Another Triathlon

A couple of weeks before Jason's and my triathlon, we discovered a tri for kids that Karissa's friend, Olivia, was training for. Since we were at the peak of training for ours, the girls thought it would be fun to do this particular one with Karissa's friend. It would be doable for them and I was happy that they wanted to try it. Karissa was in a club called Girls on the Run in the spring and she spent over a month running and training at school two days per week. It also included character building mini lessons and was a great program. It concluded with a race on Sunday, which we chose not to participate in. I wanted her to have the opportunity to experience a race.

This was back in May when the Girls on the Run got together to do some landscaping at the school. For some reason, Karissa's final Girls on the Run pic with her certificate and medal won't download from my phone. They are still on there,along with some of Victoria's dance pics and haven't ever downloaded in all the times I've done it since then! Go figure.

 When we signed them up for the tri, there would only be about 3 weeks of training for them, but I knew it would be fine and even preferred it that way. I knew they wouldn't train a ton, nor did they need to, and that they would just lose interest if it was too long of a process. All I wanted them to do was try the swim a couple times (200 meters), the bike one time followed by a run, and a couple of runs. The bike was only 3.5 miles and the run 1.5 miles. I had fun "coaching" them and they even let me do it!

We had a good pep talk the day of and we were ready! It was the perfect race for kids. It was small and the second annual. The swim was in a pool,which was even better for them, as opposed to a lake. There is a shorter race for younger kids, which Austin wants to do next year. The girls were entered in the age 10-14 age group.

Victoria, Olivia, Karissa (Erik's head)

Most of the racers.

After the adult group started. My girls are to the left of the boy in the orange bathing suit. They both have blue on.

Victoria is the second yellow head back, going to the left.

Karissa doing the back stroke at the second to last lap. 

Victoria finishing the bike.

Starting on the run.

Karissa finishing the bike.

Karissa finishing the run.

Happy finisher!

Looking good!

Victoria looked pretty good during the swim and Karissa, who was the smallest by far (besides Olivia) remembered everything I told her, she didn't give up! She did some freestyle, took a couple of small breaks, and did backstroke the rest of the way and just kept going!

4th place!!

The bike ride was easy for them and they did well. After Karissa got off, though, she said her legs were tired. I told her to take it easy and walk a little if she needed (which she did a little of in every practice run of ours). Victoria came back from the run in a sprint and ended up taking 4th place for the girls! I was surprised because they started one a time in the pool, so I couldn't tell by when they came in. She came in later because she started later. We were very proud of her efforts! When Karissa came in not long after Victoria, I was very surprised. She hadn't walked at all! They both felt great after wards and had such a positive experience! I'm so happy they did

The boys were great supporters!