Here is what you missed if you didn't make it to the first meeting of the
year.  The president this year is Kevin Collington, the treasurer is Erik
Swedberg, and I am the secretary (I will be sending out the meeting minutes
this year).  Brian Lanahan was the Vice President this year but will not be
able to attend school this semester so Christian Thomas was voted in as the
new VP.  The election was uncontested and Christian won since nobody voted
no (except
Salvador but he was just kidding, I think.)

The main theme of the evening was SPORTS CLUB WAIVERS!!!  You have to turn
in a sports club waiver if you plan on training or racing with the club.
Download it off the Trigator website, fill it out, take the swim test, and
turn it into one of the officers!  If you sign up for a race and you do not
have a sports club waiver turned in, you will not be reimbursed.

The
Bike Route came to the meeting tonight - they sponsor the TriGators and
give us discounts on everything in the store.  Ashlee, who works at the
Bike
Route
, talked about how the Bike Route already carries a lot of triathlete
specific products and is looking to add more.  You have to be an active
Trigator member to get the discount and to do this you have to turn in your
sports club waiver and attend practices somewhat regularly.  Kevin keeps the
list of active Trigators.

After the race reports, which mainly had to do with the Clermont sprint
series races over the summer, we got down to some business. The Trigators
website is http://www.trigator.com - it is your best resource for updated
information. It is in the process of being changed so check back to see the
changes. Uniforms will be ordered somewhere in the middle of the Fall
semester (October probably). Check the website to see what the uniforms look
like. Kevin currently has T-shirts for sale for $10 each - come to a meeting
to buy one. The current workout schedule is posted on the website. There was
a mistake on the time of the law school run - it is actually at 6:00 PM.
Kevin says that he will be doing some beginner bike rides to show new
triathletes some good bike routes around Gainesville - he will send out an
email but they will probably start a week from Sunday on the 18th of
September.

Christine Woodruff, the coach of the UF Masters swimming team, came to the
meeting to talk about the team.  She swam for
Clemson University and the
University of Florida and knows a lot about the sport.  There is a discount
rate for students of $25 a month.  That gives you access to about 60
practices a month, or 14 a week, so it's a crazy good deal.  There are lots
of trigators on the masters swim team including our very own coach Jim
Leary, and Darin Shearer who races professionally.  Lots of other people
swim on masters and swimmers of all abilities are welcome.

Next on the agenda was RACES! The Trigators have 2 races schedule for the
Fall semester and 3 races scheduled for the Spring semester. The fall races
are the Health First Triathlon in
Melbourne, FL on October 9th -
http://www.healthfirsttri.com - and the Great Floridian Super Sprint -
http://www.sommersports.com/events/greatfloridian/sprint/SPRINTinformation.asp
- on October 22nd in
Clermont, FL. The Health first Triathlon is an olympic
distance race with distances of 1 mile swim, 24.8 mile bike, and 6.2 mile
run. The Super sprint has a 400 meter swim, 8 mile bike, and 2 mile run. The
olympic distance race is not something to try as your first triathlon, but
the super sprint certainly is! The super sprint is also tied in with an aid
station that the Trigators are running for the Great Florida Ironman and
Half Ironman on the same day. So that means you can come down and race and
then hang out with your triathlon friends and support all of the Iron
Distance athletes. We have 2 trigators doing the half iron distance race -
Leland Black and Erik Swedberg - and 1 athelete doing the full Iron distance
race - Erik Black. The aid station is a lot of fun and everyone is
encouraged to do it! Once again, that happens the same day as the super
sprint so if you come down to race then you should come over to the aid
station afterwards and help out. The Spring races include the Red Hills
Triathlon in
Tallahassee, Great Clermont (in Clermont), and Collegiate
Nationals (TBA). More races may be added. Kevin will send out more
information on how to sign up for a race.

That's it.