Houston Racing Triathlon Club | Membership Information

Membership in Houston Racing

Houston Racing Triathlon Club General Information

In September of 1989, Houston Racing Triathlon Club (HRTC) was created in an effort to bring together Houston's triathletes to train and share their common interests with one another; but the club served an even greater purpose. That was and still is to increase awareness of and participation in the sport. This not only includes recruiting new members, but also getting support from the local business community for both the club and races. Since the club's inception, our membership has expanded to over 700. The club's primary purpose remains the same, but now members enjoy many more benefits because of the club's growth, generous sponsors, organized and dedicated officers, and the general welfare and popularity of triathlon. The main goals of the club are to:

Give members a sense of belonging within the club,
Provide valuable triathlon resources to the members,
Recruit new people into the club and triathlon,
Provide rewarding opportunities to actively involved in the club and sport, and
Serve the community through charity and volunteer efforts.

Club Demographics

The average age of the membership is low to mid thirties. Members range from adolescents to senior citizens. The range in experience and fitness is just as diverse. The majority of our members are recreational athletes that train for health and fitness purposes while occasionally participating in regional races. Each year, HRTC recruits many people that have never completed a triathlon and most of them have limited swimming, cycling, and/or running experience. Furthermore, our club also has many veteran and elite athletes that compete at the regional or national level in a wide range of distances from sprint to ironman. Most members live in central, West, or Southwest Houston. These parts of Houston include the Montrose, West University, Galleria, Spring Branch, Bellaire, Medical Center, Katy, Memorial, West Oaks, Sharpstown, and the Sugar Land area.

Benefits of Membership

From newbie to veteran, the Houston Racing Triathlon Club (HRTC) offers everyone excellent opportunities to fully enjoy multi-sport training and participation in and around the Greater Houston Area. The board of directors meets monthly to come up with ways to better serve the HRTC membership with information and activities. Many of our members have made lifelong friendships because of their involvement with the club. With over 700 members the HRTC is more than likely the largest triathlon club in Texas! Additional benefits include:

Finding other members for training partners
Receiving a newsletter each month via hard copy or electronically
Getting advice about racing, training, nutrition, and injury prevention and treatment
Participating in social and competitive club activities
Making new and interesting friends
Receive weekly and informative e-mail updates about HRTC and the regional, national, and global triathlon scene
The ability to do ALL of the things mentioned above through our club's web Forum
Attending monthly club meetings with scheduled speakers and/or activities
Saving on merchandise at the following club sponsors :
- Bike Sport: 15% off merchandise (except bikes, sale merchandise and labor on repairs).
- Finish Line Sports: 20% off merchandise (except sale merchandise).
- Spine & Sports Therapy: 50% off initial exam and 20% off sports injury services.
- MAC (Memorial Athletic Club): 50% off Initiation Fee.
- Rudy Project: 35-40% discount on sunglasses and helmets purchased through their website. E-mail the Membership Chairman for instructions on how to access their web store. Each club member may purchase up to 3 helmets, 5 pairs of sunglasses and 5 pairs of lenses per year. They ask only that you not abuse local retailers by going to try on all 33 models before buying on the web.
- VO2 Max Houston: 10% discount on VO2 Testing with interval heart rate training program.
- Tri On The Run: 15% discount on merchandise (excluding sale items).
- Luke’s Locker: 15% discount (on-sale items and Garmin products excluded from discount) to active HRTC members.
- Bicycle World and Fitness: 15% discount for Houston Racing members on merchandise (excluding labor on repairs and sale merchandise).
- Marshall Back and Body: Initial exam and x-ray with a value of up to $200, HRTC Member will only pay $30. Will honor most major medical plans, for members without insurance coverage, special considerations will be implemented on a case-by-case basis
Carpooling and splitting lodging expenses with other club members for races outside of Houston
Enjoying free food and beverages at our social activities.

Club By-Laws

If you're interested, you can take a look at the club's by-laws by CLICKING HERE.

HRTC Financial Statement - 2006

Per the bylaws of HRTC, the annual financial statements of the club are provided to members at the Annual Meeting. To access the 2006 HRTC Financial Statement, click here and use the same password which is used to access the membership roster.

Club meetings are held the second Monday of every month at locations to be announced either in the club newsletter and/or on this website (check the "Calendar" section for details or the front page of the site). Other membership details are listed to above.

To sign up for membership online, Active.com.

Please take some time and peruse the rest of this website. There are many benefits to membership that may not have been listed here. Thanks for your interest !

Houston Racing Triathlon Club
P.O. Box 130404
Houston, TX 77219
e-mail addresses
Webmaster (Alaina Metz Smith)- webmaster@houstonracing.com
New Member Information (Kenny Hainline) - memberinfo@houstonracing.com: Weekly E-Newsletter (Chris Arend) - hrtcnews@houstonracing.com
For info on Subscribing/Unsubscribing from the HRTC Weekly E-Newsletter - CLICK HERE (MEMBERS ONLY)
Annual Club Dues
$25 for individuals - $35 for families/couples

Sign Up for HRTC Membership Online

Membership Roster

You can sign up for your HRTC membership on-line. Through the secure servers at Active.com, you can avoid the hassle of check-writing and take care of your membership in a matter of minutes. Click the icon to begin the process. Membership is good through the end of the calendar year; members who sign up towards the end of the year are usually extended into the following year.

The most current HRTC Membership Roster (including names, addresses, e-mail addresses, and other pertinent information) is available for download from this site. The roster is a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet, and is password protected. The password has changed effective 07.06.2006, and can be obtained by e-mailing us. Click here to download the spreadsheet.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR NEW & POTENTIAL MEMBERS REGARDING ACCESS TO THE WEBSITE FORUMS

A great deal of club and training-related information as well as our Classified section and Event Calendar is located within the 'Forums' section of our website, located HERE. You do not have to be a member of Houston Racing to access the Forums, but if you ARE a member, you should definitely sign up. And if you are considering becoming a member, it's worth a visit just to see what you're getting yourself into.

PLEASE NOTE : You will NOT receive a Username and Password for the Forums from Houston Racing upon joining the club - it is your responsibility to create those for yourself. Simply go to the Forums, click the 'Register' link at the top of the page, follow the on-screen instructions, and you will have access in a matter of seconds. It's that simple. We encourage you to give accurate contact information (ie : a REAL e-mail address), and offer every assurance that we will NOT issue this information to anyone. Ever. We also do NOT send unsolicited e-mail. If you have any additional questions, please let me know.

Houston Racing Triathlon Club Executive Board

President

Vice President

Treasurer

Secretary

Will Rub
Will says he's always been involved in some sort of athletics, at least since age 8. Through jr. high, high school and college, primarily football. But after college, Will pursued individual sports like running, golf and eventually triathlons. High first race was in 1985. It's hard to believe that was 21 years ago. Will has stayed fairly active in the sport, save a golf intensive lapse during the mid 90's. The benefits associated with participating in triathlons are numerous, but none are more important than the people you meet and the friendships you can develop.

Gail Stewart
Gail has been competing in triathlons for six years, mostly sprints, a few olympic distance races including Age Group Nationals in 2004, and two half ironmans. Gail also enjoyed the sport as a relay team member, volunteer, spectator, and cheerleader. Her favorite race is the Speedo where she races with her daughters as a relay. Gail is currently training for her second marathon, Big Sur, in California on April 29.

Chris Hellyer
Chris returns to the Board in 2007 after splitting service as Vice President and Treasurer in 2006. He is a long time Houston resident who has been racing for nearly ten seasons. While participating mostly in local short course races, he has a few longer races to his credit including Ironman Arizona in 2005. Chris looks forward to his second year on the Board as Treasurer.

Will Neff Will has been a triathlete since 1986 mainly doing sprint to Olympic distance races. He joined Houston Racing in 1996 for the main purpose of making some new acquaintances, resulting in his making many new friends and finding plenty of training partners. Not only has Will been a member, but an active member. He served previously on the Board and was the race director for the club’s Kiwanis Kids race for a few years. He continues to volunteer for the kid’s race, J&B’s and the marathon hoopla station. Will states that the club has changed over the years and for the better! He plans to continue that tradition as a member on the Board.

Membership	Sponsorship	Member at Large
Ken Hainline Ken Ken is a left coaster raised in Ventura, California, arriving in Texas in 2001 by way of Alaska and Louisiana. He did his first triathlon in 1983 and now 20+ years later Ken has a passion for the sport that is as much about getting newbies involved as it is his own participation. At races, Ken has opportunity to meet a number of people on the run. With a swimming (water polo & surfing) background, he can usually count on being in the top 5-10 out of the water if he chooses the right set of toes to draft. He then holds his own on the bike but gets dropped like a hot rock on the run and spends a lot of time saying, “looking good” to his tri-pals. After a very enjoyable and rewarding year in 2005 as the HRTC VP and a half year as the Treasurer in 2006, Ken moved into the Membership position during a mid-year skill alignment shift within the BoD. At that point Gail had left Ken in striking distance of the 600 member goal he quietly set for the HRTC the previous year. The popularity of our sport has exploded over the past few years and Ken watched the HRTC membership number climb past 700 before the close of 2006. Planning to take the 2007 racing season off to focus on strength and balance, Ken will also focus on helping to make sure those 700+ folks get a feeling of camaraderie while being a member of the best triathlon club in Texas!	Chris Arend Chris was born in Pittsburgh and at Shaler Area High School, he competed for his school swim team in the 100 yard breastroke (yes, races weren’t meant to be in meters way back then). The swim team during his tenure earned three straight state titles in 1977-1979 which gave the team official entry in the Shaler Area High School Sports Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, he was a good swimmer on a really great team and only swam “first string” when his school played crummy teams. In 1997, being 35 lbs overweight from two kids (okay, his wife of 19 years gave birth to them, but he was always supportive), Chris decided to get back into shape by dieting and running. Chris’ first tri was Jeff & Brede’s in 2001 and from then on, he was hooked. Since then, Chris has been in triathlons of all distances, including the True Texan in 2004 and Ironman Florida on November 4th, 2006. His favorite races are aquathlons since biking is his weakest leg. Chris thanks God, his wife Michelle, son Hayden, daughter Victoria (all in that order) for the gift of completing these events and the loving support of his family.	Lisa Ferrara As a naturally goal-oriented person, Lisa found her love for triathlon after years of exercising for health and weight management. Moving from exercising to training was highly motivational and the draw to the multi-sport life fit perfectly with her effort to avoid frequent overuse injuries. 2006 marks the first full season Lisa has competed in triathlons, but it included some very exciting age group placements over the course of the season. The support from HRTC training cohorts was a key part of this happy and successful season, and such much enjoyed the camaraderie of new-found tri-geeks. Next year she is targeting her first half ironman at the Lone Star Tri in Galveston, and she is excited to be on the HRTC board, where she plans to support other athletes in their pursuit of the triathlete lifestyle.