First off, a lot of people I know on Staten Island needed a new club to express interest in endurance sports such as triathlon, marathons, and ultrarunning.
So we got together and started the foundations of a new club here on Staten Island.
The name we came up with? The Staten Island Triathlon and Endurance Club. Or, in short, SITEC!
Nice, eh? I figure so.
A new club is born. Meet the charter members of the Staten Island Triathlon and Endurance Club!
There were just two other major clubs on Staten Island, and although both have very worthy goals to promote running, they didn't exactly focus on multisport or runs that take over two hours to do. There are a lot of Staten Islanders who share the same sentiment that aren't part of any of those two clubs.
We hope that we can cater to those people.
There is one thing I have to clarify though. I will definitely help facilitate the club and have a huge hand in getting it off the ground, especially when we officially sanction the club with USA Triathlon.
But I ultimately want the club to function on its own, with minimal help from me. Whether it will take a year or several years is anyone's guess, but to have the club functioning on its own would be one hell of an end result.
When that happens, there are just two things I absolutely want out of the club. They are small requests but very substantial ones.
First off, this club has to be a business friendly club. I consider us as a very healthy community, and a healthy community has people in it that use their talents and ply their trade to make that community stronger. It also strengthens our networking capabilities between each other and therefore gives us a stronger club in the process.
I'm not asking that people spam the club with endless amounts of emails. But I do want to promote a "business to business" directory on our future website that promotes each member's businesses and trades. That's not hard to do. And yes, if someone has something to promote, or services that they are discounting, there are several ways to communicating that to the club without inconveniencing those who are at that time not interested in those services.
And the last thing I want the club to do eventually when we get to a point is to enact reasonable term limits on everyone on the eventual Board, and maybe even the Chairs. That includes me too (I'll ultimately reside as a coach with the club, where I truly belong). Term limits on the Board is precisely what we have with the Raritan Valley Road Runners in NJ. That club, with the "new blood" pumping through it year after year, has been one of the strongest running clubs I've seen over the 20+ years I've known it. New members of the Board are always constantly engaged, and bring with them their own strengths and ideas that keep the club vital and strong. As a result, that club continually attracts new runners, a lot of them young runners, that help the club stay vital.
When I do visit that club, I'm one of the "old guys" there now! There are so many new faces on that club that they will continue to be strong.
That is how I want this club on Staten Island to be.
Just grant me those two things, and I'm yours. :-)
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The club will hold its ever official run next Saturday (November 2), the day before the NYC marathon, at the Parking Lot #6 of the College of Staten Island. That is the parking lot next to the track near the Victory Blvd. entrance. The run starts at exactly 8AM. It will be a smallish road run in the beginning to accommodate those who are doing the marathon the next day (maybe 3-4 miles). Those who want to go longer can join me as we go onto the White Trail after the road run and get maybe another 3-4 miles in.
As for Marathon Day, if anyone wants to ferry over to NYC to cheer on the runners on First Ave or Central Park, let me know. We can get a good group together. Remember, there are numerous Irish pubs on First Ave, so we can cheer our member runners on while "getting into good spirits". Let me know.
