Our friends the Rothe’s put on a kiddie triathlon last weekend. It was so much fun at least for Audrey and me. I’ll let Scott share the Kate side of the story.
Before it started, Chris went around and wrote race numbers on all the kids’ arms and legs. Audrey picked #5, since she just turned 5. Kate picked #2 since she’s 2. And Jackson picked #5 because… that’s what he saw on Audrey’s arm.
The Rothe’s set up an awesome course on some trails around their apartment complex. The running portion was supposedly .5 miles. The bike portion was around .5 -.75 miles. And the swim consisted of putting their feet in the water until they were properly attired for real swimming. Audrey started off like she usually does – sprinting and in the lead… for at least the first 15 seconds. Then, the steady Drew and Jackson passed her. Kate and Scott were really thoughtful to let everyone else go in front of them as they brought up the rear.
The bike portion was on a really fun path that wound through trees and went through a park and ended with a killer hill. Audrey was so tough and made it all the way up the hill on her own. I was so proud of her.
She stayed so focused after she got off her bike and ran down to the pool. I think we have a future racer in the makings.
Scott’s perspective:
Yes. We were thoughtful to let everyone else go first. I think Audrey and Kate burned their energy in the pre-race warm up, because Kate only made it a couple hundred yards before she was ready to be carried. She was in good company with her friend, Lauren, who wasn’t too far ahead. At one point on the run, we did see Audrey and Jeana very far ahead, so I decided it would be acceptable to carry Kate on my shoulders (since no one was around watching). I did force Kate to get off my shoulders though once we were in view of the spectators at the beginning of the loop. Becca, Riley, and Chris were so nice to cheer Kate into the transition area and to pull her bike and helmet out for her to mount up and move on.
Given her position in relation to the rest of the participants, we took an alternate route for the bike leg and headed directly to the car. In her defense, Kate did ride her bike all the way to the car.
Kate and I arrived at the the next transition area just in time to see Audrey pushing up the final bike hill. She looked incredible!
The swimming portion was my favorite and I think Kate’s favorite too. Actually, I don’t know if it was Kate’s favorite but I’m going to tell myself that because she did spend a lot of time with me in the pool. We were swimming together and she was holding onto me so much by herself that when she let go, I didn’t realize I was supposed to catch her and she totally went under the water. Luckily, Jeana was close by and yelled at me kindly brought it to my attention that our daughter was drowning. I felt like a horrible parent. We (Kate and I) made up and I took her under later to pick up a swim toy from the bottom of the pool. She definitely didn’t know what she was getting into.
