Women's Committee Reports 

MEMBERSHIP (Submitted by: Amber Anthony)
We are researching a couple of different options for reaching the participants of the Danskin race series in order to encourage them to continue in the sport and join USAT. Expo booths were not as effective as we'd hoped last year, so we are pricing a post-race mail piece for this year and are also considering a post-event tent next for year.

CAMPS AND CLINICS (Submitted by: Allison McCaffree)
There are lots going on! See regional reports below.

SPECIAL EVENTS (Submitted by: Jean McGuire)
We are beginning planning for the Women's Breakfast at the Age Group Nationals this year. We are contacting sponsors and trying to get a speaker for the event.

ARTICLES AND WEB SITE (Submitted by: Sue Falsey)
We continue to update the website and Ina is reviewing the current site design. We are in need of more articles from races and other items to post.

Regions
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PACIFIC NORTHWEST (Submitted by: Sharon Peachey Sheremata)
On May 16, 2004, the Alaska Women's Gold Nugget Triathlon in Anchorage, AK had 813 participants. This is the longest running all-women triathlon in the US.

SOUTHWEST
No update

MIDWEST (Submitted by: Jean McGuire & Peg Donovan)
Peggy Donovan is again
putting on her Tri 101/Tri 102 training classes for women in the Kansas City
area. Peggy has been doing this for a number of years and always does a
great job. She allows a safe, nurturing environment for a lot of newcomers
to the sport of triathlon. Many of her students have never done an open
water swim until they start her course. The course begins with familiarizing
the women with the course and getting their starting body fat measurement.
Most weeks one of the disciplines is emphasized, both in practice and with a
featured speaker. The next to the last week of the course consists of a mock
race which allows the women to practice every aspect of an actual triathlon.
The culmination of the course is participation in the Baptist Lutheran
Medical Center annual triathlon. Most graduates of this course go on to
become frequent participants in the sport.

We're enjoying yet another record year in Triathlon 101 & 102 for women. We have 63 women and this is our sixth year. We meet to train each week on Monday nights for 10 weeks at one of the local lake/park areas. It's the same park where these 101 women will complete their first event or a favorite repeat race for the 102 women. They train all summer on the course they will race on. The highlight is that they get in a lake swim and we have soooo many people coaching and volunteering to help out. This Monday will be our 4th week. We're all getting a great deal out of this clinic and want to thank USAT for their sponsorship.

SOUTH MIDWEST (Submitted by: Tzatzil LeMair)
We have been taking advantage of Danskin fever in Austin, TX and have been offering women-only triathlon clinics and lectures throughout the area. During our one-day clinics and lectures, we inform women about the existence of the women¹s commission as well as the benefits of USAT annual memberships and hand out brochures. We also continue to recruit women for USAT annual membership through our USAT sanctioned training program. We explain the benefits then give them the option to get a one-day or annual membership and in most cases they choose annual (the $25 gift certificate to Sports basement makes it an easier sell). In April we organized a women¹s only duathlon with help from a grant from the women¹s commission. The duathlon was specifically designed for first timers, and included a kids¹ duathlon as well as childcare and family entertainment. 100% of the profits were donated to the Austin Children¹s Shelter. In order to maximize USAT annual registrations, I specifically had the option to pay the USAT one-day fee removed from on-line registration (Active.com had put this option) to encourage women to become annual members by personally explaining the benefits at packet pick-up. Although it was more work for us, I think we were able to talk more women into joining USAT that way.

MIDEAST
No update

SOUTHEAST (Submitted by: Denise Dillon)
*The tri season is here, and with it Atlanta's first woman-only triathlon later this summer. I've been asked to speak on the virtues of USAT at one of the pre-race clinics.
*Tri-Atlanta (one of the three, yet largest, tri groups in metro Atlanta) is trying to get more women involved in the sport and is including a special Women's section in it's monthly newsletter now.
*I've tried to touch base with all the tri-groups in the SE to collect any women-only events they may have coming up... still waiting for many responses.

MID ATLANTIC
No update

NEW ENGLAND
No update

ROCKY MOUNTAIN (Submitted by: Celeste Callahan)
Danskin and its new step sister Tri for the Cure, sprint races aimed for the novice, are looming. So our prepation has shifted in to a new gear. Each Wednesday evening, between 4:45-7:00, we appear at the gravel pit in Chatfield to teach open water swimming. How do we handle liability? Well, a COMSA card (from Colorado Masters Swim) is required to swim there. A COMSA volunteer checks people off as they enter the beach. At the beginning of each summer, we then check their COMSA cards again (mostly to learn 200 new names) and look at their name on our roster to make sure they belong to us, and we issue them each year, a swim cap that differs from the year before. This year ours are dayglo pink with Team CWW Triathlon written on one side. We write their names on the other side.

New this year is the plethora of wetsuits. The water has been cold so soon, yes. But somehow there is more money in their pockets and the word got out.

We also are working on bricks and hill repeats on Mondays, as this Danskin has serious hills. We have someone doing bi monthly bike tire changing clinics. And yesterday we did a practice duathlon, bikerun, of the exact race distance for them. We got real bike racks and taught setting up transition; the walked barefoot down to the water, and, in age groups (above 50 is the over half the group of 400), send them running back up the hill to their bikes.

We had our customary mishap at this jinxed event. A "grad" -- one who has been with the club for more than one year and done a triathlon, but a serious grad who has been to nationals--tried at the mount line, on a slight incline, to practice getting into her shoes while they were still on her bike. I had just told a newbie who asked if she could learn that -- and I had answered: not on my time -- that such a steep learning curve that required risk reward focus. Grad broke her elbow.

Finally, next Saturday, Team CWW will turn out en masse to volunteer at Jim Flint's Rattlesnake Triathlon. Jim lends us his bike racks. And I am teaching them to give back to the sport. Also they will be at the Aurora Reservoir, new site of the Danskin, and will get a preview of their coming event. This event is a PC Challenge as well. And we have entered a woman, 67 years old with MS, who will be riding a race wheel chair there. The race wheel chair was given to her by us and the Judy Flannery Foundation. I am afraid we have created a monster. She wants to do half Ironman distances and ride across America. Again.

One aside: She told me she was scared about next weekend. She said " The USAT rules say you have to be ready." I said: "You must be the only person in the entire membership who has read the rules, number one. Number two, no one is ever ready in June. Just show up."

FLORIDA
No update

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Ashley Rosilier
Principal, Run Gear Run, LLC