Kids Tri Harder Triathlon 2008

In this family we Tri, we really, really do. But the kids said they wanted to TRI Harder. So it is....

We are lucky enough to live in a place that has the cutest, funnest little triathlon for kids, called the Kids Tri Harder. Mason participated last year and loved it. Savannah wasn't old enough yet but she couldn't wait to do it this year.

The kids ages 4-7 swim once across the pool (25 m), then they bike around the block, then they run around the parking lot twice and through the big finish. The kids 8-12 do double those distances. They all get Tshirts, a goodie bag, and a finisher's medal, and then they announce winners at the end. The kids 4-6 are allowed to use flotation devices as well.

We arrived at 7:15 am for check in. Savannah's group would be first. They start them age by age, 1 year at a time, starting with the youngest. Last year, there were only 1-2 four year olds, but this year, she had one of the biggest divisions, which was fun. The girl is competitive, so I think she liked having some competition ;)

Here she is, outside, listening to the race director give instructions and looking so excited!!!


Then she hopped in the pool and waited for the starting whistle. Can you tell she enjoys the camera?



And then the whistle blew and she and the other 4 year olds and their floaties were off!! They swam their very fastest and kicked their little legs all the way across the pool, where Daddy helped her climb out and we ran out to transition 1. Here, she put on her bike helmet and shoes and she was off again! Daddy was able to run by her side to cheer her on. She was the only 4 year old without training wheels which made her much faster than her competition.



She was so much faster, in fact, that she was finishing the run before any of the other 4 year olds, even the boys, had begun. As she crossed the finish line, the announcer said, "And we have our very first finisher of the day!" And just like you would expect from Savannah, as she crossed the finish line, she gave me a pose ;)





She was so excited that she took first place. We didnt know it yet but she beat the next girl by 4 whole minutes (the rest of the 4 year olds finished within a minute of each other) and she was a full 2 minutes ahead of the fastest boy. Girl can MOVE!

She was thrilled to get her finisher's medal as well.

As soon as Savannah finished, we rushed back inside to see Mason preparing to get in for his swim.

Mason has not had swimming lessons at all so he did the backstroke. Of course the kids that had already had years of swimming lessons and could do the freestyle were out of the pool before he was, but Mason is pretty darn fast on his bike!

He was in third place going into the bike portion, and the kid in 4th place had this look of determination on his face- he really wanted to pass Mason. Mason kept looking over his shoulder and making sure he was going fast enough to stay ahead, and he was. Check out the picture below to see that look on the kid's face. It was kind of humorous!


As Mason went into the second lap of the bike, he came around the corner a little too fast and wiped out on his bike! That gave the boy behind him just the opportunity he was looking for, and he was able to pass Mason. But Mason got right back up, hopped back on and kept going. I was so proud of him for his determination!


Dan ran along side Mason to give him some moral support, and Mason was a trooper! He came in 4th place and was really happy about the whole thing. He said he can't wait to do another one!

Both kids had a great time and we took them out to eat afterwards to celebrate. Here they are with their medals:

Here are the kids who did the tri-the ones that stayed for the awards, which wasn't nearly all of them.

Mason and Savannah each after the awards ceremony:

And of course I had both kids give me a nice pose at the end!!

Now, if only I can get them to Try so hard at their chores.....

The Chronicles of Princess Fabulous and the Maintenance Mama

Once upon a time, in a land starting with I and ending with daho, lived a sweet little girl named Princess Fabulous. Princess Fabulous lived with her mother and a slew of boys! While she had always wanted a sister, she would soon find out that there were plenty of advantages to being the only girl.

For some time now, Princess Fabulous had had a beef with her mother, hereafter affectionately referred to as the Maintenance Mama. Princess Fabulous felt totally short changed. The Maintenance Mama could be exceptionally cruel. What do you mean, you ask? Well, she actually made Princess fabulous get her hair cut ------at home! *collective gasp!*

One day, however, when the Maintenance Mama was preparing to make an appointment for herself at the salon, she gave way to her softer side, and decided since Princess Fabulous was preparing for an ever important event- beginning kindergarten- she would take her for the first time, to...wait for it........

THE SALON!!!!!!

Princess Fabulous didn't think life could get any sweeter! So on that special day, the Maintenance Mama and Princess Fabulous left the boys to do boy things, while they headed southward, to the Land of Seward, where the glorious Jessica would work her magic on the Maintenance Mama's unsightly roots, and make the beautiful Princess even more stunning- if that's possible.

So glorious Jessica (who Princess Fabulous said was soooooooo pretty) whipped up a magic potion that turned the Maintenance Mama's coif from White Trash-tastic to Blonde Bombshell in mere hours, and ship-shaped the mane of Princess Fabulous. She was now ready for her big debut as the Kindergarten Kid---or was she.

Little did she know that the Maintenance Mama had so enjoyed this endeavor, that she made further plans for the two of them. A couple of days later, the boys were once again left to do whatever it is boys do when those girls aren't around, and they headed for.....wait for it....

THE NAIL SALON!!!!

The Maintenance Mama treated herself to a full set of nails and a much needed pedicure (triathlon training doesn't make for attractive feet), while Princess Fabulous got her fingernails and toenails both painted- with beautiful flowers! What a bonding moment it was for the two of them.

The Maintenance Mama told her handsome husband, King Flatulence, about their adventures. He told her that some day, some poor man would curse her for creating a monster!! She hoped, in her heart of hearts, that whomever was lucky enough to land the hand of the dear princess, would appreciate this girly side she comes by so rightly.

And thus ends the first chapter in the Chronicles of Princess Fabulous and the Maintenance Mama.

OOoooh Baby- Two more new babies

Lol, no, we are NOT pregnant again, and no certainly not with twins! But we did get 2 new babies...
This is my new baby-the Lady in Red ;) Isn't she beautiful? I had a road bike already but it was an aluminum body (I guess I should explain for those that aren't familiar with bikes- aluminum is a heavier bike than carbon, the lighter the bike, the faster the bike) and just a basic road bike, nothing fancy. I really, really wanted to upgrade to an all carbon body with Ultegra components (the parts of the bike other than the body itself, Ultegra is an upgraded component from what was on my old bike). I also wanted to go down to a 54cm frame (the size of bike) from the 56cm that I had. I went with the Felt F4 (the make and model of the bike). Daniel is just starting out in the triathlon world, and in true Daniel form, he wanted to start off with the good stuff, so he wanted one too.

This is Daniel's new baby, yet to be named. He actually needed a 60cm frame, so his is a giant Giant OCR c2 (the Make is Giant, the model is the OCR c2) ;)

We both went with last year's model and because we bought both bikes, we were able to save $1100 on the bikes.

I give it it's first long ride tomorrow, and I can't wait to see how it performs. Then I will be riding in the Rush Triathlon on August 16th, and Daniel and I will both be riding in the Bear Lake Brawl Triathlon on September 6th. Guess we better get used to them quickly!

Spudman 2008

L to R: Me (babysitter and cheerleader), Torrie (team, swim), Hidee (full race), Carole (babysitter and cheerleader), Tammy (team, bike), and Daniel (team, run).

This weekend was the Spudman Triathlon in Burley, ID. I thought it would be an emotional race because I would be watching my husband out there (his first one) while I couldnt be a part of it. It did end up being an emotional race, but not at all for that reason.

Daniel and I left the older 3 children with his mom and headed up on Friday afternoon. Baby Jayden came along for the ride (Dan says we were breaking him in early). We met up with our group around 4 to get signed in and eat the carb up dinner. Then we went back to the hotel room for some sleep.

The next morning, we decided it was most practical for Daniel to ride over to the race with his teammates, while my friend Carole and I (Carole was helping with Torrie's baby while Torrie did the swim portion of the race) got the babies ready and took a separate car over a little later on. So they left around 6-ish to head over, and Carole and I headed out about 7:15, hoping to get there just in time to see Hidee and Torrie come out of the water.

As we arrived, Carole and I made our way to T2 and called Daniel to find out if Torrie was out of the water yet. He told us he was at T1 but their wave had been pulled out of the water and held back because a swimmer from an earier wave had gone missing. What a horrible thing. He told us that three women had seen this man put his hands in the air and call for help, and then go under, but not resurface. Carole and I decided to head down to T1 then, and wait it out with Daniel. We began walking when he called back to give me some more info, so we stopped close to the bank of the river. As we did so, we saw the rescue boat pull up right in front of us, and send in divers, tethered to the boat. It was obvious as we watched that they had located the missing swimmer and were pulling him out. By this point, he had been missing about a half hour. Carole and I just happened to be in the wrong spot, and were standing right there as they lifted the body out of the water and began to try to revive him, to no avail. What a heartwrenching thing to witness. At this point, the call needed to be made about what to do with the last wave of athletes. Most athletes wanted to continue afterwards, but the call was made to skip the swim, and do just a duathlon, with the bike and run portions.

We made our way down to T1 and met up with Daniel and Tammy (who was doing the bike portion). It was very chaotic as they tried to line up all the bikers who normally would have been coming out of the water one by one. The truth is, there was no accurate way now to time them with this kind of a start.

Tammy did the bike and did a great job. Daniel waited in T2 for her to finish, while Carole, myself, and Torrie took care of the babies. Tammy finished in about 1:19, and Dan took off into the run. He had it rough. Since the wave had been held back so long and he was the last wave as it was, it was now over an hour later than he should have been running and excruciatingly HOT! I waited at the finish, and watched as my friend Hidee came in from an earlier wave (she did the full race), and then waited for Dan to finish. Like a champ, tired and heat exhausted, he came down that hill and turned on the turbo speed, to finish the run. The run portion took him about 59 minutes.

Torrie, Daniel and Tammy's team came in right in the middle of the pack, but it's hard to really know what that means, since the start was so confusing and there was no swim...they started the time for everyone at once ,but it took a good 5 minutes for them all to actually get started.

Afterwards, we stopped at Red Lobster and had a great meal before heading back to the land of a million children ;)

I really enjoyed being able to share something I enjoy so much with Daniel and I have a feeling this won't be his last race. I can't wait to race it next year. At the same time, I send my thoughts and prayers to the family of Don Morehouse of Provo, the swimmer who was lost (incidentally, he happened to be the CEO of Slaymaker, who is over Winger's and TGI Fridays-my little brother works at TGI Fridays and knew him). Here is a link to the article with more details: http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2008/07/27/news/local_state/141165.txt

Here are some pictures from the race:

Daniel waiting anxiously in T2 for Tammy's arrival

Tieing those shoes-probably a good idea. And that water bottle? Yeah, that's a good idea too...

Tammy, just after finishing the bike portion.

Daniel, sprinting to the finish.

50 yards to go...

And he makes it!!!

Yeah, he drank all of those ;)

Not wanting to walk another step-ever.

Showering off- a welcome relief.

The finish line at Spudman. I'll see you next year!