Fish tackles His First Tri

This morning was an exciting day in our home as Fish became a Triathlete! Actually, we aren't quite sure what to call him as he was ready to be a triathlete but, because of the rain, the officials decided to cancel the bike portion of the tri for safety reasons. Since he was prepared to do the entire thing, we are calling him a triathlete, especially since he wants to register for the next one in two weeks!

It was an early rise for him, but he was ready to get his groove on! As we walked out the door, the skies opened up and a deluge overtook our town for about 45 minutes straight. Thunder, lightening, and heavy rains as we made the short drive to the race site, had both of us wondering what would transpire in the next hour or so.

As soon as we arrived, we had the privilege of running into The Best Swimming Teacher Ever, aka Erica and her awesome kiddos!



This is Fish and Miss Mini E.



Mr. Mini N.

We collected his race packet and timing chip and then headed out to the transition area as soon as the rain died down. I was a bit sad that the bike portion had been canceled as Fish and I had practiced transitioning in the front yard this week. I reassured Fish that there would be other days to ride the bike, if he decided that he wanted to do that.



We began to head to the pool to line up and saw another rainbow! This month I have seen several and was so excited to capture a few pictures such as this one.



Erica and her son, Mini N, Mark, the kids, and I, grabbed a coveted spot near the pool and stood as far out of the mud as possible.







The race started late secondary to the rain delay, but did finally get started. First we cheered for Miss Mini E! Then we waited for Fish's age group to come through and about 45 mins later we were cheering our hearts out for him!

He looked so comfortable in the water. Taking long, slow, strokes with long slow breaths. It looked to me as though he was purposely slowing himself down to pace himself. When asked about it later, he shared that he was taking the long slow breaths and strokes because, "it looked cool!" I loved his ability to enjoy the moment, not stress about the swim, and simply embrace the experience.

(Thank you, Richard, for this picture!)


After the swim, he headed into the transition area and donned his shoes for the run. It was quite muddy. Heaven for me, maybe not so much for Fish and he hasn't done any running off road.



It was scorching hot, humid, and quite brutal by 9:00 am. I knew that this was going to be one long half-mile.







He ran out strong, about half way through the run, he had to walk for a bit, but he pulled out a nice strong finish and made me one proud mom!