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The USA Triathlon National Challenge Competition is back for a 5th time in 2010-2011, and there are a few changes to the competition this time around.

Thanks to a great response to last season's end-of-competition survey we've been able to make some adjustments that should result in a more fair contest for everyone. We received many excellent suggestions and ideas and have tried to implement the ones we think will have the most positive impact.

New for This Year

Mileage will now be weighted differently for each event. In the past, teams who were able to pile up the bike miles had an advantage in the overall competition, since of course an hour on the bike gets you a lot farther than an hour in the pool or an hour running. This year, the swim and run miles will be weighted more heavily to even things out.

• 1 swim mile = 10 miles
• 1 bike mile = 1 mile
• 1 run mile = 3 miles

This is the biggest change to the competition. For club reps entering mileage, please enter the ACTUAL mileage submitted by your athletes. The weighting will be done automatically and will show up in all standings graphs. The athletes standings page will show both actual and weighted miles.

Mileage entries now include actual dates. This means we can track when those swim bike or run miles were actually logged, and it should mean that the competition becomes less about how fast teams can enter their miles onto the site and more about the actual workouts. As always we depend on club reps to enter the distances and dates accurately and honestly.

Club Reps are now being encouraged to allow other club members to use their login credential to enter results. This should help the bigger teams get their mileage entered more quickly. It will work best if teams select 2-3 people to handle the mileage entry rather than let everyone enter their own miles.

Swim mileage is now entered in yards, rather than miles. We had many requests for this last year and on the survey.

There will be divisional prizes and standings this year. Last year we started grouping teams into divisions based on club size and many participants told us that they liked this new system. This year we are expanding that to include divisional standings and prizes. When registering your club please make sure you enter your overall club size, not just the number of athletes participating in the NCC.

Last but not least, the NCC website has been upgraded again, so we are now up to Version 3.0. The new look site will launch on November 1, 2010. More screen real estate, new colors and a grid-based layout should make the site easier to use. Let us know what you think.

Good luck to everyone again this year!