Unfortunately, I'm just now getting around writing about this, but the weekend of October 4th was Melanie's first triathlon! She competed in the Women's Benbrook Sprint Tri. The weather was just plain awful: pouring rain, low 60s, and windy. Because of flooding on the bike course, the bike was shortened from 13.8 miles down to only 4.4 miles. The race director (RD) claimed it to be 6, but the times and Melanie's bike computer indicate 4.4. One option was to eliminate the bike and have a swim/run, but hats off to the RD for keeping the bike route even though it was crazy short...for many of these women, Melanie included, it was their first triathlon and he wanted to keep the bike route as much in tact as possible so they can say they have done an official triathlon. I know Melanie walked away a little disappointed with the distance reduction, but it was still a tremendous accomplishment.
Always smiling.
First off, 280 women registered, and only 196 showed (1 was a DNF). My hats off to everyone who showed up to race despite such awful conditions. Melanie was nervous about the swim, but she has really taken to the water quickly in just a few weeks. She has a natural swimming ability for someone who's never done it before. She had the 121st fastest swim overall and 26th out of 41 in age group. She had a pretty good transition: the 17th fastest in age group. Cycling is her strength, and she had 45th fastest bike split overall and the 7th fastest out of 41 in age group. Her 2nd transition was pretty good, but she fell to middle of the pack relative to her age group. She went out on the run and stayed smart on a difficult course in bad conditions. Although she's not a natural runner, she is getting better by leaps and bounds. I think she exceeded her expectations on the 5K run and finished with the 91st best run out of 195 and the 19th out of 41 in her age group. And she had a great big smile when she finished. She placed 80th out of 195 overall, and 18th out of 41 in age group with a time of 57:42.
For someone who picked up swimming on a whim 3 weeks before her first race, and someone who didn't grow up as a runner, she did really, really well. Having a shortened bike course really penalizes someone like her that bikes well, but despite this inherent "penalty," she still placed rather high all things considered. The boys and I are really proud of her.
Below, the boys were playing with their new found friend during the run. I asked Brady what his name was, and he replied, "Wiggly Worm." It was funny to see them build up the courage to actually touch it, then scream, "Eeewwww" when it moved at the touch.
Coming up next for us will be a fun weekend Oct 24-25, after which 75% of our household will be triathletes. Brady has his first, real, official triathlon on Sat and Melanie and I are racing on Sunday. Should be a great weekend. As much as Alex is anxious to do a triathlon, too, he'll have to wait 2 more years...they don't let too many 2-year-olds do triathlons. He'll just have to settle for his 1K races in the meantime. :)
One last story before I'm done. The day prior to this race, Brady had a soccer game. He hadn't been able to play goalie yet and he thought that looked cool and fun since they get to use their hands, so he wanted to try. The problem is that the goalie on the opposite teams gets all the action because we have so many good kids on our team; our goalie just stands there playing with the net. So he is talking to me while he's in goal. "Dad, I'm bored. I don't want to play goalie anymore." I tell him to just wait for his turn to get the ball and he can get it with his hands like the other goalie. So finally, the other team gets a breakaway and comes down trying to score. Does Brady finally save the ball with his hands? No. Instead, he sees this as his chance to get into the action. He charges out of the net full steam and steals the ball in full stride, dribbles around everybody and cuts in toward the net and put a great shot by the goalie and into the goal. After the goal, he matter-of-factly sprinted back to his own goal and stood in net as if that is exactly how you are supposed to play goalie. The giggles among the crowd was so funny; no one quite knew how to respond to that one!
One last story before I'm done. The day prior to this race, Brady had a soccer game. He hadn't been able to play goalie yet and he thought that looked cool and fun since they get to use their hands, so he wanted to try. The problem is that the goalie on the opposite teams gets all the action because we have so many good kids on our team; our goalie just stands there playing with the net. So he is talking to me while he's in goal. "Dad, I'm bored. I don't want to play goalie anymore." I tell him to just wait for his turn to get the ball and he can get it with his hands like the other goalie. So finally, the other team gets a breakaway and comes down trying to score. Does Brady finally save the ball with his hands? No. Instead, he sees this as his chance to get into the action. He charges out of the net full steam and steals the ball in full stride, dribbles around everybody and cuts in toward the net and put a great shot by the goalie and into the goal. After the goal, he matter-of-factly sprinted back to his own goal and stood in net as if that is exactly how you are supposed to play goalie. The giggles among the crowd was so funny; no one quite knew how to respond to that one!
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