Brew_Tri

Welp Im just throwing this thread to the top. Got a job offer for a 1.6x my salary so I will no longer be a brewery engineer but a brewery designer. So fuck me. Im about to ruin lives but build my own.

@GasBomb thats not your ss gift, I think you just have an admirer.

I just want a cool group of people to chill with at races. The type of people who wont be awake to see the first place finisher but will stick around with a beer for last place.

...also I want wetsuit STRIPPERS AND joeBLOW bike pumps.

Just in case anyone missed it, @et5504 had a great race yesterday in Madison! First time ironman in style!

On your last day, you should set them free.

1. First off, love that my article is a related piece... the beauty of TRSTri.com.

OK, my opinions on this matter are very strong and I've been waiting to comment on this for a long time.

A little background. I am the current president of our 140 member tri team at a D1 university. Been to 3 national club championships and have been around this NCAA thing the entire time I've been in school.

2. Our school has an extensive athletics program that prides themselves on being better than the average student body. We have D1 teams in over 15 sports. I can confidently say that Triathlon will never be in that system, unless it is a serious money maker. Right now our athletic program only makes money from our football, hockey and basketball programs. This is only on the men's side BTW. Therefore the school's athletics are essentially dumping money into sports like track and cross country with no return. As a club we approached our athletic department with a local triathlon shop willing to donate anything necessary to start a team. The athletic director basically said screw off and don't bother me with this crap ever again.

3. Does USA Triathlon realize that the NCAA will totally take all the glory for setting up this if it's successful? USA Triathlon may gain a couple of decent triathletes in the future and maybe make the sport bigger but they will get dumped ASAP if this actually gets off the ground. This means that the money they are giving right now will probably never get a return.

4.Collegiate club nationals is it's own separate issue right now. As of right now anyone can race collegiate nationals. The only qualifications are that you finish a conference race(Usually an olympic distance). This bare minimum qualification leads to an interesting field. There are semi pro athletes trying to gain national respect but there are also beginners who can barely swim 1500 meters. IMO this is a beautiful part of the sport, where pros and amateurs can race the same course at the same time. Hell, IM has been doing this for years. Although the way it is currently set up, it is a grey area of competitive and fun. It's almost like the MLB all star game, where they play for home-field advantage in the world series. There is a mix of just doing it for fun and doing it for something that will probably matter. Many have stated that it sucks because you have some guys going hard and willing to lay it all on the line, but you also have guys who want to have fun during their week off of the season. This has lead to many young pre-professional athletes to take this race as a B, if not C, race. There is no real prize except a resume booster, and a lot of body glide apparently. If the top end women are taken out of this equation, the overall team competition(which to most is the only thing that matters) will completely fall apart.

TL;DR

Overall, I think USAT is kind of shooting themselves in the foot with this. The best thing that could happen would gaining some popularity for the sport and possibly a competitive future on an international scale.(Gwen is an outlier in this situation.) They are also sacrificing the collegiate club championships for this system. I'm all for expanding the sport and a collegiate atmosphere would be awesome, but I dont see this gaining traction. I'm hoping for some "I told you so"s in a few years but for now USAT needs to establish a better professional system before they can start looking for more pros to add. I love the enthusiasm for the sport but I just don't see this working out. Then again, most athletic programs aren't assholes to everyone so maybe we are bit of an extreme case.

I have no real concerns about the race other than its gonna suck because im gonna feel like ass the whole time.(this will be the 4th 140.6 sticker on the back of my moms car) yall are too nice.

@Matt is there a decent line on there you recommend. I went to ireland with my grandfather and parents to find heritage or something a few years back. so i was realatively sober until a night out clubbing and ended up pissing in the corner of the hotel room.

Also just saw that its pride week in Dublin also. Just gives me a better excuse to wear the budgie smuggler and hand out @AaronWebstey phone number to everyone. Or atleast write it inside one of the irish port a potties.

Dude Ive done some nasty unspeakable things during ironman. Youve come to far to let a little bit of someone elses poop to stop you from being awesome.