I joined Team in Training Saturday :-)

Yaaaaaaaaay Bill!

I'm a multiple-time, multi-sport participant and local cycling coach, my wife and I have raised over $40,000 for the cause over the past several years. Great organization, great support, great cause.

I was amazed at the outpouring of contributions the first time I did TNT. Within ten days of sending my fundraising letter I had met my goal for the event, ended up tripling my goal that first event.

It's that time of year where I remind everyone in BT.com to consider Tean In Training, as recruiting efforts are currently taking place for the fall season. I'll be training Louisiana cyclists for November's El Tour de Tucson, but check with your local chapter to see what events they are participating in.

For more information or to find your local chapter, go to www.teamintraining.org .

Valid concerns, and within our chapters we try to emphasize race etiquette and proper behavior. Remembering, of course, that most of our participants are first-timers and act no better or worse than other first-timers on the course. I do think a lot of this criticism in these area (especially the cheering part) is because TNT has such a large and visible (purple) contingency at these events that they tend to be more readily noticed. I don't think that you would criticize someone's family for not cheering as loudly for a stranger as they would their husband/wife/mother/father, but you would readily criticize the more visible group for cheering more loudly for those with which they have a close affilitation, perhaps among people who have trained together for months.

I know as coaches out on the course it is our intent and our directive to be supportive and encouraging to all participants. I have stopped several times to help non-TNTers with flats and mechanical problems, only to have to double time to catch up with my participants. Also have no problem with others joining our paceline (which I lead 90% of the time).

Bottom line: a lot of the behavior you describe is human nature, within any group there will be good and bad people, caring and thoughtless people.

Let me preface this by saying I've never even seen someone in a TNT uniform and the very few people I know personally who have participated in a TNT event recommended to me that I not do it due to extreme pressure to meet fundraising goals. That appears to not be a universal issue however.

The issue being described here isn't thoughtless, sometimes rude behavior by people in a group. It is thoughtless, sometimes rude behavior by a sizable subgroup within a larger group made up mostly of individuals. The behavior repeatedly attributed to some TNT'ers at many races is antithetical to the attitude, mindset and behavior of the majority of triathtletes. This bugs people. It can only bug them.

Bottom line: It is not "a few individuals". It is *Team* in Training. It's a great charity, but you can't call something a Team and then not have the team take responsibility for what it's members do in groups while wearing the uniform.

Nope, not trying to avoid responsibility, just suggesting that it's more noticeable because of the high numbers and high visibility of the group.

BTW, there's no "extreme pressure to meet fundraising goals." Either you do or you don't.

I've read and heard what amounts to the same comments a number of times: it's a great charity/gets people involved in endurance sports/some of the participants and their supporters can get a little carried away with themselves and be inconsiderate to other athletes.

The reality is that TNT is probably only going to get bigger and it's only a matter of time before other charities adopt the model. The pros (which are obviously huge) and cons (which are mostly just annoyances but still avoidable) are only going to become more pronounced. I'm leaning towards a solution of "then get involved so you can model and advocate the correct behavior amongst participants".

Nope, you have the option "to pay out of your own pocket if you don't meet the goal for your event," to make up the shortfall between what you have raised and your goal. You also can continue fundraising after your event to make up any shortfall or to "reimburse" any amounts you contributed to make up that shortfall.

Don't want to come off as a TNT apologist, just hoping to clarify some of the misconceptions.

Don't know where you've been, but go to any major marathon and you'll find gobs of organizations (benefitting strokes, AIDS, diabetes, heart disease, muscular dystrophy, etc.) that have already "adopted the model" to some degree.