OK, I saw the earlier thread about 2006 Collegiate Nationals being in New Orleans in April and today I found this article that says that a Worlds Qualifying race will be run on the same course on the following day…
http://www.pem-usa.com/index.php?topic=press
Has anyone heard anything?
That’s a bit early for us northern folks. Heck there have been years when I haven’t even gotten a road bike outside until April. Guess I’ll have to get some studded tires for my tri-bike 
if pem-usa has anything to do with it…it is a guaranteed f**kup race.
I wish someone in the know could explain to me why PEM has essentially a monopoly on every single USAT national caliber race. The only race they didn’t run that I know of is this year’s nationals, and that’s only because USAT dropped the ball so badly on Rochester. I know Burke used to be on the BOD of USAT, but there’s still seems to be some sort of good old boys club going on behind the scenes. Is there any sort of bidding process for other race directors to have the opportunity to host these ITU and Age Group Olympic distance championship races?
Chris
<< I wish someone in the know could explain to me why PEM has essentially a monopoly on every single USAT national caliber race. The only race they didn’t run that I know of is this year’s nationals,
there are 11 different National Champoinships held each year. For this year: Olympic Distance Age Group Championships: not produced by Bill Burke Club Championships: not produced by Bill Burke Collegiate Championships: not produced by Bill Burke Duathlon Short Course: not produced by Bill Burke Duathlon Long Course: not produced by Bill Burke Junior/Under 23: produced by Bill Burke Long Course Triathlon: not produced by Bill Burke Sprint Triathlon: not produced by Bill Burke Ultra Distance Triathlon: not produced by Bill Burke Youth Championships: produced by Bill Burke Elite Olympic Distance Nationals: produced by Bill Burke
3 out of 11 hardly qualifies as a monopoly. Also, Bill Burke has never been on the Board of Directors for USAT.
Bill Burke has NEVER been on the USAT board. He did serve as a director on his regional USAT board a few years ago.
I have been to many PEM events - Honolulu, New York, Billingham, Dannon Duathlons and AARP events.
I have also been to every Ironman race in the past 5 years. I participate in many Florida traithlons and attend other events around the country like the Chicago triathlon, Gulf Coast Triathlon and St. Croix.
I would say that PEM does a great job of producing events that are on par or better then most events in the US.
When anyone says that an RD does not do a good job of putting on a race, I have to question the person making that comment. If that person is a race director or has produced events then I might tend to listen to his/her comments.
If the person has never put on a race or volunteered at a race, and is only commenting from an athletes point of view, I tend to question them reasons for putting down the RD or race.
After 25 years of partcipating, volunteering, race directing and announcing triathlons, I very glad we have professionals like PEM, Ironman NA, Capri Events, Tri-California, Columbia Triathlon Association, Set-up Inc. CFT Sommer Sports and many others willing to produce events.
Next time you go to a race, instead of participating, volunteer - you will be giving back to the sport and helping out the RD and your fellow athletes.
Sorry about the rant - after a race, if an RD hears nothing from athletes, that means it was a great event. Z
If your going to make comments about an RD like that, at least have the guts to give your name and explain why you think that PEM does a poor job of putting on races. Z
I did Honolulu this year and it was awesome, can’t wait to go back next year.
Thanks Mike for setting the record straight! Z
I guess I should have been more specific. The sprint/long course/ultra/etc events may be “national championships” in name, but it’s just a title laid on top of an existing event. And they hardly draw a national championship caliber type field. Not being critical, just realistic. (Believe me, I’d be the first to sign up for a true national championship long course race…)
I’m talking about specific events created to be a high profile national or pro caliber race in the United States. “Destination” type races, if you will.
Shreveport '03 and '04 - PEM
Honolulu Worlds - PEM
NYC, Bellingham, Honolulu ITU - PEM
Are there any ITU stops in the USA that aren’t PEM run? Going further back (say '02 and '03), who ran the Worlds Qualifying and Idaho age group national championships? I’m just asking, I don’t know the answers to those questions.
Chris
I didn’t intend my post to be a Bill Burke or PEM bashing thread. (In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit to having some personal dislikes for the way they run certain aspects of their events, I’ll do my voting with my wallet not my mouth on that one.) That’s not the point of this thread, so I’m going to try to steer this discussion back towards my intended question:
How are national championship race directorships bid on? For instance, if Vigo from Columbia Triathlon Association were to compete with Bill Burke to be race director at an Age Group National championship event at arbitrary location XYZ already pre-selected by USAT, would Vigo even have a legitimate shot?
Sorry about getting my facts wrong about the USAT BOD. I thought he was running as an incumbent the last election go-around when I kept getting all of that PEM-initiated spam telling me to vote for him. My bad.
As a complete outsider observing from a distance, I do get the impression that there is a very cozy relationship between Burke and USAT that Capri, CTA, Set-up, and CFT Sommer do not get to enjoy. Maybe my perception is wrong, so I’d appreciate it if someone could set the record straight for me.
Thanks,
Chris
<< Shreveport '03 and '04 - PEM
yes, those were PEM produced races, understandable since PEM is headquartered in New Orleans
<< Honolulu Worlds - PEM
yes again, produced by PEM, but contracted through ITU, not USA Triathlon
<< NYC, Bellingham, Honolulu ITU - PEM
again, contracted through ITU, not USA Triathlon
<< Are there any ITU stops in the USA that aren’t PEM run?
Currently there is only one ITU World Cup event in the USA, the Honolulu Triathlon back in April and it was produced by PEM.
Then there are four ITU Pan American Cup events: Boston on Sept. 4, Bellingham, Aug. 7, NYC July 10 and Tempe on May 22. Two of the four are produced by PEM, so to answer your question, yes there are two ITU stops in the USA that aren’t produced by PEM.
This question may be completely outside of your knowledge, but does USAT have any influence on ITU’s selection of a race manager for a race within US borders? (i.e. can they “recommend” someone specific?)
good question, I’m not really sure. I don’t believe the process allows for that to happen though. For example a race that is already ongoing year to year applies to the ITU to be one of their “Cup” races. Race director already in place, no influence or change made. Now if a race management company wants to put on a race and they apply to the ITU to be a certain level of ITU race, same result, it goes around USAT. If USAT wanted to own and produce a race that was an ITU event, then I guess they could choose whoever they wanted to produce the event. I know this doesn’t exactly answer your question, but that is the extent of my knowledge on the area.
Chris - I bit of USAT Nationals History - I use to teach history and was a USAT BOD member in the early 90’s.
From 1986 - 1996, USAT designated races to be the National Championship. Races like the Bud Light Hilton Head race, Chicago, Leon’s and Columbia were USAT’s National Championship.
The problem with this was that USAT had little control over the race, the RD and sponsors. Most races were very well run, but others had problems. The USAT Board decided that it would own it own National Championship starting in 1997 following the lead of many other NGB’s.
The Championship Committe put together a bid proposal for the race and sent it out to cities across the country. From 1998 up to last year, cities bid on a two year event.
The committee sent two members to each city that made the final cut (4-5) and looked at the proposed race sites.
The first owned NC was in Clermont, Florida and it was produced by CFT Sommer Sports and the National Training Center.
Six cities bid on the 99-2000 NC and St. Joseph, MO won the bid. A local RD who put on the Lawrenceville Triathlon produced the race and was assisted by LAS - Lakeshore Athletic Services. The race went very well both years. Part of the bike course was on a closed Interstate Hwy.
CDA won the bid for the 2001-2002 races. I remember visiting the site and participating in the CDA triathlon in 1999. It was and is one of the best triathlon sites in the country. A local race managment company out of Spokane put on the race and did a great job. Ironically, after the seond Ironman Utah, race, Ironman NA visited CDA and moved up in 2003.
Shreveport won the bid for the 2003 and 2004 races. A local RD helped with the race in 2003 and in 2004 PEM (Bill Burke) produced the event. (This was the only Age-Group National Championship that PEM produced)
I’m not sure how USAT decided to give the race to KC, but I do know that a number of cities were looked at, but decided not to bid on the race.
From 1997-2004, the race commanded $30,000 (Cash and services) from each of the race sites. I know this as I was the one who sold the cities on bringing in the race, worked out the details and got the contract signed.
In March on 2003, the USAT board decided it did not need my services. I am not sure who was given the job of securing a race site for Nationals and I do not know if they sent out bids for next year. You might want to go on the USAT forum and ask. Z
hey, thanks tom
I think the 2003 worlds qualfier in Menomonie, WI was also produced by Lakeshore Athletic Services. At least that’s where the entry fee checks were sent
BTW: I also raced CdA Scenic Challenge in '99! I loved that course - especially Tubbs Hill.
ITU has certified a number of RD’s in the US. Each of these RD’s had to go through a course in order to produce an ITU event.
Terry Davis, Bill Burke, Dave McGillvery, Steve Meckfessel, myself and I believe two others are have taken this course. Dave, Terry and I have produced ITU Points races. Bill and Steve have produced World Cup events.
Z
Yes - LAS did procuce the race in Wisconsin. Ironman NA helped with the World Qualifier in Lake Placid a few years back. Z
Thanks for the history lesson - exactly the info I was looking for.
I guess PEM doesn’t have the “monopoly” on the major race productions that I thought it did. I just have the “misfortune” of doing the national and world championship races when PEM happens to be running them and that’s been more a function of coincidence and timing than any other factor.
Boy, I’d sure to go back in a time machine and race some of those cooler courses like CDA and Clermont over what they’ve selected as our more recent sites…
Chris
Tom,
I don’t mean to go backwards in terms of topics in this thread, but I’d like to revisit your first post with the blanket statement about professional race organizations and “giving back to the sport.”
After sleeping on this one, there is one aspect to your statement that bothers me. Your post suggests that anyone who is involved in the sport in a non-participant level is automatically “giving back.” I disagree with this black and white concept and think there are a lot of grey areas here.
Specifically, I think you’re doing a disserve to CFT Sommer Sports, Tri Columbia, Set-up Inc to lump them in with profit-motivated professional race organizations like IMNA and PEM. While these former race organizations themselves probably turn a healthy profit, they are very involved at the grass roots and local level of triathlons starting up new races and spreading the growth of the sport. Their race productions are specifically geared to maximize the age grouper experience. This is giving back in my book.
On the other hand, I would classify IMNA and PEM more as organizations that take more from the sport than they give back. They run fine events and are an accountants dream due to the products they are able to consistently produce. But they really are not doing much in my opinion for the long-term growth of the sport. Part of the problem is that age grouper experience suffers in their races to support the pro races in their high profile events, but I don’t see them doing much to help grow the sport from a local grass-roots level either from the confines of the events in question or with their non-event initiatives. I try not to begrudge their considerable success as a result of savvy marketing and management, but I can’t shake this feeling that I’m being used by them as a cash cow when I do one of their events.
A minor side detail - go to CTA’s website and you see mention of the charitable organizations they support. I don’t see the same for PEM. (Maybe I’m not looking in the right place?)
I don’t want to make this thread or post personal, but since you insinuate that I don’t contribute to the sport in any way that is not participatory, I feel compelled to extend this concept of “giving back” to you and me. I may not be out there handing out cups of water at triathlons, but that’s mostly a function of logistics as there aren’t any triathlons around here that aren’t over an hour away. (That’s one of those I would if I could type of things - every year in college in Boston I volunteered at the Boston Marathon, even running the entire PowerGel station my senior year.) I think having started a local triathlon club from scratch and doing free or significantly below market rate coaching for newbies to help them get started and learn the basic training principles should count for something in terms of giving back. (Although it takes money out of the pockets of the TNT flunkie coaches we have around here who charge in excess of $250/mo for off the shelf programs.)
No one can deny that you’re in the top 99.9999 percentile of people who have given a considerable amount to yourself to the sport through the events you’ve helped start, your work with USAT and NTC, and the local, low-key sprint races in Clermont. But your work in the sport also crosses over into a grey area when you show up to do corporate promotion at IMNA events. Your relationship with NYC Tri puts you in an understandably difficult situation given the nature of some of the concerns and complaints that some people have, but instead using your unique position and experience to bridge the disconnect between the two sides, you’ve withdrawn and blindly supported the race director. My point is that even your own work has limits to how much you can contribute to the “greater good” in the sport. After all, a man’s gotta make a living, so it’s completely understandable and I don’t intend to chatise you for it but to just point out some realities of the situation.
Sorry about the excessive verbiage. But I feel better now. Thanks,
Chris
edit: grammar fixes for clarity
Mike - PEM was only involved with the 2004 Shreveport event. They had nothing to do with the 2003 race. Z