of what we want a full-featured triathlon program in 2010 due to less than expected revenue from events, but 2010 has been an extremely positive year for TT overall. The uniforms, the events, the Kids Tri Camps, etc.
The Board of TT has also changed significantly this year... the people coming in are people who heard about Tri-This! and wanted to help, as opposed to people who knew me and wanted to help *me* which is exciting. And we hit our 50th kid who has participated in a triathlon this year.
About 15 kids are training or significantly involved currently (Jacob, Marcos, Rigo, Benny, Lindsay kind of , Patricia, Nick, Raymond, Sovann, Pinky, Luis, Nancy, Aaron, Robert, Daniel a bit, Luis kind of, Paul W a bit, Albert still reigns as king but is graduated now...). More are being recruited daily and the cool thing lately is having a hard time finding kids because well, it's difficult! so the ones that do come out are generally more committed.
We are bringing a bunch of kids to the July 4th run this Sunday to race or volunteer, and our last big triathlon of the year probably will be the July 10-11 Tri for Fun/Real races in a week and a half.
This is much longer than I intended. Tri-This is training students about fitness and how to be healthy citizens. But in the past 2 weeks, I've also spend an hour or so running with a kid who was thinking about suicide, gotten a phone call from a kid on the team who needs help getting a job because his dad is on disability and his mom just lost her two jobs. A long-time kid called last night needing $20 and "you were the last person I could call Coach." After a long chat Meagan and I gave him the money because it ended up it was for his sister that he had promised (verified with the sister and the mom!) One of the new kids who has a bike to ride now is often the only "adult" home as his single mom goes to work and he is in charge of their five kids - 3 of whom will be involved in either Tri-This! activities or McLane Water Polo next year. Thanks to your donations, these kids are able to get helmets, bikes, shoes, participate in races, camping trips, Grizzlies Games, and invaluable conversation, athletic training, and life mentoring along the way. Special shout-out to people like Jesse Gamino, Rob Roy, Shawna Thiessen, Liz McAfee, JP Sickler, Laura Holden, Steffani Sanchez, Hanna Starkweather, Erin Prieto, Heather McGil, Kris Kubota, Katy Robinson, the Just us Girls group, CVC and Greg McKinney/Matt from Momentum with valuable cycling clothes(!), TNT people, Sierra Challenge Express, Scott Bolin and Lea Nibur, Aaron and Andrea Samansky and Sierra Running Company staffers Kyle/Amandra/Casey, Faron and Heleen Reed, Bill/Eat Driskill, Ben and Rich from Rubber Soul, MIKE from Tri-Sport, John/Vanessa McCracken and Sunnyside Bicycles, John Browning, Rich Kahn, Jeffrey Phillips, Mike Fast, Adrian and Susan Reyes, Gus and Felicia Gomez, the UCSD Triathlon Team, the entire Monke family(!), Jorge Aguilar, Leo Kahn, Dan Montague*, Chris Denny, Alma Wong, Marcia and Ed Parcaut, Joanie LeRoux, Christine Burrows, Trish Renfro, Chris Boswell, Dwayne Servillo, the Minnema family, my WIFE MEAGAN and her family, and more who have donated their time, money, or energies in helping Tri-This!/Fresno PAL triathlon team over the years. Once I started I couldn't stop...
It's always been about the kids, and this grant from the Fresno Regional Foundation just opened up the magic of Triathlons/outdoor multisport to a whole new group of youth in Fresno and beyond.
Now it's time to take a deep breath, look at where TT is and how we will really spend this money to make the MOST impact on the lives of kids in Fresno! Who's with me?!
So we wrote a grant to the Fresno Regional Foundation with some help from quite a variety of people to expand our triathlon program to the center at Einstein Park.
Two weeks ago was the week before my wedding. I found out on Wednesday as I was going to a graduation of a Tri-This! kid (who was on the field with me today to receive the check) that we had gotten the grant in the full amount but I wasn't allowed to tell! That night I got a flat tire after the kids' graduation to bring me back down to earth! :-)
Three days later was my wedding which was amazing, a week later the honeyooon. I almost forgot to sign and return the grant agreement I was so excited with everything going on!
The plan is for us to offer once or twice a week classes teaching kids from the community about bike repair, running form and offer running classes for kids of all ages, easy kid-focused nutrition information, and other stuff along the lines of our free summer bike races. All kids will become USA Triathlon members and we hope of course to be able to track them throughout the next year and get them involved in as many Tri-This! events as possible (camps,races, etc.).
So here's the breakdown of funds so everyone's clear:
1) Salaries: $3600: this pays a little to the program manager (me), and most of it goes to hire two people to teach lessons once a week for 2 hours - former Tri-This! kids who have now graduated are the first picks obviously and interviews will be held by an unbiased panel.
2) office equipment: $1500: Part of being a non-profit is that whenever we get money donated/raised, we want to spend it on program activities! But that's no good if it means photocopies of fliers and such come from my own pocket. With this money we also hope to make some signs/banners for Tri-This! that can also be used at events, etc.
3) Equipment: $2,399: Bike repairs, heart rate monitors, shoes in an emergency, bike lights, etc. We have several bikes that would be great for kids that need money to be fixed up including several nice bike frames and now we have the money to make sure all of our bikes are safe! Tri-This! currently has 8 working road or hybrid bikes that kids have either taken home to use or are at my house. We have 5 mountain bikes. This is a far cry from the 3 bikes we started with in 2007 and thanks only to the community's donations!
4) Summer Bike Races: $500. We think community events like the summer races are an integral part of what Tri-This! SHOULD be doing. Thus we included some money for the bike races to cover overhead like equipment for them, insurance costs, and things like clipboards.
5) Insurance: $2,000. It's only $5 per kid to become a USAT member, so with this much money we budgeted in Directors and Officers Insurance for the year ($650 from USAT) to make sure the Tri-This! board is covered as we increase our risk, as well as $250 general liability insurance for next year. The rest can be applied towards paying for kids USAT memberships when they can't afford it. We will keep all of that information on file to continue to track those kids and help keep them fit. Hope to be able to coordinate with other youth sports organizations as well.
So the core expenses of Tri-This! are NOT covered in this grant... perhaps not the smartest move on our part, but what's done is done. We have not all the way covered our expenses of what we want a full-featured triathlon program in 2010 due to less than expected revenue from events, but 2010 has been an extremely positive year for TT overall. The uniforms, the events, the Kids Tri Camps, etc.
The Board of TT has also changed significantly this year... the people coming in are people who heard about Tri-This! and wanted to help, as opposed to people who knew me and wanted to help *me* which is exciting. And we hit our 50th kid who has participated in a triathlon this year.
About 15 kids are training or significantly involved currently (Jacob, Marcos, Rigo, Benny, Lindsay kind of , Patricia, Nick, Raymond, Sovann, Pinky, Luis, Nancy, Aaron, Robert, Daniel a bit, Luis kind of, Paul W a bit, Albert still reigns as king but is graduated now...). More are being recruited daily and the cool thing lately is having a hard time finding kids because well, it's difficult! so the ones that do come out are generally more committed.
We are bringing a bunch of kids to the July 4th run this Sunday to race or volunteer, and our last big triathlon of the year probably will be the July 10-11 Tri for Fun/Real races in a week and a half.
This is much longer than I intended. Tri-This is training students about fitness and how to be healthy citizens. But in the past 2 weeks, I've also spend an hour or so running with a kid who was thinking about suicide, gotten a phone call from a kid on the team who needs help getting a job because his dad is on disability and his mom just lost her two jobs. A long-time kid called last night needing $20 and "you were the last person I could call Coach." After a long chat Meagan and I gave him the money because it ended up it was for his sister that he had promised (verified with the sister and the mom!) One of the new kids who has a bike to ride now is often the only "adult" home as his single mom goes to work and he is in charge of their five kids - 3 of whom will be involved in either Tri-This! activities or McLane Water Polo next year. Thanks to your donations, these kids are able to get helmets, bikes, shoes, participate in races, camping trips, Grizzlies Games, and invaluable conversation, athletic training, and life mentoring along the way. Special shout-out to people like Jesse Gamino, Rob Roy, Shawna Thiessen, Liz McAfee, JP Sickler, Laura Holden, Steffani Sanchez, Hanna Starkweather, Erin Prieto, Heather McGil, Kris Kubota, Katy Robinson, the Just us Girls group, CVC and Greg McKinney/Matt from Momentum with valuable cycling clothes(!), TNT people, Sierra Challenge Express, Scott Bolin and Lea Nibur, Aaron and Andrea Samansky and Sierra Running Company staffers Kyle/Amandra/Casey, Faron and Heleen Reed, Bill/Eat Driskill, Ben and Rich from Rubber Soul, MIKE from Tri-Sport, John/Vanessa McCracken and Sunnyside Bicycles, John Browning, Rich Kahn, Jeffrey Phillips, Mike Fast, Adrian and Susan Reyes, Gus and Felicia Gomez, the UCSD Triathlon Team, the entire Monke family(!), Jorge Aguilar, Leo Kahn, Dan Montague*, Chris Denny, Alma Wong, Marcia and Ed Parcaut, Joanie LeRoux, Christine Burrows, Trish Renfro, Chris Boswell, Dwayne Servillo, the Minnema family, my WIFE MEAGAN and her family, and more who have donated their time, money, or energies in helping Tri-This!/Fresno PAL triathlon team over the years. Once I started I couldn't stop...
It's always been about the kids, and this grant from the Fresno Regional Foundation just opened up the magic of Triathlons/outdoor multisport to a whole new group of youth in Fresno and beyond.
Now it's time to take a deep breath, look at where TT is and how we will really spend this money to make the MOST impact on the lives of kids in Fresno! Who's with me?!
Monday, June 7, 2010
updates
With less than two weeks until my marriage, thought I'd take some time to do a real update.
Things for Tri-This! ended up great with the very busy April-May season. We took some time off after the Splash and Dash May 8th from training as much and it's been nice. We also worked on two big grants that were due soon.
The only thing we're working on is training for a triathlon july 10-11th, the summer bike races and kids tri camp 2 in late july. What nice is I have partners for all of these things, so I'm not doing all of the work!
As I head into married life, Tri-This! has more volunteers, more financial resources, partnerships and kids wanting to do it than ever before. With a new plan to control busy-ness in place for next year, 2009 continues to be one of the best year's we've had - ever! It's an exciting time to help kids be fit, healthy, and active community citizens!
Things for Tri-This! ended up great with the very busy April-May season. We took some time off after the Splash and Dash May 8th from training as much and it's been nice. We also worked on two big grants that were due soon.
The only thing we're working on is training for a triathlon july 10-11th, the summer bike races and kids tri camp 2 in late july. What nice is I have partners for all of these things, so I'm not doing all of the work!
As I head into married life, Tri-This! has more volunteers, more financial resources, partnerships and kids wanting to do it than ever before. With a new plan to control busy-ness in place for next year, 2009 continues to be one of the best year's we've had - ever! It's an exciting time to help kids be fit, healthy, and active community citizens!
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
bike to work day?
With (national?) bike to work day tomorrow, I'm making 3 Tri-This! athletes bike with me to Fresno State where I teach/they take high school classes from McLane, where we all come from. It's only about 3 miles so not a huge deal except for the fact that we'll have to get there at 7 which is hard to do, and bring a change of clothes and stuff.
In the past few weeks we've gotten uniforms (and are the front page at http://www.oomphsports.com or at least were at the time of this posting!) and most of the kids have their uniforms. Had to tell a kid today who (admittedly hasn't paid his $25 portion of the cost which is more than 3 times that...) that he won't get his probably because ha a) has a 0.0 GPA despite repeated calls to try doing his homework and b) is pretty famous at this point for saying he'll go to practice then not showing up/answering his phone. Hey ya can't save them all :-)
We are hard at work at an innovative biking series designed to get more kids active - FREE summer bike races! the website has more information, but the idea is to design a course in the mclane high school parking lot that's kid-friendly and get kids ages 8-16 racing on it for fun this summer! We'll do a race every wednesday to keep momentum building and try to offer prizes and such. I can't wait! Sponsorships are rolling in too which is nice to see...
We have been blessed with getting payment from past events recently and that is so very nice to see! Still wrapping up the Kids Triathlon from April 25th but the Splash and Dash is a day or two away from being done and we are already planning things for the summer, etc. Life is GREAT.
and I'm getting married June 19th!
-brandon
founder, president, tri-this! inc
http://www.tri-this.org
In the past few weeks we've gotten uniforms (and are the front page at http://www.oomphsports.com or at least were at the time of this posting!) and most of the kids have their uniforms. Had to tell a kid today who (admittedly hasn't paid his $25 portion of the cost which is more than 3 times that...) that he won't get his probably because ha a) has a 0.0 GPA despite repeated calls to try doing his homework and b) is pretty famous at this point for saying he'll go to practice then not showing up/answering his phone. Hey ya can't save them all :-)
We are hard at work at an innovative biking series designed to get more kids active - FREE summer bike races! the website has more information, but the idea is to design a course in the mclane high school parking lot that's kid-friendly and get kids ages 8-16 racing on it for fun this summer! We'll do a race every wednesday to keep momentum building and try to offer prizes and such. I can't wait! Sponsorships are rolling in too which is nice to see...
We have been blessed with getting payment from past events recently and that is so very nice to see! Still wrapping up the Kids Triathlon from April 25th but the Splash and Dash is a day or two away from being done and we are already planning things for the summer, etc. Life is GREAT.
and I'm getting married June 19th!
-brandon
founder, president, tri-this! inc
http://www.tri-this.org
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Kids Tri Camp and Uniforms!
Hi guys,
It's been very busy around here lately!
- Kids Tri Camp was a HUGE success!
- So was taking 5 kids on a 22 mile pretty hilly ride last week!
- Uniforms come this week!
- Three triathlons in the next three weekends (not counting my half ironman at wildflower May 1st!) whew!
ViTri (Sprint distance tri) this weekend, the big Millerton Tri (we are hoping to have 10 kids representing Tri-This! at that race - the biggest ever!) I will do my best to post pictures!
It's been very busy around here lately!
- Kids Tri Camp was a HUGE success!
- So was taking 5 kids on a 22 mile pretty hilly ride last week!
- Uniforms come this week!
- Three triathlons in the next three weekends (not counting my half ironman at wildflower May 1st!) whew!
ViTri (Sprint distance tri) this weekend, the big Millerton Tri (we are hoping to have 10 kids representing Tri-This! at that race - the biggest ever!) I will do my best to post pictures!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Racing and training
Greetings,
this week I'm taking some time off of training (partly still recovering time-wise from the buildup to the Duathlon last weekend) to train for another teacher certification test coming up in two weeks.
http://www.mtbduathlon.com has a link to the amazing pictures page by Kevin Ford. Love the kid with the pacifier doing the race!
this week I'm taking some time off of training (partly still recovering time-wise from the buildup to the Duathlon last weekend) to train for another teacher certification test coming up in two weeks.
http://www.mtbduathlon.com has a link to the amazing pictures page by Kevin Ford. Love the kid with the pacifier doing the race!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
amazing ride...
It's been a crazy month!
The Feb 21st MTB Duathlon at Hensley Lake was a resounding success! 68 athletes braved the rain for the first-year event, and had a great time! pics are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/trithisfresno/ and look for 'hensleyduathlon' pics - including all of our preparation, camping etc. not too many from the race yet due to the fact that I was pretty busy during the actual race! I'm still catching up on sleep.
We didn't really make much money from the race but did make some great infrastructure improvements (great walkie-talkies for future events), and it really was a high-quality event! Complete with bike racks borrowed from another local race organizer, a well-marked course map, about 60 volunteers over two days thanks to the Disney Give a Day, Get a Day program, and a dozen of my students were up there too. We rented a 12 passenger van and then provided a shuttle service from the parking lots to the trailhead on race day, a 26 foot van was rented from Penske, awesome gray long sleeve t-shirts with a cool logo too, very professional awards (medals three deep in 2 age categories per gender/race.) Even 8 kids showed up to race which was great!
This week is taking it easy, next week is back to practice again!
The Feb 21st MTB Duathlon at Hensley Lake was a resounding success! 68 athletes braved the rain for the first-year event, and had a great time! pics are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/trithisfresno/ and look for 'hensleyduathlon' pics - including all of our preparation, camping etc. not too many from the race yet due to the fact that I was pretty busy during the actual race! I'm still catching up on sleep.
We didn't really make much money from the race but did make some great infrastructure improvements (great walkie-talkies for future events), and it really was a high-quality event! Complete with bike racks borrowed from another local race organizer, a well-marked course map, about 60 volunteers over two days thanks to the Disney Give a Day, Get a Day program, and a dozen of my students were up there too. We rented a 12 passenger van and then provided a shuttle service from the parking lots to the trailhead on race day, a 26 foot van was rented from Penske, awesome gray long sleeve t-shirts with a cool logo too, very professional awards (medals three deep in 2 age categories per gender/race.) Even 8 kids showed up to race which was great!
This week is taking it easy, next week is back to practice again!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
one year anniversary
Happy one year anniversary Tri-This! Inc.!
One year ago today I raced down to the secretary of state's office in downtown fresno from Fresno State (in the rain!) to get back the filing of articles of incorporation for Tri This. I was elated that after about the second try, we had been approved! Once approved we could begin the process of applying for an employer identification number, a bank account, 501c(3) status, etc!
What a year it was, and what a year for TT it's going to be!
One year ago today I raced down to the secretary of state's office in downtown fresno from Fresno State (in the rain!) to get back the filing of articles of incorporation for Tri This. I was elated that after about the second try, we had been approved! Once approved we could begin the process of applying for an employer identification number, a bank account, 501c(3) status, etc!
What a year it was, and what a year for TT it's going to be!
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Camps and Races and Uniforms!
Ok team,
Thanks to all of the readers/not posters for your emails.
This week I went back to teaching again and along with that a flurry of meetings for tri things! (Every night except thursday actually!)
Monday: Sierra Kids Triathlon - going to be awesome! Set up http://www.sierrakidstri.com
Tuesday: Met with sponsors... we will be able to order uniforms soon! (from oomphsports.com)
Wednesday: Kids Tri Camp meeting. Building off the success of last year's (admittedly small) Kids Tri Camp, met with basically everyone in Fresno running tri teams for kids! That in itself was really cool. We decided to expand the concept to a Kids Tri Camp and a separate Teen Tri Camp.
Thursday: Met again with a sponsor and was able to pick up some AMAZING donated gear, including a carbon fiber frame, a great mountain bike, and several odds and ends that will help a lot! (biking shoes, helmets, some gear)
Friday: Met with my school principal after school to discuss how we can help more students pass the CAHSEE (california high school exit exam). I will be teaching a seventh period this semester for freshmen who didn't pass algebra 1 last semester...
This morning went mountain biking with Meagan my beautiful fiancee and a few friends. pics are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/brandon.dorman/hensleymtb_jan2010
Thanks to all of the readers/not posters for your emails.
This week I went back to teaching again and along with that a flurry of meetings for tri things! (Every night except thursday actually!)
Monday: Sierra Kids Triathlon - going to be awesome! Set up http://www.sierrakidstri.com
Tuesday: Met with sponsors... we will be able to order uniforms soon! (from oomphsports.com)
Wednesday: Kids Tri Camp meeting. Building off the success of last year's (admittedly small) Kids Tri Camp, met with basically everyone in Fresno running tri teams for kids! That in itself was really cool. We decided to expand the concept to a Kids Tri Camp and a separate Teen Tri Camp.
Thursday: Met again with a sponsor and was able to pick up some AMAZING donated gear, including a carbon fiber frame, a great mountain bike, and several odds and ends that will help a lot! (biking shoes, helmets, some gear)
Friday: Met with my school principal after school to discuss how we can help more students pass the CAHSEE (california high school exit exam). I will be teaching a seventh period this semester for freshmen who didn't pass algebra 1 last semester...
This morning went mountain biking with Meagan my beautiful fiancee and a few friends. pics are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/brandon.dorman/hensleymtb_jan2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
2010
This 2010, change the world.
http://picasaweb.google.com/trithisfresno/snowtrip2010
http://www.youtube.com/trithisfresno
Vacation is almost over, so now it's time to switch gears from working out and seeing family to writing thank you notes, actually sending them, and working on school planning!
but again, you too can change your corner of the world in 2010!
http://picasaweb.google.com/trithisfresno/snowtrip2010
http://www.youtube.com/trithisfresno
Vacation is almost over, so now it's time to switch gears from working out and seeing family to writing thank you notes, actually sending them, and working on school planning!
but again, you too can change your corner of the world in 2010!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
MTB Duathlon
the central valley's first Mountain Bike Duathlon is going to be hosted by Tri-This! Inc. on February 21st at Hensley Lake. There will be beginner (1 mile run, 6 mile MTB, 1 mile run) and advanced (2 mile run, 18 mile MTB, 2 mile run) courses and both will be low-cost. I filled out some of the USA Triathlon sanctioning paperwork today and talked to other event directors to make sure we all work together to make all of our events successes! (Valentines day run on the 13th and MTB race on march 7th)
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Almost end of the year!
The end of the year report is languishing because I moved into a house december 4th! The past week I've had no internet at home but now am BACK!
Last tuesday night four students and I rode the 4 miles in the dark and cold (33 degrees) to Fresno State from my new house to go to swim practice for an hour, then rode back! we lost feeling in our hands but it was a lot of fun! This coming tuesday we will do a similar thing except go further and faster at night! (ride to woodward park probably, do some sprint drills up there, and head home.)
We are also in contact with several uniform suppliers (mainly oomphsports.com who donated a bunch of tri tops and shorts a couple of years ago that have been the tri-gear glue that holds our team together:
http://picasaweb.google.com/trithisfresno/Night
We need to raise about $100 per kid, and not quite sure how to do that obviously! that's a ton of money for these kids, but I believe that making them pay for the uniforms is a good way also of ensuring their investment - they will keep the uniforms unless they drop out of the team, in which case I will take them back. we'll order some extra shorts probably/keep them pretty generic so it's easy to re-order.
My half ironman training is taking a break because I'm sick again; so I've been lifting weights...
Last tuesday night four students and I rode the 4 miles in the dark and cold (33 degrees) to Fresno State from my new house to go to swim practice for an hour, then rode back! we lost feeling in our hands but it was a lot of fun! This coming tuesday we will do a similar thing except go further and faster at night! (ride to woodward park probably, do some sprint drills up there, and head home.)
We are also in contact with several uniform suppliers (mainly oomphsports.com who donated a bunch of tri tops and shorts a couple of years ago that have been the tri-gear glue that holds our team together:
http://picasaweb.google.com/trithisfresno/Night
We need to raise about $100 per kid, and not quite sure how to do that obviously! that's a ton of money for these kids, but I believe that making them pay for the uniforms is a good way also of ensuring their investment - they will keep the uniforms unless they drop out of the team, in which case I will take them back. we'll order some extra shorts probably/keep them pretty generic so it's easy to re-order.
My half ironman training is taking a break because I'm sick again; so I've been lifting weights...
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
opportunities
With the Marathon and the fiscal 2009 behind us (yikes, first tax season for Tri-This! coming up!), minds are turning towards 2010 for Tri-This!
I have sent some emails out about the Kids Tri Camp and ways to get more kids - and volunteers - involved. Also, this week I have been able to get five kids so far fitted with brand or mostly-new shoes! Thank you Sierra Running Company for setting this up!
Tonight (Thursday) I'm going running with some students (after some Algebra II meetings after sixth period) at 4pm then swimming with the Fresno State Triathlon team at 6pm. Last night to get ready I went to the gym and did some weights then some light swimming. Wow, now I remember what people experience when they first start swimming! I hadn't swam much at all since the Shaver Lake Triathlon in September so felt very uncoordinated and 'ugly' in the water! Still managed to churn out a 1:05 100 yard freestyle though, but was sprinting and really tired afterwards!
Ahh, post-season! It's fun to reconnect with experienced kids that I haven't talked to in a while (Gabe, Vanessa, Betzaida, Benny, Lindsey, Sovann) and new ones that are just starting to get involved in this triathlon craziness (Jadiel, Adrian, James, Josh, Marcos)! Pictures will probably follow tomorrow at the picasaweb address: (Pictures)
-brandon
I have sent some emails out about the Kids Tri Camp and ways to get more kids - and volunteers - involved. Also, this week I have been able to get five kids so far fitted with brand or mostly-new shoes! Thank you Sierra Running Company for setting this up!
Tonight (Thursday) I'm going running with some students (after some Algebra II meetings after sixth period) at 4pm then swimming with the Fresno State Triathlon team at 6pm. Last night to get ready I went to the gym and did some weights then some light swimming. Wow, now I remember what people experience when they first start swimming! I hadn't swam much at all since the Shaver Lake Triathlon in September so felt very uncoordinated and 'ugly' in the water! Still managed to churn out a 1:05 100 yard freestyle though, but was sprinting and really tired afterwards!
Ahh, post-season! It's fun to reconnect with experienced kids that I haven't talked to in a while (Gabe, Vanessa, Betzaida, Benny, Lindsey, Sovann) and new ones that are just starting to get involved in this triathlon craziness (Jadiel, Adrian, James, Josh, Marcos)! Pictures will probably follow tomorrow at the picasaweb address: (Pictures)
-brandon
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