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Possibly the best race report in the world, ever...
Bopomofo
Posts: 980
in General Chat
Oh my! Where to start? I accompanied two novice athletes to their first ever triathlon today. It was superbly well organised, the course was perfectly marked out, the marshals were utterly brilliant and very helpful throughout and the race referee was one of the nicest, most helpful and most approachable people I've ever met - despite being in the middle of a massive stress moment.
My first athlete completely blasted the swim... he started in the third wave - 10s intervals so he was 20s behind - with 4 to a wave but still exitted the pool in 3rd place! He then lost a few places by fumbling the bike in T1 but recovered a few of the lost places on the bike then hit the run really hard and had a strong sprint finish.
My second athlete was doing double the distance. She came out of the pool in a strong position ahead of the pack, picked up some places on the bike then settled into an impressive pace on the run. She slowed once to cheer on a competitor who'd stopped to walk, then carried on to a monumental 150m sprint at the end.
I was completely exhausted from all the shouting, cheering, running about, photography and emotion of it all.
Athlete #1 was my 9yr old son: he did a 50m swim, 800m bike, 400m run. Athlete 2 was his 11yr old big sister, who did 100m/1600m/800m.
Both of them had asked if they could do it, rather than have tri-dad push them into it. I hope they just followed my example of giving it a go. Both said afterwards "Can we do that again?".
No idea if I have given them the tri-virus, but my goodness - I'm the proudest Dad in the world right now!
My first athlete completely blasted the swim... he started in the third wave - 10s intervals so he was 20s behind - with 4 to a wave but still exitted the pool in 3rd place! He then lost a few places by fumbling the bike in T1 but recovered a few of the lost places on the bike then hit the run really hard and had a strong sprint finish.
My second athlete was doing double the distance. She came out of the pool in a strong position ahead of the pack, picked up some places on the bike then settled into an impressive pace on the run. She slowed once to cheer on a competitor who'd stopped to walk, then carried on to a monumental 150m sprint at the end.
I was completely exhausted from all the shouting, cheering, running about, photography and emotion of it all.
Athlete #1 was my 9yr old son: he did a 50m swim, 800m bike, 400m run. Athlete 2 was his 11yr old big sister, who did 100m/1600m/800m.
Both of them had asked if they could do it, rather than have tri-dad push them into it. I hope they just followed my example of giving it a go. Both said afterwards "Can we do that again?".
No idea if I have given them the tri-virus, but my goodness - I'm the proudest Dad in the world right now!
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Can I ask where the race was, as my 8 year old is seeming keen to give one a try... (well, the 3 year old also keeps asking to do a 'trathlon' but might need to learn to swim / ride a bike first!)
I'll be looking for another kid's event myself, so let's share information as/when we find it.
www.valetridents.co.uk (look under events)
A local Tiathlon CLun have a Children's day in July, link is http://www.pencoedtri.org/race-events/1 ... thlon.html
What a breath of fresh air that report has brought. It made me smile reading it and I don't have kids.
You must be really proud of your kids, and it goes to show what an example you have set them.
Well done to your kids and you.
Watch out the Brownlee's eh?
Unfortunately I deal on a daily basis with feckless 'parents' who should'nt even be left in charge of a garden gnome and succeed only in producing offspring who will never contribute to society or challenge themselves - sad, drab, wasted lives.
Thanks for the link - that sounds like a really nice race.
Perhaps see you there next year with my 8 year old!
my children have no desire to participate however my godchildren do want to have a go so hunting for something suitable
Wouldn't that be great! If I thought one of my kids was going to take it up seriously then I'd love to see them go flying past me. In Winchester tri this year a young lad (think he may have been 17) was sidling past on the run and he stayed with me for a chat. We ended up shouting encouragement at each other for the last couple of miles: he was a member of the same running club as his dad, who was a long-term tri-er, and so the son thought he'd give it a go. He beat me by about 50s in the end, but I think his dad was a few minutes ahead. That would just be so much fun.
I reckon my daughter could potentially be out on a proper tri in about 5-6 years time (she'll be 16-17) when I'm 45. That would be some race!
Got to find that fine line, though: enough encouragement, so they do it because they want to, but not too much pressure - I'd hate to think they were out there just because they thought it would make me happy.
Saw one poor little girl sobbing when she came out of the pool - guess she swallowed water, or found it harder than she expected, or maybe just caved in with all the crowds of spectators. Looked to me like her parents just carried on shouting at her to hurry up and get her shoes on. Hmmm. I thought it was meant to be about fun and personal pride, not upset and fear of failure??
I bet watching your son storm past you at the back end of a tri Is much better than standing around on the side of football/rugby pitch!
Looks like you've got some expensive Christmasses coming up...
What will Mrs C think....