Guerilla Marketing – VOLUME III

Sporting Events
Table of Contents:

Football Super Bowl Pgs 2-3

The Kentucky Derby Pgs 4-6

The Masters (Golf Week) Pgs 7

Tour De France Pgs 8-9

March Madness Pgs 10 - 11

NASCAR Pgs 12 - 13

World Series Pgs 14 - 15

Stanley Cup Pgs 16 - 17

Wimbledon Pgs 18 - 20

Iron Man Pgs 21

For all the sporting events your local party store or arts & crafts stores have plenty of fun
prizes and themed decorations that you can buy at a very low cost.

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 Super Bowl

The super bowl is always a fun event even if your local team is not in the game. What is
fun is offering enjoyable events around super bowl time to promote getting up off the
couch and being active. If you have a larger front lobby and/or juice bar area you could
also host a Super bowl party at your facility. Serving healthy snacks and just a good
reason to get club members and staff together.

 Have your staff wear referee jerseys and whistles the week before the super bowl.
This could be fun for personal trainers and group exercise instructors as well.
You could even go as far as rubbing the black paint under your eyes to really get
the theme going!

Some entertaining things you can do in your club can be:

Football Training Camp:

Gather your personal training staff and/or group exercise instructors to put together some
fun classes to offer around super bowl time that are Training Camp themed. This could
run similar to a boot camp style class.

 Get together some hula-hoop’s to have them run through like tires.

 Hang a hula-hoop and have them try to throw footballs through them

 Have a sit up and push up station

 Jump roping station

 Jumping jacks and Mountain climbers

All of these stations can be run through and timed for 1-2 minutes and then have the class
switch. The instructor can blow their whistle when it is time to switch.

At The Juice Bar:

At your juice bar you could promote smoothies such as:

 Patriot Passion – strawberries, raspberries and yogurt
 Kickin Chocolate Cults – Chocolate and yogurt
 Delectable Dolphins – Banana, peanut butter and yogurt
 Cowboy Creamsicle – Orange and yogurt

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Are you a coed facility?

If you are – you could open your doors in the summer and offer a special football pre-
season special for your local high school football team.

You would charge an amount based on how many visits the boys would come to the club.
Arrange a set time and day (preferably when the gym is not at its prime time). Organize
your personal trainers to plan ahead and organize what each session workouts will focus
on – if you are limited to equipment and space open it up to a limited amount of players.

During this time offer a special “PARENTS TOUCH DOWN PASS”. This will be a
version of a punch card that the player’s parents can purchase to come and take
advantage of the club too. Sell a punch card of 10 visits for $100. Make these punch
cards different and have it say “Touch Down Pass” so the front desk will know who they
are.

If they buy the pass and then decide that they would like to join the club, roll the hundred
dollars as their joiners fee and or first months dues.

Touch Down Pass

10 Visit Punch Card

Name: _______________________

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Expiration date: Restrictions: Club Name: Phone #: Address:

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 Kentucky Derby

The Kentucky derby is such an exciting and different type of sporting event that will
engage all different ages and personalities in the club!!

For a fun energy in the club the staff can wear funny BIG hats!!!

 If you have a restaurant in your facility you could arrange to serve the Breakfast
of Champions on the day of or the week prior to the derby.
 If you have a juice bar you can serve some fun named “Kentucky Derby” themed
smoothies such as:

o Mint Julep (mint and vanilla)

o Strawberries and cream (strawberries and vanilla)
o The Mad Hatter (anything you would like)
o Southern Bell (anything you would like)

 You can also promote some personal training packages with names of Kentucky
Derby Horse Winners – these can be bought up to the date of the Derby. Cost and
size of package may be determined per club management.

“Silver Charm”
Designed for the mature member who is looking to increase
strength and flexibility to promote bone strength and help prevent
osteoporosis.
“Barbaro”
Barbells and Muscle – get a great free weight routine that will mix
up your workouts and give you definition!!
“Smart Jones”
So you think you know everything about strength training. Learn
some great functional training exercises to give you some up to
date moves to add to your routine.
“ Sea Hero”
Training for a big event, your big day or simply want to look and
feel better in your clothes? Hire a trainer today to save you from
workout blues!

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One Activity that could get the entire membership base involved is a friendly competition
within the club.

The competition would award members who participate in all areas of the club and be
awarded points for doing certain activities and purchasing things in different profit
centers.

Each member of the club who wants to participate in the Your Club Name Here Derby
would pay $1.00 to purchase their horse. You could go to a local toy, arts and crafts or
party store to find dozens of miniature horses. Once they have paid for and named their
horse they can begin competing.

Hanging somewhere in the club will be 2 LARGE posters. One outlining all competing
horses and where they are in points during the competition and one with what activities
earns you points and how many. Every time a member completes a point earning activity
it will be recorded on the board and their horse will travel along the poster – and the
horse that receives ______ points first wins the race!!!!

This is an example of what one poster could look like:

Horses 10 20 30 40 50 Etc…
Name: Points Points Points Points Points
Trot
Gumbo
Scout
Happy
Swift
Etc….

At the end of each night a club staff member would update the poster moving each
participants horse forwarded according to any points he or she has been awarded!

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This is an example of what your point’s poster could look like:
(you will want to keep a small version of this at the front desk so you know how many
points to award each competitor)

“__________________ Derby”

Complete any one of these activities to earn points so

YOUR HORSE wins the _________ Derby!

Take a group exercise class : 5 points

Buy a Derby Special Smoothie : 5 points
Walk or Ride your bike to the gym : 10 points
Bring in a friend for a 14 day trial : 5 points
Purchase a Derby Special Personal Training Package: 20 points
Wear a big Kentucky Derby Hat to the gym : 5 points
Have a friend join our annual membership : 20 points
Workout with a trainer : 5 points
Buy a Water : 1 point
Workout on Sunday : 5 points
ETC……

After you have completed each activity stop at the front desk so the staff
can record your points and update the poster!!

On a clipboard you’ll want to keep a list of all participants and record their activities
daily. Award the horses their points updating the poster at the end of each night!!

Run the competition one to twos week before the event. Then on the day of the Kentucky
Derby tally the points and award the winner their prize.

Prizes could be :
 All the registration money as cash prize
 Personal training package
 Massage
 Month Free of dues
 Gym logo t-shirt, water bottle, sweat towel and gym bag
 Etc……….

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 The Masters
Golf Week!!

If you are a fitness center in association with a golf course or resort this could be an easy
promotion for you to do!

If you are not contact your local golf clubs and resorts to get information on golf pros
who could possibly come to your facility for clinics and/or information.

You may also want to contact your local sporting good store and golf shop to see if they
could provide a golf display to be put up within the club – or you may purchase some
golf equipment that can be raffled off within the club.

During the week have your staff dress up like a signature golfer –
This should be silly and goofy! Have FUN with this.

Set up a golf display in the lobby – this could be one that you raffle or just use as an eye
catcher to help promote the weekly events.

Offer clinics by your personal trainers to help golfers improve their game:

 “Enhance your swing with a powerful core”

o Functional Ab/Core exercises to increase the power of your swing.
Practice balance and strength in your bodies power house!
 “Go an extra yard”
o Increase upper body strength with some new and exciting upper body
moves, this will help add more power to your game!
 Etc…

Hire a local golf pro to come in and do some clinics as well. These should be paid
clinics and can be on topics provided by the golf pro. Offer a limited participation and
keep the cost reasonable.

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 Tour De France

This would be the most effective if you had a spinning/cycle program at your facility. Yet
stationary bikes or Expresso Fitness Bikes could be used in a fun competition.

If you do have a cycling program in your facility –

First you will want to have about 2 or 3 dozen t-shirts made up. Choose yellow
(symbolizing the yellow jersey won at the tour de France). You can print anything you
would like on them, your logo or a cycling picture or write Tour De ________ and the
town or gym name replacing France.

You will also need to purchase a batch of yellow Hawaiian lays.

The competition will go as follows. You can go to the Tour De France web site
www.letour.fr and down load the course that the cyclists travel. They break it down by
days and the entire ride is 3 weeks with 20 different stages. Each stage is broken down
into the course number of hills, flats etc… For each of these days the instructor of the
class will follow that ride. The instructor at the end of each class will award a class
winner!!

The class winner will be awarded a yellow lay which can be handed in at the front desk to
receive a t-shirt!!
At the end of the tour de _____ place the remaining t-shirts for sale in your pro shop for
club members.

If you do not have a cycling program –

The total length of the Tour De France is 2,201 miles.

What you can do is post a large chart on the member board or a wall that is easily viewed
in the gym. The chart will have a fun title with big lettering and rules of how to play the
game. There will be places for people to write in their name and then following each
name there will be a place to enter miles reached on each day of the race.

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Example:

Tour De YOUR GYM NAME HERE

Ride with the pros during the Tour De France…Finish first and YOU could win the
Yellow Jersey!

Name Date/Miles Date/Miles Date/Miles Date/Miles

Sue July 7/ 22 July 8/ 12

Joe

Anne ETC……

You want to make sure that people are following the course – so you would also want to
post the course and how many miles are supposed to be reached on that day - this way
everyone will have an equal opportunity to finish and not one person will ride the 2,201
miles in 2 days!

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 March MADNESS

Let's get ready to rumble! It's March Madness time which means,
you guessed it - Basketball! Basketball is a sport filled with
excitement, slam dunks, and unbelievable athletes.

Basketball is a sport that all ages can have fun participating in. A basic sport of getting a
ball through a basket – you do not need to have a basket ball court in your facility to have
some fun basketball themed games and activities throughout the club.

Again this would be a good time for the staff to dress in basketball themed clothes.

 Favorite teams jersey

 Referee Shirts
 Funny “old school” basketball player

Get your members to participate in basketball “tryouts!” You could choose a day and
have all the trainers and staff available to hold basketball tryouts. You would want to set
up different stations around the gym in which the member would do that activity.

Stations could include but not be limited to:

* Timed Shuttle runs – this is when you grab 2 objects (sticks or anything small
that you can pick up and grab easily and run with). Set them each 10 yards away from a
line. The member would stand at the line and sprint to grab one stick, pick it up and
sprint it back to the line, they would then sprint back and grab the other stick and then
race back. A staff member would time how long it takes the member to finish.

* Basket Toss - If you have a basketball court or half court this could simply be
free throw shots – how many you can get in the basket in 2 minutes. If you do not have a
basketball net grab a big tub (something you could throw balls into large or small) and
then have a bunch of balls (any size or weight). This will be the same thing – how many
balls you can get in the container in 2 minutes.

* 1 mile run – This can be done on a treadmill – have the person start running
and record how long it takes them to do a mile!

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 * Jump Test – Have a roll of colored tape and a blank wall space. Simply have
the members get three chances to see how high they can jump. Measure it on the wall
with a piece of tape.

* Push Up Test – This is basic. How many pushups a member can do in 1

minute – these can be done either on their knees or toes. If they can not do any push ups
at all – see how long they can hold a plank.

* Sit Up Test – Measure how many sit ups a member can do in a minute – have a
staff member hold the persons feet and count while another staff member times the
minute.

AND OF COURSE YOU CAN CREATE MANY MORE!!

At the end of the day and when all participants have completed all the tests – tally the
results and you can award individual event winners as well as an overall winner. Prizes
can be something small and silly that you can provide in house.

These activities can also be replicated on a smaller scale and brought in as fun games in
the child care room. This is a great way to get the younger kids active within the gym
doing similar activities that their moms and dads are doing.

The Final Four

You could take this tag line throughout all profit centers within the club.

Personal Training Packages:

“The Final Four”

These will be the 4 best personal training sessions you ever experienced. Realize
how much fun personal training can be with awesome functional training workouts.

“Lose the Final Four”

Been begging to lose those last four or MORE pounds? Sign up with one of our
trainers for a goal assessment and lose the final four!

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 NASCAR
The Race to the Chase

Believe it or not NASCAR is one of the most popular American sporting events.
There are more fans for NASCAR nationwide than any other sport in the country.
So there will definitely be some fans within your facility that will be so excited that
you will be promoting and doing some fun activities

NASCAR is a long season and you could choose anywhere during the season to run these
activities. The chase for the NEXTEL CUP usually begins in October/November so that
would be the best time to run some specials and activities NASCAR themed.

A nice money raising charity could be a fun “CARWASH” at your facility.

Start to advertise for it within the club the week before. On the posters/flyers detail the
time, cost and where the money is going.

Have all your staff come on a Saturday and bring buckets, sponges, rags, soap and hoses.
Place posters outside and have all the money collected will go to your favorite local
charity.

Set up some Personal Training packages with fun NASCAR themed names!

For example:

 The “Pit Stop”

o This is a 30 minute workout review. Let one of our professional trainers
review your current strength training routine – give tips, ideas and
suggestions. Schedule a follow up appointment for another review in
three weeks.

 The “Body Tune Up”

o 4 personal training sessions that will tune up your workout routine and
send you down the track to success. Have a trainer design a workout with
you and do that workout with you so you can do it on your own!

 The “Complete Body Overhaul”

o Get The Works – a package of 10 personal training sessions – before and
after weight and body measurements. Food journals, Nutrition guidance,
cardiovascular workout plan and 2 training sessions per week to get
results!

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As an external promotion you could design special 14 day trial certificates for the month
– title them “Pit Passes” and have the members hand them out to friends and family in
the community.

Place your gym name here

PIT PASS

___________ has made you the lucky winner of a “Pit

Pass!” Please enjoy 14 days FREE with us. Simply bring your pit
pass in and start your race to fitness.

Expiration Date Club Restrictions Club Name – Club Phone # - Club Website

With this promotion you will have the member write their name on each card that they
hand out. This way when the card is brought back in from their guests they can be
rewarded for bringing a new potential member into the club.

Display a poster at the front desk or member board outlining the gifts that the members
can receive when their “Pit Passes” come back to the gym.

An example of gifts could be:

 Have 5 “Pit Passes” returned and enjoy a free smoothie

 Have 10 “Pit Passes” returned and have a gym bag and tee shirt

 Have 15 “Pit Passes” returned and enjoy a complimentary training session

IF any of your “Pit Passes” JOIN with an ANNUAL membership:

 Have 1 “Pit Pass” join and receive a massage

 Have 2 “Pit Passes” join and receive a 10 visit child care punch card

 Have 5 “Pit Passes” join and receive a FREE MONTH to your membership

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 The World Series

Gathering for this event is always a fun time no matter which teams are playing. You can
get your staff to get the members in the spirit by having your staff wear baseball caps
from their favorite team and baseball team t-shirts.

In the front lobby you can decorate for the big game and serve ball park snacks at the
juice bar (if you have one…or front desk area). These snacks could be peanuts, pretzels,
popcorn and cracker jacks.
If you do have a juice bar have a smoothie special using different team names. It doesn’t
matter what the ingredients are because the name play is the fun of it!

For example:

 Yankee Doodle Dandy – red and white – strawberries, blueberries, yogurt

 Red Sox it to me – Raspberries

 San Francisco Giant Shake – 2 for one special

 Milwaukee Brewskie – served in a beer mug

 Philadelphia Phillies creamsicle – orange juice and yogurt

 Put a Detroit Tiger in your tank – Protein shake

 Tampa Bay Devil Dog – This one of course has chocolate

 Minnesota Twins Double Trouble – double the chocolate

Baseball Training Group Exercise Class:

Set up the bases in your exercise studio and use them as circuit stations. The stations
could be any exercise you want. Use small equipment you have, free weights or just the
participants bodies. Music could be summer time themed – or a jock jams type cd. Have
each station be timed for 2 minute intervals and rotate. Instructor could use a mega
phone instead of a microphone for added fun!

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If you have a pro shop it should be stocked ahead of time with baseball type workout
shirts. You could logo your own shirts with Team Gym (place your gym name). They
could be sold the month of the world series.

If your team is in the playoffs or the World Series really go big with your decorations
and excitement from staff. Decorate and use your teams name everywhere.

For Example: If your team was the Red Sox you could celebrate “Soxtober” and run
with that!

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 The Stanley Cup

Like all the other sporting events you will want to get the feel going throughout the club
by dressing the staff in oversized hockey jerseys from any team locally or nationally!

Set up a goal net in a centralized area of the club (preferably the front lobby). Keep near
the net a hockey stick and puck (you could get a cheap play set at local toy store). Also
try and find something that could resemble a Stanley Cup and place it at the front desk.

Have a contest throughout the week on scoring the puck in the net. Let them have 3
chances and if they get a goal they get to put their name in the cup. On the last day of the
cup draw the names of the winners. Have a poster posted near the net of all the prizes
that can be won.
Such as:

 Half hour personal training session

 Free Smoothie

 1 Free tan

 Bring a guest for free

 Child care punch card

Also do this game with the children in the playroom as well. Create small prizes that you
can hand out to all the children (even if they don’t make it into the net). Do this at a time
when the lobby area is quite and make sure it is organized.

Create special Stanley cup gift certificates for these prizes so the front desk staff can
easily identify how the member won the prize. Make sure that there is an expiration date
on each certificate and restrictions.

A great hockey themed group exercise class could be focused on leg strengthening.
Focusing on moves needed to play hockey. For instance: Lots of repetitive squats
moving around the room, repeated lunges off a step, stretch bands and ankle weights
around the legs.

You can of course incorporate upper body and core strength moves as well. Make sure
you use equipment that is not used on a regular basis. This will provoke curiosity

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bringing variety and a new prospective to your members. Therefore it will keep them
motivated and coming back to the club, hence promoting member retention. As well as
offering something unique at the club that will have members talk about it throughout the
community to help you get new members!!

A slide or glide class could also be held if your club has the equipment, that would be a
perfect ice hockey simulation.

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 Wimbledon

These promotions should be run by facilities that have tennis and or racquet programs. Open these activities up to
the public: do press releases and get the community involved!

Hold some Kids programs and open this up to the community:

What could be a better gift to a child than a lifetime of tennis enjoyment? Get your
children or grandchildren started in a sport that requires self-discipline and
develops mental focus and concentration. No other sport requires you to be your
own referee, and that builds honesty, trust, and sportsmanship.

Offer 5-6 different clinics for different levels. Offer them to children ages 14 and up.
Of course you will also want to promote private lessons as well.

An example of how describe one of the clinics could be:

Level Beginner/Advanced Beginner (ages 7-10)
Course Requirements: None
Course Includes: Motor and Racquet Control Skills, Rules & Etiquette
Hitting Skills: Volley & Mini-Tennis Rallying, Serves, Fun Drills and Games
Mon or Tues 4:00 - 5:00, $160

Adult Programs to offer:

Doubles
New Player Program Cardio Tennis
Workshop
Levels 2 - 3
Knowledge of Basic
Levels 0 - 1
Strategies
Meets once a week for 4 weeks
Consistency and
Racquet & Court Familiarity & Etiquette
Serve from Baseline with some success Shot/Spin Variety
Basic Hitting Skills: Volleys and Groundstrokes
Volley & Rally Ability (3-8 times over net) More Advanced Strategy
Fun Games and Drills
Stroke Instruction (ground strokes, volleys, serves) Drills, Match Play, and
Mondays 9:30-10:30am
Saturday 8-9am Games
Tuesdays 7:30-8:30pm
Monday 10:30am-12pm–
Wednesdays 5:30-6:30pm
2.5-3.0
Saturdays 9:00-10:00am
Wednesday 6:30-8pm–
3.0-3.5

Singles
Saturday Practice League Stroke of the Week
Workshop
Volley & Rally Ability (10 times over net) Levels 2 - 3
Level 1 - 2
Technique (overheads, lobs & angles) Drills & games to
Rules, Etiquette & Court Familiarity
Consistency & Shot Placement sharpen your edge &
Hitting Skills: Volley & Mini-Tennis Rallying
Drills, Match Play, and Games improve your stamina!
Round Robin Games
Tuesday 10-11am Thursday 11am-
Sunday 2:30 - 3:30 PM
Saturday 10-11am 12:30pm

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Some Clinics you could hold:

Simply get your trainers to block off ½ hour time slots to do some clinics.

“Net Results”
Looking to see some definition? Looking for results? Join one of our trainers for a
kick butt strength training workout that will jump start your motivation and kick start the
results you are looking for.

“No more LOVE handles”

Get the latest abdominal exercises to strengthen your core, tighten your tummy
and start losin those love handles!

“Get on the ball”

Ever see those big colorful balls bouncing around the gym? Wanna get on the
ball? Come to this clinic and learn a total body workout using this fun and effective toy!

“Stroke of the Week”

Learn how to improve power in your serve. Perfect this part of the game with
upper body strength, balance and power.

“Constant Cardio”
Take part in a constant tennis workout. Perform aerobic drills to burn calories and
develop muscle memory for the court.

“Don’t get strung out”

Are you stressed out? Do you poop out at parties? Maybe you need some ME
time and relaxation. Come to this stress free clinic and learn some great stretching and
relaxation techniques to soothe the muscles and relax the mind.

Friendly Club Competition:

Have people sign up for this friendly competition. They can sign up for one of 5 teams.

A – “Aces”
B – “Baseliners”
C – “Crushers”
D – “Drivers”
E – “Elite”

Each team will be responsible for completing 5 tasks within the club. This is kind of like
a scavenger hunt. Once they have completed one task they will get the clue for the next
task and so on. The team who completes all the tasks first is the Wimbledon winner.

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Purchase a couple of container of tennis balls! These are very cheap and you will want a
dozen or so.

On a small index card have the task to be completed, the next clue and space for
employee to sign off for completion on each card.

When everyone signs up each team will have their own letter – on this letter will have the
first task!
For Example:

Congratulations for joining the Baseliners team!

*Ever run out of energy and get real hot?
*Want to workout and sweat with all that you got?
*Replenish and quench with a tasty treat!
*It’s thick and creamy and a tad bit sweet!
*The whole team must try it and finish every sip.
*So you can move on and get your next tip!

GOOD LUCK!!!!!

Then each card will send them to the next clue – you want the clues to involve the teams
in all aspects of the club and try out the different profit centers.

The FINAL TASK should be a round robin tennis tournament! Prizes for everyone!

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 The Iron Man
Triathlon

This promotion will only work well if you have a pool in your facility or access to a pool.

At the beginning of the month of ______________ start advertising that you will be
offering a specialty class for Triathlon training. Advertise for it in the paper, through
emails and posters within the club.

This will be a paid class and open to a limited amount of participants. Make sure you
have a plan for each session and have that information available if members ask what the
sessions will be like.

The idea is to train like a triathlete and then on their last session hold a mini triathlon in
the club. I would recommend having 6 – 8 sessions total. Have a specific time and day
that the sessions will be held and have the workouts last at least 1.5 hours.

On the day of Your Club Name Here Triathlon you will have the group participate in a
mini triathlon.

 A certain distance swim (20 – 30 pool laps)

 A certain distance bike – (12 – 15 miles)

o If you only have stationary bikes that do not show distance – time each
rider for 20 – 25 minutes.

 A certain distance run (2 – 3 miles)

o This will be done on treadmills

At the completion of the the triathlon give all participants a certificate of completion, free
smoothie when they are done and nutrition bar.
Also award them with a discount on a personal training package to continue with their
training efforts and help them to compete in a larger triathlon in your community.

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