That sounds like an excellent idea, and I would love to attend. I'm in Georgia, but I would try my best to attend if at all possible. All of us apparently struggle with the issues surrounding training, racing, attending church, etc. This would be an excellent way to get Christian triathletes from across the country together to discuss theses issues.

I struggle with the same things those in the other thread do -- training/racing on Sundays (and Wednesdays), devoting so much time to training (I often wonder what would happen if I devoted the time to my Christian walk that I do to training), etc. But I also realize that triathloning has opened doors to a new circle of friends and therefore a new sphere of influence, and I try to carry my faith with me in all of these settings. But we all struggle with the same things, and I think this would be a great way to get together and talk about all this.

Excellent, excellent idea.

RP

I would be very interested as well.

Where in the midwest are you?

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Dave in WI
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"What you once were isn't what you want to be anymore" - Wilco

I'm in Canton, Ohio...not the most central location, but it could work. Or we could do it somewhere else.

I think there could really be something to working on spiritual and athletic improvement at the same time. I feel like endurance activities provide me with an emptiness, or perhaps a breaking down of my barriers, that could be very helpful spiritually. However, I'm usually so busy, I rush off to work right after I'm done with my session, rather than making use of the openness and peace I feel following a workout.

I have read that Dietrich Bonnhoffer's underground seminary (in Nazi Germany during WWII) worked sporting events into the course of the day and that this was an important part of the process. I have always been interested in exploring this more.

Plus, on a lighter note, it could be extremely fun.

What do you guys think it would take to get the numbers necessary to put this on? I know very few triathletes and even fewer Christian triathletes.

Ken

I think that would be a wonderful idea, having a time and place to get together with like minded Christian athletes and be able to share times of training and fellowship.

I have another Christian group that I belong to, the Christian Sportbike Association (motorcycles) that has a yearly rally in the mountains of North Carolina. It combines riding, with witnessing and with worship. It is an event that I look forward to participating in every year. I would imagine a training camp/retreat would be a similar experience.

If at all possible I would love to participate in an event like this. If you would like to do this and need some help let me know. e-mail or PM me.

Don B

Dear Bill,

How incredible would that be? We've been blessed locally with the involvement of a local triathlon coach, Ken Mierke, who is letting us co-sponsor at one-day clinic he is putting on with Joe Friel on off-season training techniques. (More details at http://www.novafca.org/Triathletes.html) However, in thinking about our mid- to long-term objectives, we have certainly thought about, and hoped for, an opportunity to do exactly the type of thing that you suggest.

My FCA local contact is a real strong advocate for this ministry, and I will be in a meeting mid-week next week with him and our regional (Mid-Atlantic) ministry representative from FCA. Although I am not sure of specifics concerning resources, I believe that FCA could co-labor with your school and with other interested Christian triathlon groups in pulling something like this together and making it a reality.

Even though I would personally be drawing upon FCA resource and best practices to a large degree, the FCA sports camp model is definitely non-denominational (and even no-denominational if that is what it takes to get someone to a camp or retreat). FCA's focus is on presenting the message through athletics, so I agree that the objective should be to make the enrollment as open as possible.

Feel free to contact me offline if you want to discuss how we might accomplish this. You can reach me at stansmith@teamfca.com or tri4christ@teamfca.com. Thanks for your post; I'm looking forward to talking about this further.

Stan Smith

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Stan
Attend the Tucson Tri Camp/Retreat
http://tri4christ.blogspot.com
Run in such a way as to get the prize.

Sounds like an interesting idea. Keep us posted. Might be something to put on some of those internet sites that Stan gave out in the other post. See if people respond from there, also.

Wow, I have been trying to get a retreat started out in Colorado for a few years ago. When my local church decided that they didnt want to split resources this spring between retreats I began thinking about a triathlon camp. This would be the perfect blend. The plans I had were to host the camp March 13-19 at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park Colorado. This is the off season for that area which makes it great for us. The YMCA of the Rockies has great failities, a pool, large gymnasium, easy access to roads and trails (snowshoeing is great) and meeting rooms. Cost of being at the YMCA conference center would be approx $35/day/person which includes food and lodging, meeting rooms, and use of the facilities. Of course the location is absolutely breathtaking, as the YMCA property adjoins the Rocky Mountain National Park property.

Ken, I would love to work on this with you if you are intersted.

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http://www.ventuscustoms.com Custom Bicycle Painting.

IsuTriGuy, I don't think I could do Colorado in March(getting away during the academic year is difficult...perhaps the school would let me come if I spoke about something related to my subject area), but don't let that stop you. I'd be glad to be a sounding board, etc. What a great place to have a camp...beats Northern Ohio to a pulp.

I will go ahead and check with Malone (the school I teach at) to find out about the process of using the campus facilities during the summer. If you do decide to do something like this, let me know, I wouldn't want to be in competition, althought perhaps yours could be Christian Tri Camp West and we could do an "East" version here in Ohio.

It seems like the next logical step, wherever it would be at, is to see if there is a market for this.

Stan, perhaps we could put together a survey for you to post on the sites you have access to. We could try to find out how many people are seriously interested, what cost is reasonable, what amenities would be expected, etc. If I would put something like this together, would you want to look it over, add/change anything you like, and post it?

If I am to be involved in this, I would definitely need help. My family and I are new here, this is my first year at Malone, and we 2 small kids, so I am stretched pretty thin. However, this feels like a move of the spirit. One of the things we talk a lot about here at Malone is that being a Christian should involve striving for excellence in everything, "doing it as unto the Lord." Why not carry this on to triathlon.

If anyone wants to contact me directly, e-mail me at kstoltzfus@malone.edu

In Christ,

Ken

I live in colorado (denver) hard to neat the training here.

march can be warm or cold...you never know here! on wed it got to 80 degrees. thursday 27 degree ice rain.

estes park is beautiful and inspiring.

great idea!

luke

Sounds great! I live in Kentucky and would love a retreat likes this, especially in the summer. I can already think of two other triathletes that would probably be interested. Keep us all updated!
It would be best for me if it was 2-4 days, anymore would be hard to do away from my family. My email is kevinandterre@hotmail.com
Kevin Jasper

Ken,

The survey sounds like a great way to gauge the interest and I would certainly be willing to do all I can to get it around to those who might be interested and get us some feedback. BTW, there has been some sort of server problem all day today with the FCA email addresses I gave you earlier, but those should still work if you want to send the materials to me. If I have a recurring problem with those addresses, I'll give you a couple of other email addresses to use. Summer is a good time for the FCA folks; doing summer camps of all sorts is one of their strengths. I'm very excited to discuss this with my staff contacts and am hopeful that we can find a may to make a meaningful contribution not only with regard to planning this, but also in terms of teaching/participating in the event itself.

Let's keep in touch. I've definitely felt some momentum building around our efforts here with T4C and believe that it can (and should) happen as well anywhere there are triathletes (i.e., everywhere!).

Stan

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Stan
Attend the Tucson Tri Camp/Retreat
http://tri4christ.blogspot.com
Run in such a way as to get the prize.

Ken,

This retreat sounds like a great idea; for many athletes triathlon is a spiritual as well as physical experience.

Are you related to Phil Stoltzfus, a religion prof at St. Olaf College? I thought that the name is unique enough that you might be.

Caleb

IsuTriGuy: I live in CO and would be interested. I am a teacher and could only do it if we did it over spring break. My break is in the 3/29 time frame. Otherwise: have a great time.

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Jon Bergmann
http://jonbergmann.com

I too would be very interested in this. I am in North Alabama. Please keep us all updated on this and if I am able to work this into the family schedule I will certainly attend. I have attached my email below if there is going to be information sent out. Thanks.... Also, I would like to ask all of you brothers and sisters out there to please pray for me and my family this week. I was just layed off from my job this past week because of cost cutting measures. if you all would just keep us in your prayers I know through the power of prayer the right path will be shown to us. Thanks for your support and prayers.

Peace,



Craig in Alabama

Keep me up to date if this works out. I would love to get together with other christians who enjoy triathlons.

Brett Bastian

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

I would encourage all of you Christian Triathletes to sign up at www.aiatriathlon.com or to email Tkeeley8@hotmail.com

There are a few really good Christian Triathlete groups as we have seen here. The one I mention above is really getting going and has some decent momentum going. The real thing is just to get some kind of listing of Christian triathletes out there. Gotta know where your men (or women) are in order to coordinate efforts. We need to figure out how to unify all of the efforts of all the Christian triathlon groups.

I would love to work on some kind of coordination with this, if anyone has any ideas on how to do that please let me know.

-Mark Kargol
isutriguy@yahoo.com

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http://www.ventuscustoms.com Custom Bicycle Painting.

Trinity Triune Triathletes--certainly.

Thanks for all of the interest. For the next week or two, I am going to focus on 2 things: 1) Finding out the process to procure use of the college's facilities over the summer and 2) Putting together a short survey to post on some of the websites Stan mentioned on the other post.

In the meantime, I would encourage everyone to pray about the possibility of getting together this summer. Let's also remember our brother, Craig, who recently lost his job. His post is a great reminder of what is really important.

I will post again as I receive more information. Even if the training camp doesn't work out right away, I am encouraged to know that all of you are working on the same things I am.

In Christ,

Ken

Sorry, I don't know Phil. Stoltzfus is actually a pretty common Amish/Mennonite name, so there actually are a fair number of us around in certain parts of the country.