« April 2009 | Main | August 2009 »

June 14, 2009

Kids of Steel Triathlon 2009

My oldest daughter competed in the Brainsport Kids of Steel triathlon this year...

----

This being our first triathlon experience ever in our family, we weren't sure what to expect! Much to our pleasure, the Kids of Steel triathlon was quite well run, so any fears we may have had were put to rest. We did visit the race site in advance of race day so that our daughter had seen the source and knew what to expect as far as route.

On race day, it was very busy. Parents and children of all ages were swarming all over the place, and it was quite a task to keep track of our children and sometimes other parents' children as the day progressed. I made sure that I memorized what each kid was wearing, but all of the "kids with white shirts on" kind of blended together at times for me.

I caught some good video and photos of each of the three phases of the race: swimming, cycling and running. The children are put into age-specific groups, and the race times are all staggered, so even though it's busy it remains organized. I was scrambling to move around and get a good shot for each phase, but I still managed to enjoy the race.

It was interesting, the range in development of children of the same age. Heights and weights were all over the place, with some of them already sprouting gazelle-like legs that helped them in the running phase, while others had well-developed upper body strength helping them in the swimming phase. Quite an assortment of athletes!

The picture above is taken just after she crossed the finish line and was as exhausted as I've ever seen her in her life. It really only took a few minutes for her to regain composure, and after that she was off and running and playing with the other kids in the park again. Overall, she said she enjoyed the race and enjoyed competing, and she would do it again next year (even though she's a little scared that all of the distances are doubling!)

Posted by Hammer at 12:40 PM