Roanoke Tri Club Party

Last night was the Roanoke Tri Club holiday party, and even though I live roughly 35 miles away, I am grateful to have been "annexed" into the group! It's a club, but in a very organic way that works because let's face it, it's not easy to organize adults. Especially busy triathlete adults. The party was terrific, filled with rich and heart-felt holiday discussions (haha) of training, racing, injuries, and equipment.

It was capped off with an incredible slide-show that represented a major creative and analytical effort on the part of Mark Taylor and Scott Moir. It included two slides of each athlete, featuring his/her racing year recap and a given nickname and unique award. There were many laughs and far more photos of pole dancing than one might expect in a triathlon presentation.

The nickname bestowed upon me was Cortney "Love Tri(s)" Martin (hmmm....) and my award was related to my 44 deadlifts on my 44th birthday and an insinuation about being able to crack a walnut between my butt cheeks. I'll take that as a compliment, thank you!!

Mark and Scott who put together the presentation did their homework!!  They analyzed our collective results in the Virginia Triathlon Series and declared Roanoke the triathlon epicenter of Virginia in terms of per-capita triathlon success! So take that, Northern Virginia and Richmond!! This rag-tag bunch does some damage on the race circuit!!

The rapt audience

As a newcomer, I'd wager that the reasons this club is successful is that

1. it is very loosely structured. I could be wrong on this, but there appears to be no executive board, no set requirements for membership, no actual fees, and no set schedule. Maybe it's beyond unstructured! But honestly, we have so much structure in our lives and jobs it's nice to be a part of something that flies in the face of that. People just seem to step up and do what needs doing.
2. It is encouraging to all members who get out there to swim, bike, and/or run. We each have different goals and there's no judgement whether you're a relayer or an IMer.
3. There is enough friendly rivalry to encourage members to to dig deep and do their best, but friendly trumps rivalry every time.
4. There is recognition of and collective celebration for the achievement of personal milestones and PRs.
5. There are many uhhhhh....interesting personalities!!  Along with that, there's a great deal of humor used to keep any potential triathlon egos WELL in check!

Mark and Scott, emceeing the "awards" presentation

Thanks and congratulations to all the Roanoke Triathlon Club folks for a terrific year of racing and antics!!