First Triathlon

After a summer of swimming lessons, both Nina and Rollin learning to ride bikes without training wheels, and tons of running around the yard, I thought a perfect ending to the summer would be a kid's triathlon. Kirkland held a kid's triathlon on Saturday as a prelude to the much larger adult event on Sunday. Sela and Nina were excited about the idea and I knew that once we got to the race, Rollin would be dying to participate. I just went ahead and signed them all up. He was the only 3 year old, but there were several fours so I knew he could blend in. Lisa signed Sam up as well so we met for one official training session at the river trail to try and give the kids an idea of the running and biking distances. They were super pumped and confident after this test run of sorts.

We also did some bike trading. When it was all said and done, Sela rode her new bike, Sam rode Nina's (it was Sela's old one that Nina can ride but isn't too comfortable on just yet), Rollin rode Sam's cool green bike, and Nina rode Rollin's yellow spider bike. Everyone was super stoked with their set of wheels!

The morning of the triathlon it was pouring rain. It had been sunny and gorgeous the day before, of course. And the day after, I might add. Anyway, I decided to go get the packets early and bring the kids down closer to the race time so they wouldn't get tired of waiting in the rain. Well, things moved much faster than they publicized and we barely made it back in time to get the bikes checked into the transition area and the kids all ready to go.

There was some confusion as to the Swim division versus the Swim/Splash division so I figured for the first year they would all go in Swim/Splash. Plus the water was pretty chilly. It turns out the swim/splash was all splash and no real swim. Sela should have done the swim, but they all had so much fun anyway. Next year we'll know better and won't worry about the proper attire for each leg of the race. Most just stayed in their wet bathing suits. Some kids kept their swim caps on under their helmets, others ran through the finish line with their bike helmets on, etc, etc. Basically they all just wanted to GO GO GO and did not care about proper footwear or staying warm. Rollin did great and biked his little heart out. Nina loves to run so she came across the finish line with a skip in her step. And Sela was asking to do it again next year right away. For some reason, even though the kids had timing chips on, their times didn't get recorded so we don't know what their times were. But that's okay. It was all about the experience.

This little race was such fun for the kids. I just loved cheering them on from the sidelines. They felt like they accomplished something big. We definitely have ourselves a new tradition!

I used my little waterproof camera because of the rain, so the pictures are pretty lousy.




Sela said they all had some pre-race jitters while waiting and that Rollin and Nina looked "really scared."


And they're off!

Sela and Sam

These kids will do anything for a medal!

Go Nina!

Rollin never changed shoes for the run! I think his competitive juices took over and there was no time to waste!

Sam did awesome!

Happy are kids who finish and have buckets of candy, crackers, and water bottles waiting!