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The end of January is almost here, and you know what that means: another month of winter has been put behind us. For northern triathletes that is definitely something to celebrate, although it also means the beginning of February. Not exactly everyone's favorite month, is it? 

The end of January also means that T2 in the National Challenge Competition is coming up fast. Time to lift the hammer and let the bike legs cool down a little? Not likely. Given the results to date it seems more likely that all teams will be going full gas right to the line in order to secure the highest possible standing in the bike session. Of course there are no wobbly run legs to worry about when you don't have to go straight from the bike to the run, so feel free to keep the hammer down until midnight tonight. 

Again, we are keeping the session 'open' for mileage entries for 48 hours. That means club reps have until midnight on February 2 (Groundhog Day!) to enter all miles for the Bike Session. For anyone else checking the site, you'll see the current session status change from Bike to Run, but you will not see any run miles until February 3. 

For club reps, just a friendly reminder that only miles accumulated during January can be added to the Bike Session, and only miles accumulated during February can be added to the Run Session. 

See you after Groundhog Day, folks, and let's hope the wee beastie doesn't see his shadow this year. 

John Martinez of the Tri Club of San Diego is combining his training for the NCC with a great cause - raising money for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

Read about John's 300 miles in 3 days bike read on his blog: www.triathlondoctor.com/

Wow. December 2009 will now go down as the most successful swim session in NCC history, with 88 clubs registered and over 260,000 miles covered. Great job to everyone. 

The Official Results will be coming soon from USA Triathlon, but for now here's an unofficial roundup of the results. 

Top Club: Tri Club of San Diego (T1) with 1017.28 swim miles. TCSD also led the pack with an overall distance  of 18,867.42 miles. 

Top Athlete: Kim Rodriquez of the Tri Club of San Diego powered through 136.61 miles in the water. 

Highest Average Swim Miles: Team Fraser Multisport of Fraser Michigan, with only 28 registered athletes, still managed to swim 559.45 miles for an average of 19.98 miles per athlete. 

Top Ten Clubs

1. San Diego T1 (Div 1)
2. F.A.S.T. (Div 2)
3. Jet City Tri (Div 3)
4. Alaska TC Red Biting Bunnies (Div 1)
5. Alaska TC White Wabid Wabbits (Div 1)
6. Buffalo TC
7. Team Fraser
8. DC Tri Club (Div 1)
9. Boulder TC (Div 3)
10. Northwest YMCA TC (Div 4)

The teams without divisions noted above have still not submitted a full roster to USAT, so club reps please make sure you submit your roster as soon as possible. Prizes are being awarded this year based on divisions, so don't miss out.

Next up is the bike session. The session just opened for entering results today and there are already several clubs in the mix. This should be interesting. 

Firstly, Happy New Year to everyone and best wishes for a successful 2010 filled with personal bests of all kinds.

Secondly, what's up with the session end dates?

The Swim, Bike and Run Sessions officially end on the last day of the month, but club reps have an additional 48 hours to enter results. For the Swim Session that just ended, reps will have until midnight on January 2 (local time) to enter all miles for December.

The same thing will happen for the Bike and Run Sessions.

Regular visitors to the site will see the new session on the 1st of the month, but wil not see any miles for their club (or any club) until after the 48 hour grace period has ended and their club rep can start entering for the new session.