Hello Gators,Sorry for the late e-mail... Crazy week at work! We're definitely now transitioning into the best time of the year to work on your weaknesses... swim technique, stronger/faster running, bike strength, and overall strength building... Don't stop and restart in January! The perfect way to motivate yourself is to use your club... Participate in the Gator Fitness Challenge!This week's topics include...Accomplishments... Tri-ing hard in Princeton and Bethany Beach, swimming long in New York City, running through the streets of Philadelphia, and riding everywhere else!Who's Next?... Return trip to Lake Placid and heading to the shore!About A Gator... Meet our newest IRONMAN!Gator Fitness Challenge... We're up to 26 participants... Will you be next?Weekend Training Opportunity... Last chance, at least in 2014, for an OWS at Blue Marsh!TRIvia: Find out who had the right answer last week and a new question for this week!Recommended Podcasts: Triathlon Q&A and interviews!Congratulations!To Michelle and Byron who were married on a beautiful day last Saturday! Best Wishes, you two, have a great honeymoon!To Bill Cooney, who celebrated a birthday earlier this week! To celebrate, Bill did at least his 4th consecutive 200-ish mile bike ride last Saturday. I had an opportunity to ride 44 miles with Bill who seemed be thoroughly enjoying himself on the fairly hilly route that we took that even had us ride past the Kimberton Inn where Michelle and Byron's wedding took place. Bill ended up riding a total of 202 miles... Very impressive, Bill! Accomplishments: Lots to be impressed about...Saturday, September 20:Little Red Lighthouse Swim (New York, NY): Nabil Radouane set a new Spring-Valley Multisport Gators distance record with a 7.5 mile swim in a little over three hours. Nabil says that the swim went well except for the last three miles, when he got rather cold. At first thought this doesn't seem that bad... The last third or so of the race. Then you realize that 3 miles of swimming is 1.25 x the full IRONMAN swim distance... Amazing accomplishment, Nabil!Sunday, September 21:IRONMAN Princeton 70.3 Triathlon (Princeton, NJ):Brent Voynar completed his first ever 70.3 half IRONMAN distance race. Not only did Brent finish, but he also finished in the top 17% overall and the top 25% of a very competitive age group... Excellent job, Brent!Dean Milligan, one of our most seasoned IRONMAN race participants (completed two half IRONMAN distance races plus IRONMAN Lake Placid) also had a fantastic race finishing in the top 45% overall... Way to go, Dean!Bethany Beach First Responders Sprint Triathlon (Bethany Beach, DE):Mike Connelly had an outstanding race finishing just off of the podium with a 4th place finish in his age group and in the top 15% overall. Mike's other accomplishments... 19th overall run (out of 381), T2: top 15%, bike and T1: top 20%, swim: top 45%... Awesome job, Mike!Masters Swimmer, Dave Marine, also had a great day finishing 14th overall in the swim as well as in the top 40% overall bike and top half for T1... Great work, Dave!Rock N Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon (Philadelphia, PA): We had many successful race finishers including...Lucy Bellino... Might have been a PR!Ellen FriendAdrienne Foster... Set a new PR!Tiff PflugerDave Gale Vince BellinoHonorable mention to the Bellino family for having four family members finish the race including Vince's brother and Lucy's uncle, Gabe Bellino as well as Vince's Mom/Lucy's Grandmom, Patricia Bellino.Congrats to all! PS - There were multiple reports of sightings of a large cat head during the race that somehow had something to do with the Gators.Who's Next?: Going long is the theme for this weekend...Ragnar Adirondacks (Saratoga Springs, NY to Lake Placid, NY): Dean "Why Not" Milligan becomes our first athlete to participate two straight weekends in long distance events by participating in this 200 mile / 24 hour plus relay run as part of a team of 6... Yikes, that's an average of 33+ miles per runner!MS City to Shore Ride (Cherry Hill, NJ to Ocean City, NJ): JD Landis is also taking advantage of his half IRONMAN distance race fitness with this charity ride that includes 100 miles on Saturday and 75 more on Sunday. Masters swimmers Joe Boris and Steph Bieloski will also be participating.The Dempsey Challenge (Maine): Steve Gilman had such a great ride at IRONMAN Wisconsin that he decided to go long again this weekend with a century ride as part of this charity event, which will raise money to fight cancer.About A Gator: Learn about the newest Gator IRONMAN, Steve Gilman, who recently completed his first full IRONMAN event at IRONMAN Wisconsin earlier this month!Gator Fitness Challenge: We continue to add names to our list of club participants that are interested in signing up for our first "Gator Fitness Challenge" that was announced in the "Training Opportunities" e-mail earlier this week. This is an entirely voluntary activity in which you commit to completing at least one swim, bike, and run workout for a minimum of 15 minutes each week (total workout time must be one hour or more) from the week of September 29 through the week of December 29 (14 weeks). You can sign up by updating the spreadsheet that has been posted to Facebook, adding your name to the sheet that is posted at the Y on the bulletin board, or replying back and I'll add you. We have 26 signed up so far... Are you up for the challenge?Weekend Training Opportunity: Last chance for an OWS at Blue Marsh. Looks like the attendance will be light, so if you are interested in joining, we have plenty of space! The plan is to meet at Blue Marsh tomorrow (Saturday, 9/27) in time to start our swim at 8:30am (for about an hour) and then an optional 18 mile (lots of hills) bike ride on the "Cujo Loop". Please reply if you plan to come so we know to look for you.Hold the Dates: There are several significant tri club-related events coming up over the next couple of months, so here's an early head's up so that you can mark your calendars...Monday, September 29: Start of the "Gator Fitness Challenge"Sunday, October 12, 9am: Spring Valley YMCA "Fall 5" 5K Run/Walk and Kids' Fun Run (Spring-Ford High School cross country course). Registration fees increas in mid-September. Race link... http://runccrs.com/results/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Spring-Valley-YMCA-5k-Flyer.pdfTuesday, October 14, 7pm-8:30pm: Spring Valley Multisport Gators Members Meeting. Opportunity to get caught up on all of the exciting stuff that we have in the works for the club. Will include an overview of how to create a training plan.Saturday, November 15: SVMG End of Year Extravaganza at the Trappe Tavern. More details coming soon!Thursday, January 1: 2nd Annual RefrigaGator OWS... More coming later on this for any brave/nutty souls that are interested!Have a great weekend! Go Gators!Don M