Gear and Training Sponsorship

     Over the Christmas holiday my brother Scott told me he had just been picked up by a sponsor, Falkee Triathlon Competitive Age Group Triathlete. Needless to say I was a little envious, it would be cool to have a sponsor as an amateur athlete. He said "...you should apply to, I'll send you the link...", I agreed. So I filled out the application.  Falkee offers all kinds of deals on gear as a sponsored Triathletes. We are going to buy the gear anyway so why not get a discount on it? As the weeks went by and I didn't hear anything I started to get a little discouraged. Finally I got the email I had been dreading. It was the "thanks but no thanks" reply. I was clearly disappointed.
     Scott called me a few days later and said he could get a deal on a cool transition mat and did I want one. If you can't be a sponsored athlete having a brother who is, is the next best thing. I happily replied "yes! I'd love to have one". I think it was the following day Scott informed me of another entity who was polling for MOP (middle of the pack) age groupers to sponsor on the triathlon forum Slow Twitch. I thought what the hell it's worth a try. So I filled out another application with my past events and my planned events for 2011 and sent it off. Slow Twitch has a lot of people on it's forum so 1000's of people saw the advertisement for the sponsorship deal. I realized my chances of getting into this deal were pretty low so I wouldn't have high expectations.
     Sunday morning I fired up my computer and start reading worthless emails as I start most of my days this way. One of the emails caught my eye, I recognized the sender's name and the subject line was "Sponsorship inquiry". This is when I thought the other shoe was going to drop with a "thanks but no thanks" email. I reluctantly open the email only to be greeted with "On behalf of Gear & Training, we welcome you to the 2011 Gear & Training Triathlon Team". I read the email quickly waiting for the part about not being selected. When I didn't see that part, I read the email again.  Holy crap! I got selected! I got selected! Gear and Training.com selected me to be on their team.

     What does this mean? It means I'm part of a triathlon team who will get to wear logo merchandise from Gear and Training.com. I will be able to buy gear that I need and want at discounted prices. I can extend my discount to friends and family. You can use code "BA2" for 20% off + free shipping on orders over $150 at gearandtraining.com. This is so cool! I'm really excited about representing Gear and Training this year and spreading the word about their high quality gear and apparel. 

     This is a great opportunity! I feel very fortunate to be in this position.