BEST WISHES FOR A SAFE AND SUCCESSFUL EVENT... ... to all Gators who will be getting it done day and knight! BIG TIME! The month of July is BIG TIME for our club! Christina Pitchford kicked things off for us last weekend with a BIG TIME Kona-qualifying performance in the UK and that provides the motivation for our 30+ athletes that will be taking on some BIG TIME events this weekend and early next week! This includes 3 sponsor events and a couple of club events including a signature event that spans two days and will not only include almost 20 athletes, but also a dozen or more Gator volunteers and many others supporting them! Weekend Workouts: With the rainy forecast predicted for Saturday we only have one planned group workout... • Sunday 7/10, 11:15am-12:15pm, Spring Valley YMCA indoor lap pool: Uncoached group swim workout • Do you want to lead a group bike ride or run? Many of us are training for events of all distances. We highly encourage you to share on our Facebook group any rides or runs (of any length) that you are doing where you'd like some company! Weekend Events: DelMo, Spartan, Sufferlandia, IRONMAN, Scoogie Events, French Creek Racing, oh my!... Saturday, July 9: • SIGNATURE CLUB EVENT / SPONSOR EVENT, Part 1: DelMo Elite Sports' Womens' Philadelphia Triathlon 5K and Splash n Dash (Philadelphia): We have two athletes taking on the 5K including Lylly Darling and Lindsay Inger plus Keira Brannen, Juliana Kelecic, and Katie Kelecic will be performing in the kids' splash and dash event! Go Lylly, Lindsay, Keira, Juliana, and Katie! • Knight of Sufferlandia Challenge (virtual): What to do on a rainy Saturday? How about 10 consecutive hours of indoor cycling? That's what Chris Acosta will be doing as part of this event that includes a new workout starting at the top of each hour. And Chris is doing it for a great cause having raised $1,000+ for CDKL5 research. CDKL5 is classified as a rare disease that Avery Kozera has been fighting a courageous battle against! If you'd like to contribute to Chris' fundraiser, here's the link... https://www.facebook.com/donate/532318098498459/. Go Chris! • Palmerton Spartan Super (Kunkletown, PA): When your schedule frees up from IRONMAN training due to the taper, you gotta fill those hours somehow, so back-to-back Spartan obstacle course events seems to be a logical option. Jon Crosby on Saturday will be participating in the "Super" which covers 10K and includes 25 obstacles. Go Jon! Sunday, July 10: • SIGNATURE CLUB EVENT / SPONSOR EVENT, Part 2: DelMo Elite Sports' Womens' Philadelphia Triathlon (Philadelphia): This has been an amazing event for our club since it's inception and this year is no exception! At last count we had 14 Gators on the start list including four participating in their FIRST TRIATHLON... Sarah Barkley, Jennifer Gehret, Rhonda Horn, and Rachel Truckley! Other Gators include Jill Basile, Susan Flavin, Christa Kachline, Cindy Kelecic, Diane Lynch, Karen McIntyre, Gina Stango, and Megan Stone! And last and certainly not least, Jr. Gator Hailey Raab will be competing as the runner on the Thunderbolts relay team! Go Lady Gators! And thanks to all of our volunteers that will be manning the Gators run course hydration station including our leader Sheri Kuss and volunteers Richard Barkley (and Rebecca, Sarah's mom), Joe DeNicola, Don Frisco (Karen's friend), DJ Keith Ho and Lily, Lindsay Inger (Saturday), Ken Kelecic, Don Mack, Jennifer Raab and Hailey, Andrew Slysh, and David Stone and Belle! Besides all of that, some of our youth Gators will be at the event on a field trip to learn about triathlons! • CLUB EVENT: IRONMAN 70.3 Musselman (Geneva, NY): Once again get your trackers ready! We have a half dozen taking on the half IRONMAN challenge including FIRST TIME 70.3 participant Deb Rocco and James Wysoczanski who will be participating in his first Gator event. Additional Gators racing include Holly Beauchamp, Angela Epelbaum, Shawn O'Malley, and Beth Wysoczanski! • SPONSOR EVENT: Scoogie Events' Boogie with Scoogie (Lahaska, PA): Kristie Bruno will be participating in the 5K race! Go Kristie! • Palmerton Spartan Sprint (Kunkletown, PA): Jon Crosby returns for the "Sprint" that covers 5K and includes 20 obstacles. Go Jon! Tuesday, July 12: • SPONSOR EVENT: French Creek Racing's OWS Race #4 (Norristown, PA): Gator participants include Chris Acosta and Jennifer Gehret in the 1/2 mile race and Sheri Kuss and Don Mack in the 1 mile race! Go Chris, Jennifer, Sheri, and Don! Have a great weekend training, racing, tracking, and don't forget to check out the second weekend of the Tour de France! 🐊