The day before the Chisago 70.3 is the Chisago kids triathlon and Ivy wanted to do it. While it's tempting to write this in her voice, I think that I don't actually know what she's thinking most of the time, so instead I'll just narrate.
Packet Pickup
There was one option for packet pickup, show up the morning of. So that's what we did.
Race Morning
The race started at 9, we figured we needed an hour to get there and we figured we didn't want to be standing around long as that might wear on Ivy's patience, so we left at 6:45, enough time to get some gas in the car and get situated once we got there.
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| I racked the bike thinking we may have six passengers, in the end mom was sick so I could have just put it in the van with us. Apparently my sister's bike doesn't fit on this type of bike rack, so I'll just say that Ivy must already be taller than her. |
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| It was lightly raining as we left the house, then we drove through the orange and red sections. That's not light rain. |
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| Sporting her first triathlon racing bib |
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| Body marking complete |
After getting all marked up we went and set up the transition area
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| Easy spot to find, follow the sidewalk all the way to the end we were first in the rack |
By this point the rain was gone and it was turning into a great morning. So we headed off to the swim staging area.
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| Super excited to get going! |
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| Goggles On! We were in the second to last wave, and the first wave hadn't left yet |
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| Spectators watching the swim start and exit |
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| People with their kids waiting to start. The blue segment we're not in, the swimming entrance chute. |
It took about an hour from when they first wave went in until our wave went. The deal was that they were pausing between each age group to wait for the previous group to finish the bike course. I assume it was so they could better control where people were going, but after a while it was pretty annoying.
The Swim
The swim was a mass start by age and gender (that is, if the age group was 4-5, there were four waves, 5 yo boys, 5 yo girls, 4 yo boys, 4 yo girls.)
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| Trying to nudge in with the 5yo girls |
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| Right age group, ready to go! She was super excited |
It's worth mentioning that the swim is set up so that the kids could if they wanted to stand up at any time for help. Most of the older kids swam, but as they got younger, and the race moved closer to shore most of the kids started running. It was only waist deep. I advised her to swim as much as she could, as I know that it's faster to swim than run.
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| Swimming like a fish. This is the final marker, and she's headed toward the exit |
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| First out of the water! She ran almost the whole way to her bike with her goggles on :) |
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| The run to the bike was easily the hardest part of the race. It was probably as long as the bike course and up hill. By the time we got to her bike she couldn't even talk. |
The Bike
The bike course was an out and back, .5 miles. There was a slight decline for the first half and then, obviously, a slight up hill on the way back. The first half we spent taking it easy down the hill, and then when we rounded the corner she hammered back up the hill.
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| This is on the way back in, the picture is misleading, I'm pretty sure we were passing kids left and right at this point. The same kids that passed us on the way down the hill. |
After some coaxing to get her off the bike we ran back to our spot, she had taken off her helmut on the run we tossed our stuff there and took off.
The Run
The run was 1/8th of a mile, that equates to run out of transition and into the finisher's chute. She really turned on the gas at this point, totally self motivated!
The Finish
The girl looked like a total pro coming down toward the finish line. She crossed, picked up a cup of water and got a medal.
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| A dip in the ice bath (sans ice) post race really helps recovery |
Based on her stellar performance on the swim and really tough running to the bike I thought she had a chance to place, but she didn't. If you take a look back at the swimming exit picture, the girl in pigtails with the screaming mother placed first (don't get me wrong it wasn't some stage mom screaming, but she was definitely pushing her harder than I was pushing Ivy :) Ivy was definitely bummed by not placing.
Closing Comments
Ivy said she had fun, even when asked more than once. I got several thumbs up afterwards. The even itself is a little odd. I wish they could figure out a way to get the waves closer together, as you can imagine four year olds have trouble staying engaged for an entire hour before its time for them to go.
After the race we had some family fun, everyone by mom was there. We missed you mom!
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| Played in a mud puddle! |
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| Playing at the park |
3 comments:
fun is all that matters! she rocks in my book. It must be some kind of safety standard that they finish the group before with kids before starting the next wave. Ours was like that too ... and I agree too much waiting. I have heard that due to feedback at our series (read:annoying aggressive tri-moms like me) they now do the youngest first to avoid a long wait for them.
oh and by the way ... don't think I missed the challenge. You too can try to get the xs shiv on your bike rack when you're in town. I'll get the video camera ready for your magic :-)
Amy - It's not a challenge. I'm just saying, if my 4 yo's bike fits on the rack and your's doesn't the logic is that she is just bigger than you :)
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