About Us:
Welcome to the Vanderbilt University Triathlon Club's website. We are a sports club, which is covered by Student Activities in the Rec Center. While we are made up of university people, we welcome anyone to the club, even non-Vanderbilt affiliate people (you just need to be joined to the Vanderbilt Student Recreation Center which is open to everyone), but in order to race for the team you must be a student, it doesn't matter what type of student (i.e. undergrad, grad, professional, med).The club is a part of the South East Collegiate Triathlon Conference (http://sectc.usat-se.org/). This conference is made of university teams from Alabama, Georgia , Mississippi , Tennessee , South Carolina , Louisiana , and the Florida Panhandle. We will have four races in the fall and most likely two races in the spring. In order to be competitive in this conference, you need to complete four of the races, especially the conference Championship at Hickory Knob in Oct. The points series champion last year was Maria Takahashi, one of our very own triathletes. The great news about this series is that three of the races are within 3 hours of Nashville: Mountain Lakes Triathlon, Music City Triathlon, and Memphis in May. We also attend the USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championship. Last year Matt Long, a Vanderbilt Sophomore, placed 3 in the undergraduate division. As you can see, we have some rock stars in the sport of triathlon, but the club also prides itself on being a newbie friendly club.
You don't know how to swim well?
Don't worry, many of our triathletes never swam competitively, but they sure know how to swim in a triathlon now.
You don't have a bike?
That's not a problem either, we will help you with picking out a bike that is just perfect for you. Many of our new members don't have bikes when they join. We have spin classes so that you can get use to the bike and when you feel ready, you can get yourself a bike and hit that open road.
Not much of a running fan?
Running is not easy for many us, but you will be amazed at how much easier and more likable it is when you have a group to run with.
Ironman not the thing for you?
It's not the thing for a lot of people, that's why we do all the distances in this club, from sprint to intermediate (Olympic distance) to Ironman.
The club has Stephen Taylor as our coach. He recently competed in the World Age Group Championships. With plenty of triathlon wins in his resume and his outstanding running ability, Vanderbilt Triathlon is extremely lucky to have him as a coach. You can learn more about him at www.sttrainer.com. The requirements for the club are a membership fee ($40). This fee includes workouts with coach Taylor, club t-shirt, ability to purchase club jersey, ability to purchase products from our sponsors at reduced prices, and access to our google group and calendar. We currently do not have a requirement for workouts, but in order to receive additional financial and member support, we do expect members to be active in workouts and races. While our main goal is to train (getting a great body ain't a bad side effect), we do pride ourselves on having more fun than any other club out there. So, if this sounds like the club for you, or if you have more questions, please feel free to contact our Membership Guru, Tim Thurman (timothy.j.thurman@vanderbilt.edu).