This past weekend I talked to Bill Fiske, the director for FIRM,
about running a collegiate series. He has it already set up to score
competitions with club triathlon teams. We have the option to choose
a subset of the FIRM races for collegiate triathlons.

Pros:
It is already set up and we can get started next year.
We don't have to worry about organizing our own races.
It is the cheapest triathlons and ideal for poor college students.
Everything is chip timed and precise.
The results are already set up and will appear on their website
shortly after the race.

Cons:
All the races are during the summer.
They are still expensive.
The races are only in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
The scoring is subject to how FIRM has already set it up (I might be
able to set up a different scoring system).

For more information on FIRM go to:
http://www.firm-racing.com/

My opinions on this:
1. Having school run triathlons will be difficult and dangerous.
Dangerous because of safety issues. If there is one serious incident
(drowning, heart palpitations, etc), this could end collegiate racing
in the Northeast. Difficult because triathlons are one of the
hardest events to run. I think school run triathlons should be
limited to one or two the first year.
2. I would prefer to have the season to occur during either the fall
or spring semester. I suggest fall because cycling, track, and
swimming are spring events and those are the individuals that are
most likely to get involved. The issue is that we only have two
months to run triathlons because of the weather. Even at that we
might have issues that have happened in Reno for last years
nationals. So my proposal is to have the northeast championship
during September or October, while the core of the season being over
the summer. This might limit the number of people that can compete
during the season, but everybody will have the opportunity to race at
Regionals.
3. I would like to have races throughout the northeast. If anybody
has suggestions of other companies that put on races with more
distributed locations let me know.
4. I think we should have 6 races. 3 sprints and 3 olympic
distances. The sprints to bring in new athletes and as warm ups, the
olympics as a standard collegiate distance.

I would like as much feedback on people's opinion as possible. So
far I have not heard of any responses back from the other suggestions
I sent out. I want to set something up this winter so we can
actually compete next summer. If possible I want it to be democracy
where everybody has their say in how races are set up. Ideally we
should discuss this, create more options then vote on this in
November. In November/December we should initiate any action we
decide on.

Thank you,
Bret Fortenberry