Madison's Triathlon Part II

This Saturday Madison did the "real" triathlon. In her age group (9/10) there were about 25 kids. She was nervous before the race saying that her stomach hurt. This picture is of her and the other kids getting instructions from Keith the swim center director. You can see her biting her lip...

During the training camp they did a transition practice race and Madison was first so she won this fabulous Tigersharks swim cap seen in this photo.






Here we are exiting the pool, about the mid to last half of the pack. All the swim team punks were the first ones out of course.









Here we are at the "transition area" where we put on shoes and take off on the bike.









The bike was where she caught up and smoked em! When she got off the bike she was the second place girl. You can see the difference in her entire demeanor on race day it is pretty amazing.

The run was where we had a break down. She got a cramp and had to stop running to recover. Brent ran out to her and told her what place she was in and kept her going. In the end, the cramp got the best of her but she still sprinted to the finish.






In the end, she was the 4th place girl she was just seconds away from a 3rd place medal. Every year she just gets better and better. The first year she did not finish, she swam 50 meters, exiting the pool and said I am done. The second year she finished and was not last. The third she finished in the upper mid of the pack. This year she did amazing I am so proud. One of the first things she said to me after she stopped crying and caught her breath was "I think I can win this next year mommie".

Not too bad for a soccer player!

Madison's Triathlon Part I

Madison has been attending triathlon training camp this week through our community center recreation program. This will be the second year they have had the camp to help prepare the kids for the race. This will be the 4Th year she has done the race. She has been having a blast all week practicing transitions, learning about nutrition, and doing craft projects. It is a nice change of pace from her regular summer camp program.

Since I work across the street from the community center, I had the opportunity to come and watch the practice race they did today.

The camp is run by a guy who used to run the entire recreation program but had the opportunity to buy a business so he has resigned. Three of his own kids are in the camp one of which is Madison's age. So when it came to the practice race, it was just she and him in their age bracket. Evidently his dad told the two of them to stick together and just do the race without stopping. At least that was Madison's understanding of the instructions so she thought she was not allowed to beat him.

Madison was the first out of the pool but the other boy caught her at the transition area but kindly waited for her before taking off on his bike. Then they proceeded to ride together until the run where again, if one of them got ahead the other waited for them to catch up. I found this quite amusing but the camp organizers were just shaking their heads. In the end, they tied just as planned but it was Madison who was waiting for him to get to the finish.

The real race is this Saturday and we are super excited!