Hello everyone, it has been a great start to the New Year here at Talisman Centre. We now have our main building back including the competition pool and the track. Sadly I have yet to run on the track!
First off welcome to all the new Club members and welcome back to all returning members. It is great to see and hear all the enthusiasm in the groups during training sessions. Our membership is now 52 triathletes!
Secondly, for everyone in a swimming session you have no doubt met our newest swim coaches Erin Schultz and Ellen Danielson. Both have competitive swimming backgrounds, direct coaching experience with some of the local swim clubs and as many are learning excellent technical knowledge of correcting swim mechanics.
The following are a series of updates from my end pertaining to all Club members in no order of importance;
1. Several people have asked about the Alberta Triathlon Association (ATA) membership which we have covered in the past. For those not in the know, a membership with the ATA has allowed for insurance coverage for Club activities and what many deem the most important “perk” that being a discount on race entry fees where you can get back $10 to $15 in insurance fees. This has typically cost the Club between $1200 to $1700 per year of which many Club members did not register for a sanctioned event or the events in which they signed up for did not offer this discount. Therefore it is deemed a non-essential expense. Coupled with the fact that the ATA has still not after 3 years of requests acknowledged us as an official affiliated club on their website as promised has prompted me to not cover the ATA membership fee as part of your Club fees. Prior to the roof replacement project we had brought in some guest speakers as part of the Club socials of which the fees helped cover their expenses. The Club fees also helped to subsidize several of the weekend clinics and camps we offered. Therefore we would like to bring these components back to the Club this year so stay tuned for announcements on presenters and clinics.
2. Most of you will have noticed the change in the Talisman Centre logo and colors. This means we have a new logo in the works and new uniforms to come! We are looking at a new clothing supplier this year and SpeedTheory has provided us with a full fit kit from Sugoi for us to try on. Over the next several weeks Grant will have the kit in my office for Club members to try on. We hope to have uniforms ready by the end of May.
3. SpeedTheory will be bringing in a representative from TYR for a wetsuit demo to the morning swim sessions and evening swim sessions on March 1st and 3rd. If you are not scheduled for any of those swim times but would like to test a wetsuit you are welcome to drop in to any of them. I have heard nothing but great things about the new TYP wetsuits so if you are in the market for one, here is a great opportunity to try one. We are still awaiting word from Blue Seventy as they may be in the following week for a demo too.
4. For those new to the Club, SpeedTheory has been one of our supporters and offers Club members a discount on most in store items. They are located at 735A 10th Avenue SW Phone: 403.202.1030. Please speak with Darcy Bell the store manager and tell them Jack sent you.
5. We have two Blogs to bookmark. The first one will have updates like this one and anything related to registration or administrative items http://www.talismancentre.com/triclub/triclubblog.php. The second one was created by Jon Bird before he left and is one open to Club members to post their stories, race results, pictures, invites to training or other social events http://talismantriathlon.blogspot.com/.
6. Jon Bird and I had submitted a piece to Triathlon Canada Magazine to have the Club featured in an upcoming issue. They informed me that the spring issue will contain our Club profile and story. Here is hoping that the pictures I took with Alan Larter’s help turned out!
On a final note, I sat down with Jon Bird before he drove out to Victoria for his official move. He made it through the Maui training camp in fine form and demonstrated to the NTC that he deserves to be there. It was a pleasure coaching Jon the past 2.5 years and gives me immense pride to see him move closer towards his athletic goals. We miss his energy and commitment here but he is where he needs to be to take the next necessary steps. You can follow him on his Blog at http://thereisabird.blogspot.com/.
Have a great season everyone!
JVD
