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roughster
Aug 10, 2003, 7:00 PM
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Registered: Apr 3, 2002
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*scrape* *scrape* *scrape* Thats how this whole thing got started. Dressed in sweats, I was walking around my neighborhood at 11 PM with two large pieces of colored chalk (Purple and White). At every intersection I purposefully marked an arrow showing the way. Cars drove by at slow speed in what I can only assume was an attempt to get a good ID for someone who was surely to become a "suspect" in some illegal activity performed. After walking the bike, I did the same for the run.
Back home my wife worked on a banner for the Finish Line an it turned out great. I had the camcorder charging, the digital camera charging, I had ensured that all the parents got the course map the day before, and I was tired. At just passed midnight, I rolled into bed. *Zonk*
http://members.aol.com/maxruf2001/tri.pdf
"Áreas de competencia: desarrollo de programas de Extensión..." blaring sent me bolt upright at 6 AM. Nothing will wake you up faster than someone yelling a foreign language in your ear! I rolled out of bed and fired up the coffee maker. I reviewed the plan of attack for today:
Put a new tube in my daughters bike, a new tube in my wifes old bike that a different parent was going to borrow to use during the triathlon, hang the finish line banner, set up a table with food and water/sport drink, and try to get some vague idea of my "speech" to the girls about how we are out here to have fun, not try and get bragging rights for the next week or so.
The bike tubes went in easy, the finish line banner took a bit of inginuity but I finally got it up despite the winds best effort to knock it down, and the table was ready to go in a snap. The speech? Well I just decided to wing it! :)
9 AM rolled around and surprisingly enough everyone showed up pretty much on cue. I assembled everyone and informed them of the course marking/arrows. Explained the rules, as well as stressed to the parents that there child's safety was their own responsibilty at all times, but to be particularly careful during the bike portion. One parent suggested that we make all the girls stop at each stop sign. I thought about it and said, well since each girl will have their parent with them, it would be up to them. There were only two intersection crossings, and both on minor traffic residential 25 mph streets. (Throughout the race I didn't see one girl stop hehe :) )
I told the girls about my 1/2 Ironman experience and that out of almost 500 athletes, 1/2 of them beat me. I told them that no matter how long it took, they would all be winners and the goal was to have fun. I didn't think the girls would really be a problem and by the way they were bouncing up and down, I could tell they were ready to go!
We walked over to the pool where I told them to start in the pool holding onto the end (avoid a jump start mid air collision type of thing). *Splash* they all jumped in. The parents gathered around as I said, "Ready, Set, Go". And off they went.
http://members.aol.com/maxruf2001/swim.jpg
Thats Megan on the right (who got a little off course, just like dad has a habit of doing! :) ), and the rest of the girls on the left. You can Kaitlyn the girl in front on the left has pretty good form for a 7 yr old!
Megs and Kaitlyn hit the far side of the pool about the same time, with the other two not far behind. And it pretty much stayed that way for the rest of the ~45 sec swim. Megs and Kaitlyn got out of the pool pretty much at the same time:
http://members.aol.com/maxruf2001/swim2.jpg
*Note to self* remove blow up floaty things from around the pool next time. This isn't a steeple chase type thing ;)
From the pool it was a quick "fast walk" out the backyard gate of our neighbors house into our front yard to the transition area. All the girls were pretty bunched up at the transition area which made for a fun and chaotic atmosphere.
http://members.aol.com/maxruf2001/trans.jpg
During this time, two more "unknown" neighborhood girls showed up and decided they would cheer on the girls. They both said they would like to do it next time as well, so looks like nice race will grow in numbers :)
Some parents jumped in to help their kids put on their shoes, etc.. I should have mentioned that at the start that parents shouldn't assist their kids, but I didn't so my bad. Another lesson learned!
The original plan was for my wife to do the bike/run with Megan, but Megan decided she wanted me to do it. So I stood ready to go when she was. Caysie was 1st out of the transition area with Megs pretty much right on her heels. It was funny as Caysie's mom was REALLY into it and was going, "Come on Caysie GO GO GO" in a very serious way. Not an overzealous way, just a very intense and into it type of thing. I think she got just a big kick out of it just as much as the girls did!
The bike course is pretty much flat except for a small hill at about 0.6 miles and was a 0.8 mile loop. The arrows showed up really well (maybe too well hehe) in the sunlight as compared to when I was chalking them up at night when I could barely see them. Megan and Caysie were pretty much neck and neck all the way to the hill where Megs was able to push on through and get about a 20 yard lead.
http://members.aol.com/maxruf2001/bike1.jpg
Not much of a lead at all. Heres a close up of Caysie coming in from the bike leg:
http://members.aol.com/maxruf2001/bike2.jpg
and then Kaitlyn (with Katy just to her left, you can see her shadow just not her):
http://members.aol.com/maxruf2001/bike3.jpg
At this point Megs got a pretty good jump on the run leg but most of the girls were with 15 secs of each other. I figured if Megan had any kind of lead on the run she would most likely be able to hold it as she is a very strong runner for her age.
We trotted along and she was playing the role of race leader perfectly! She kept glancing over her shoulder and saying, "OH NO!! They're RIGHT behind me!" and then she would take off even faster. It was really cute! The run was a 0.4 mile loop also pretty flat. As we rounded the 1st bend she had to slow down and walk for a few secs. I resisted the urge to say, "Their going to catch you!" heheh but Caysie provided enough incentive to get her running again when Megan caught view of her about 15 yards behind us at the corner.
A loud "EEK" and Megan was off! I was pretty dang fun to run along side her and if she keeps it up running she could be a serious runner as no joke she is so fast for her age and she can sustain a fast pace as well. She cranked out the backside stretch without stopping and put a large gap between her and Caysie who seemed to be petering out by the looks of it.
When we hit the far corner, Megan stopped and looked and we saw Kaitlyn and Katy pass Caysie (Yes a lot of "K" sounds hehe). This was enough to get Megan running again and Katy is one of Megan's best school friends and she knows from soccer that Katy is a strong runner as well.
We rounded the home stretch and I could see Brenda (my wife) and Max (my son) standing out front on the sidewalk. Brenda was shooting camcorder footage so we didn't get a still shot of Megs crossing the line, but heres on right after she finished:
http://members.aol.com/maxruf2001/run1.jpg
All of the girls came in pretty quickly behind Megan. We snapped a good shot of them all together with their "Winner Medals":
http://members.aol.com/maxruf2001/finish1.jpg
Results:
1) Megan 13:06
2) Katy 14:13
3) Kaitlyn: 14:36
4) Caysie 14:57
I wanted to get splits but my wife got so excited she forgot to write them down except for the finishing times heheh.
All the parents came up and said they had a blast one like to do another again soon. The girls all had a blast as well and since Katy's mom is the local Girl Scout Troop leader, she started asking me if I would be willing to put one on for the Girl Scout Troop! I think with the lessons learned as well as the experience of running this one, I could make it even better.
I think next time I need a few extra helpers, especially for the babysitting aspect as we have a few infants that can make a mess in a hurry. I also think the course needs to be a little bit longer. All the girls said they wanted to do it "again" almost immediately. That means they had too much energy at the end heheh.
All in all it was a great experience and one I am glad I did. Who knows, maybe I'll try my hand at a real race someday after getting a few more of these under my belt :)
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pianomahnn
Aug 10, 2003, 7:03 PM
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Registered: Feb 17, 2001
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Fitness rules.
Im glad you're not letting them get obese and nasty.
edit: By the way, that's a very cool thing you did there. :)
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climbinganne
Aug 11, 2003, 12:08 AM
Post #3 of 17
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Registered: Apr 15, 2002
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In reply to: Fitness rules. By the way, that's a very cool thing you did there. :)
WORD!!!
gneiss job
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mike
Aug 11, 2003, 12:44 AM
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Registered: Aug 20, 2002
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That's the best. :D
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nikegirl
Aug 11, 2003, 3:32 AM
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Registered: Sep 2, 2001
Posts: 5662
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Those girls will forever remember this day!!!
Awesome!!
wOOt!!!!!
CONGRATS GIRLS!!
*very kewl thing you guys did, indeed!!
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overlord
Aug 11, 2003, 11:41 AM
Post #6 of 17
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Registered: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 14120
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cool. nice to see kids running around and someone caring for their general halth. :wink: keep it up.
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climbsomething
Aug 11, 2003, 8:06 PM
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Registered: May 30, 2002
Posts: 8588
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Cute! Little girls happy and healthy... the way it should be. :)
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crap
Aug 11, 2003, 8:56 PM
Post #8 of 17
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Registered: Jan 25, 2002
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The only thing remotely simular to your triathlon that my parents put on was an impromptu "avoid getting you butt whooped/find your daddy another beer/lie to the social worker" event. This was always more fun than the "fight for your breakfast/catch your parents car before they leave you in the middle of nowhere again" biathlon.
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charley
Aug 11, 2003, 10:23 PM
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Registered: Apr 13, 2002
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That was really excellent!!! Pics were cool too.
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kamofladge
Aug 11, 2003, 10:30 PM
Post #10 of 17
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Registered: Mar 4, 2002
Posts: 83
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This was a really cool idea!! Congrats on getting it all together!! Great story telling! Very Intense!!
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hangerlessbolt
Aug 11, 2003, 10:36 PM
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Registered: Dec 2, 2001
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great idea...i'll have to remember it for when i have lil ones of my own
:-D
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crap
Aug 11, 2003, 10:41 PM
Post #12 of 17
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Registered: Jan 25, 2002
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In reply to: great idea...i'll have to remember it for when i have lil ones of my own :-D
Big 1's would never go for it.
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philbox
Moderator
Aug 11, 2003, 10:51 PM
Post #13 of 17
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Registered: Jun 27, 2002
Posts: 13105
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That`s awesome Rough, how about setting up a cross country next time or mebbe a rogain for the bigger kids. Thanks for taking the trouble for putting all of this together and placing it on this site. Your kids will thank you for the effort of setting up the triathlon when they grow up.
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allan_thomson
Aug 11, 2003, 10:52 PM
Post #14 of 17
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Registered: Jul 12, 2003
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What about an adventure race? Reckon they could last a week?
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hangerlessbolt
Aug 11, 2003, 11:00 PM
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In reply to: In reply to: great idea...i'll have to remember it for when i have lil ones of my own :-D Big 1's would never go for it.
That’d be big’uns…and by that age they’ll be hangin out at the beach surfin the breaks…or flaggin down the boiz who do.
Gotta nab ‘em when they’re lil.
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nnichols
Aug 12, 2003, 3:08 AM
Post #16 of 17
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Registered: May 28, 2003
Posts: 800
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Awesome! Creative, fun, and healthy - you and your wife definitely deserve the "Parents of the Year" award. :D Oh, thanks for making the rest of us underacheivers look bad - lol!!!
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danooguy
Aug 12, 2003, 3:48 AM
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Registered: Dec 31, 2002
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Great parents. The kids look like they had a ball.
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