Race Day

Since I can't be doing any races this summer, I decided to sign other members of the family up and live vicariously through them. : ) This morning Brian ran a 1/2 marathon as part of his training for the full marathon he'll be running in October, and Ben completed a Kids' Triathlon!

Brian did well with his 1/2. His training had taken a bit of a back seat about a month ago, but then he ramped it up in preparation for today's race. His personal best 1/2 time is 1 hr 50 min, and today he was hoping to be around 2:15. He finished at 2:09 which is a 9:54 pace for 13 miles. Not too shabby at all!

Ben was excited to race in the kids' tri with a couple of neighborhood kids. His age group swam 100 yards, biked 2 miles, and ran 1/2 mile. The weather was a bummer and didn't fully cooperate. He swam and biked normally, then they pulled the kids off the course for a lightning delay, and after 15 min or so let them back on and Ben was able to finish! Eventually the race was called due to more lightning, and the youngest triathletes (5-7 yrs old) were only able to complete a shortened version of their swim distance; that was it. This was the first year for this particular YMCA to host a kids' tri, and it was very well organized, safe, and I can believe we'll be doing it again! Thanks to Holly, Anna, Max, Nana & Papa for coming out to cheer everyone on!

Transition area all set up!


Body marked and ready to go!


The yellow wave (Ben opted not wear his cap) waiting to start


A natural swimmer


Transition 1 is tough because you're wet!


The cheering sectioned started to fizzle out when the rain began.


Calm, cool & collected

Heading into transition 2 following the bike ride

He finished with a strong run!


Great job, boys!


Does buying candy from the vending machines defeat the purpose of exposing kids to a tri?