2009 Kiddie Triathlon

For a while, Audrey wanted to have a kiddie triathlon instead of a birthday part this year. Last year our friend, Chris, conducted a fun triathlon for the kids and he asked us about doing another one this year right around Audrey’s birthday. We joined forces and planned an event for the kids to enjoy. This year we added a few new features to the race.

Jeana went to RunTex, a running store in Austin, and asked if they had any extra bibs (the papers you pin to your shirt with your number on it) from a recent race. RunTex had some extra bibs from the “Keep Austin Weird 5k” that they gave Jeana. I was really excited because Jeana and I like to collect the bibs from the races we have run.

Another swag item for races is a shirt. Since the race was a kids race, we asked Audrey to draw a picture of a person running, biking, and swimming to go on a shirt. We bought a bunch of white shirts, dyed them blue and pink, printed the picture on a t-shirt transfer, and created some cute shirts. I’ll offer a simple apology to those kids who received a splotchy or spotted shirt. This was our first time dying clothing intentionally.

The bib, shirt, and a bag of Welch’s fruit snacks were combined into a race packet which the kids picked up before the race. I don’t know how much the kids liked the swag, but I thought the kids all looked awesome with their numbers on!

The triathlon included a 0.5 mile run, a 0.7 mile bike ride, and a swim across our community pool. When we checked the weather forecast last night, it said that the temperature this morning was supposed to be around 78 degrees. Jeana and I both thought that was a little too cold for either of us to get in the pool. Once I started running the 0.5 mile loop and carrying a 30 pound child for half of that, jumping into a freezing pool sounded refreshing. In fact, when Kate and I arrived at the pool, I got her helmet and shoes off, but then I couldn’t get my own shirt off because it was wet from sticky, Texas sweat! I kind of laughed to myself because it had to look pretty funny for a grown man to struggle getting his shirt off.

Audrey finished long before Kate and I arrived at the pool so she was there to cheer Kate on. Kate did such a good job in the pool! It may have helped that we went to the pool twice earlier this week and did some practicing. I’m sure the practicing helped Audrey too. Jeana said that she couldn’t keep up to Audrey during the biking leg of the race because Audrey was going so fast on her new bike. I was telling Kate during the running leg that she needs to come with me when I go running in the mornings because she was riding so fast.

Each racer received a chocolate medal after getting out of the pool. Kate was very excited about the medal, and as a result probably tasted a lot of chlorine with the chocolate because my slippery fingers couldn’t get the wrapper off easily.

Simon was such a trooper today. We almost forgot we had a third child because he was so good and just sat through it all.

Following the race, we had a barbecue at our house and the weather was perfect (but we still all stayed inside). A lot of neighborhood and church friends were there. We also had two friends of our friends show up again – the funny part is that they were here 2 years ago for a Memorial Day barbecue. I suppose we’ll see them again in the future.

Thanks to all the parents and adults for helping all the children complete the race, for helping at the transition station and the pool, and for taking pictures. Here’s to another triathlon next year!