First let me say a little about myself. i am 18 years old and i live in NY. i have completed 4 triathlons, 2 sprints, 1 half iron-distance (harriman half ironman on may 19th) and 1 ironman (ironman usa on july 22nd). as i am sure you all know and understand, this is not a cheap sport. having just graduated from high school i am saving as much money as i can for college expenses. i am actively searching for several sponsors to help me out so that my triathlon days are not short lived. i was wondering if any people on this fourm know/are willing to help me out. anything and everything would be appreciated. Old gear, nutrition aids, even discounts. i dont want to sound like i am trying to be a free-loader but i dont want to quit this any time soon. if you are interested in my splits or have any interest in helping me, please drop me an email at tylerkellogg@twcny.rr.com.
sprints are 1:30
halfs are between 6-645
my ironman was 14:36. i had a major issue with my HR monitor (it didnt work until the last 200m of the run when it started beeping to tell me i was running too fast)
ironman18, your best bet is to get a part time job at a bike shop or running store that has tri gear and nutrition. these guys often get much better deals than many pros or elite age groupers. At this point you probably don’t have the speed to get a sponsorship straight up. You pretty much have to either be super fast or moderately fast and have a great platform in the local community.
Good luck and keep it up. Also, look for a college tri team that may get some type of university funding.
Well, why dont you start by joining the triathlon club at whichever college you decide to attend. If they dont have one, think about starting a club team, its pretty easy and usually you end up with a bit of $$$, not lots of it, but enough to take you and several others to a few races, sometimes even some meals or race fuel or gas to get to the races.
Yeah, I think you need to be pretty solidly set in the low 9 hour IM times and low 4hr HIM times before people want to give you free bikes and ship you off to high profile races. Not sure though, im not that fast…The cool thing though is that at your age, you have along time to improve and you probably have an earlier start than pretty much everybody on this board, Idont know who else did an Ironman at 18.
haha as much as i would love for someone to throw a new bike at me i am content with the one i have! haha i am just trying to get a little relief. college is going to set be back a little over 100K in the next 5 years and i would rather not have that number be 110K because of races. i am basicly just trying to see whats out there. i know that after do just a little research i found out that there are millions of dollars waiting to be given away for college i just wasnt sure if it was the same with tri’s. i really appreciate all the replys and encouragment!! anyone doing eagleman next june???
That attitude & enterprise will get you places in life mate…but get ready to cop some flack along the way. Some f*ckwits here are gonna bag you for those times (not saying anyone above has done so, all have been very constructive), but don’t get discouraged…they’re comparable at your age & experience to ST legend “jonnyo”, and look where he’s at now. Can’t help you with sponsorship but one thing I suggest…check your punctuation & grammar before submitting posts like this. I mean really, would you apply for a job with that sort of text? Best of luck…
Velo press has a book call “athletes guide to sponsorship” at least I think thats what its called. Maybe that would be a place to start for you, also I truly and highly recomend looking into collegiate triathlon, it will give you resources and people to train with. Congrats on your IM finish and keep up the hard work.
haha as much as i would love for someone to throw a new bike at me i am content with the one i have! haha i am just trying to get a little relief. college is going to set be back a little over 100K in the next 5 years and i would rather not have that number be 110K because of races. i am basicly just trying to see whats out there. i know that after do just a little research i found out that there are millions of dollars waiting to be given away for college i just wasnt sure if it was the same with tri’s. i really appreciate all the replys and encouragment!! anyone doing eagleman next june???
Hey…no it’s not. Pretty much when you begin to grow up at your age you begin to learn: nothing in life is free. If you can learn one thing right now…that is…to work and earn what you receive you will have learned an important life lesson.
Now, the 100k deal. You can get student loans that are available to any U.S. citizen that will not have to be payed back until you graduate. You can work to pay off your school as you go. A scholarship also would have payed for your school. Many people here have been in your same position. I am a student myself and as a student that doesn’t mean I am afforded any special needs or give-outs.
good luck with the sponsorship. You’ll learn quickly that nobody wants to dish out “free” money (aside from family and friends, who I got lucky with at your age).
As has been said, the money goes to the fast people. Look at the sponsored athletes, most of them at sub-10 IM/sub 4:30HIM/Sub 2:05 Oly guys, or the top juniors.
As has been said, the best thing you can probably do is find either a. a job at a shop that gives a decent pro deal (40% or cost+10 or something like that), or b. a high paying job that will allow you to train and work and goto college…best chances are with A. I was in the same boat that you were, as was a friend. we petitioned everyone we could about sponsorship, and got $500 total, each…pretty much from family friend’s (or their companies). There isn’t a lot of money on the local level…that said, never hurts to try.
Check out student loans, bursaries, and good collegiate teams…you’ll be better off working part time and getting help from all of the above than you will trying to find sponsors.
i appreciate the insight. As far as my times go i understand that people will laugh. I really don’t care about them. i can guarantee right now that non of them picked up the sport of triathlon at age 17 as a junior in highschool. i will also go as far as to say that i doubt any of them did their first ironman at 18 years old with less than 2 races under their belt. i don’t think that doing an ironman for my 3rd race was stupid, i think it was the greatest lesson of my life. i know i cant spell. But that is something that i have also fought to make better. when i was younger, i was told that i was learning disabled, that i had a much lower reading comprehension. so for 4 years of school i busted balls and got better and better until my reading was above average. i still suck at spelling but in the scheme of things i don’t think its a big deal. in my quest to become a better reader/speller i learned german and can now speak it fluently (just dont ask me to write it all out haha) and i can get by in spanish speaking countrys. I understand what it is like to have to work for something. i understand what sacrifice is. i spent over 900 hours of my senior year in school training for IMLP. This is time when my friends were at partys, screwing around and sleeping. As with most things in my life many of my peers doubted me, my goal and my ability to persevere. And just like many other things in my life i proved them all wrong. Now its time for the next step. Sunday the 5th of august marked my one year anniversary for starting this sport. one year from today i will have compleeted my first Half-iron distance in sub 5 and i will be well into my training for my next iron distance. We all go through adversity in life. But its how we deal with it that makes us who we are. i plan on proving the critics wrong, and proving to myself that impossible is nothing. thanks again for all of your help!!!
Now, the 100k deal. You can get student loans that are available to any U.S. citizen that will not have to be payed back until you graduate. You can work to pay off your school as you go. A scholarship also would have payed for your school. Many people here have been in your same position. I am a student myself and as a student that doesn’t mean I am afforded any special needs or give-outs.
How could you get 100K loan? Doesn’t the federal government has a cap of maximum amount you can get for a school loan per year for undergraduate? Isn’t the max less than $5,000 for a freshman?
no, if you go through the government you can get up to 40k a year at a fixed rate of 8% its a really good deal and you actully dont have to start paying until 6 months after you graduate.
Yeah…because I personally know people that are 80-100k in debt. I got lucky in undergrad and had somebody pay for me. Then, I got lucky and got a scholarship to grad school. Most Phd programs from respected 4yr Universities will pay for an entire PhD pending on getting accepted.
I do have one loan from when I first went to school and partied…and I will say the interest is unbelievable. I need to pay it because even on 1200.00 it compounds rapidly.
I also know people that I work with that lie about their student loans and just spend the governments money.
My daughters went to Yale and there was a limit on how much school loan they could take out. Tuition is about $45,000 a year and their total debt was only about $16,000 for the four years. I had to make up the difference that their scholarships did not cover.
Boy, I am glad my daughter went to a state university, lot cheaper than a private school.
Ironman18, there used to be a banner on top for triathletes looking for a sponsorship. I would also write to every manufacturer that sponsors triathletes. And I would train hard with the equipment that I have. The more improvement will get you noticed more.
And there are some great triathletes on this board, they range from jonnyo, Sergio, Rapstar to Norman Stadler and Simmon Lessing. Jonnyo always gives great advice.
As a teacher myself, I feel semi-obligated to let you know that borrowing 40k a year is a bad decision, it could seem like a great idea now, but that is way more mulah than you need right now. try a Stafford loan, get a combo of subsidised and un-subsidised. think like 10k per year x 4 years. I would warn against borrowing more than you think you will earn in your first year in the real work force…unless you are in med school or law school or something like that.
