Tuesday, October 28, 2008

NETT Duathlon & Triathlon Season Recap

And now, here's Frank KJ with the NETT triathlon season wrapup for 2008:

This year marked the first year New England Track & Trail was listed as an official USAT club. As a result of that this was also the first time we participated as a club in FIRM’s Grand Prix Series. And Jerry did an outstanding job in creating some truly unique triathlon and cycling uniforms!

The FIRM Grand Prix Series is comprised of 10 triathlon and duathlon races between April and September. NETT participated in 6 of those races and scored enough to place 7th place out of 12 clubs in its first year. The following 11 people raced in at least one GP race: Paul Miller, Joe Hardin, Jerry De Zutter, Jim De Zutter, James De Zutter, Tina Wang, Mary Smith, Bruce Goode, Frank Kjaersgaard, Al Prescott (swimmer) and Norm Collard (cyclist).

Clubs that participate with at least 3+ people in at least 5 GP races are eligible for price money. Although we participated in 6 races we only had 3 or more people in 3 races so we missed the payout. If for example just 2 more had raced at Old Colony and 1 more at Webster we would have won about $200. Hopefully, we can add more people to the 09 roster and show up in bigger numbers.

Beyond the Firm Grand Prix Series, NETT multisporters were present at many other races:

-In the Kids’ category Alex (Paul’s daughter) and Audrey (Jerry’s daughter) entered the ranks of triathletes by participating in the FirmKids race.

-In the Teen’s category Katherine De Zutter finished 2nd in her age-group at Wrentham Halloween. And Nicholas used his swim skills to help Frank and Tina place 2nd relay team at Sudbury.

-Martin Bures took 3rd at WildCat before we really "knew" him. This guy can swim, he can run and he can bike. If he joins some rides with us and he will be moving way up in the ranks next season.

-Adrienne re-emerged on the duathlon scene at Wrentham Halloween – and took 1st place.

-Our pal Adam Brown and his better half Liz finished their first Ironman race with a strong performance at Ironman USA in Lake Placid.

-Karyn Miller-Medzon had some bad luck early in the season with injuries and never got to race in a triathlon. I have no doubt she will be on the circuit next year.

-Crazy Dave missed out on his usual one or two multisport races this year due to "scheduling conflicts", but did manage to coordinate a Mock Tri out at Walden that saw some first-timers like Mary Smith and Eri give triathlon a tri.

Many others purchased the new cool NETT multisport uniforms, some overcame their fear of swimming in open water and expressed interest in racing triathlon next year. DimaF and Karen Ringheiser attended a few Walden swims and boldly stated she is ready to make her Ironman and triathlon debut at the same race next season; how about we start you up with a few sprint races first Karen?

Congratulations to everyone on their accomplishments and looking forward to an exciting season next year.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the nice report Frank.
Rumor has it that after seeing those fancy new uniforms, members of rival triathlon clubs will be defecting to Nett next season.
I did not compete in any multisport races this year.

Nice results by everyone.

Paul