Last week an email appeared in my inbox announcing a kids triathlon. Conner was standing nearby as I read it, so I ask him if he wants in. He seemed a little freaked out by the idea so I skimmed the details and told him the swim was only 50 yards. He said "Sign me up!", so I did. The race was a 50 yard swim, 0.75 mile bike and .33 mile run.
Conner and I arrived early Saturday morning for packet pickup and to set everything up. Dianne and Parker had one errand to run and then they were going to pick up Aunt Linda, Ben and Grandma before heading over to the race.
What great race organization! We got his race numbers for shirt, bike and helmet. He stood in line for body marking and had his number drawn on his arm and leg and then they handed out chip timing bracelets for split second timing for each of the race segments. Very professional!
Race morning was a little cool, probably starting out in the low 50's, but it warmed up pretty quickly. The race was wave starts, with older kids starting the pool swim first. Conner was assigned wave 13, so we had a little waiting to do. Just before the race start they asked all the kids to head over to the pool area to hang out and wait. Conner took off his sweat pants and then he took off his shoes and socks and put them by his bike in the transition area. We started over to the pool area with Conner in his swimsuit, swim/tri shirt and sweater to keep warm. When his feet hit the cold pavement he shrieked "Dad, I can't do this, it's too cold" I ignored him and pressed onwards.
The oldest kids had to do 16 laps, so while we waited, we watched and discussed swim strategy. Most started out way too fast and faded, so Conner figured he would aim for the steady approach. It took close to 75 minutes for his wave to get called. He lined up, and when the gun when off, he dived in and powered across the pool. Six months of swim team paid off handsomely, and he was in and out pretty quickly.
Off to transition and the hardest part was getting his socks over his wet feet. Probably added two minutes to his time, but he was feeling good. Popped the bike helmet on, realized the swim goggles should have come off first, made a quick adjustment, and then was on his way.
The hardest part of the bike were all the speed bumps, but he handled them all pretty well. Near the end, Dianne and the gang caught sight of him and cheered loudly. I took a few quick pictures and then watched him blast through the bike to run transition. Much smoother, just forgot to take off the bike helmet and it took me 20 yards of hollering down the run course to get him to stop, pop it off and continue on his way. I returned the helmet to his bike and then ran down a short cut to the finish hoping to get pictures.
Conner had decided before the race that he was going to do a run/walk strategy for the 0.33 mile foot race. He hadn't decided on 10 or 20 steps of running and then walking, but would figure it out as he went. In the end he looked really strong powering along on the run. He told me after that he decided to go for it and attempt to run the whole thing, which he did.
I managed to make it to the end on time and get a couple of pictures.
His ending analysis was that it was a great race, he had a lot of fun and he wanted to do another one. In fact Ben and Parker plan to join him next year. Can't wait!
Results were posted online and he was very excited to review them.
Swim, 1:37 including run to the timing mat
T1 3:11, 2:00 for socks, the other minute or so for everything else!
Bike 5:28
T2 0:29 seconds
Run 4:20
Total 15:06, just five and a half minutes out of first, wow!
No comments:
Post a Comment