Swim. Bike. Run.

 That's what kids do anyway right? When we were at Landon's swimming lesson the other day, a friend mentioned that her little girl would be doing a triathlon. I had heard of this before, and thought it was kinda extreme. But when this friend told me the distances of the tri, and the course that it's on - it just sounded like fun! So, after a phone call to another friend who'd done it, guess whose kids got signed up to try a tri? Yup.

For the 5-8 age group (which luckily included both Liza and Landon), they started with a 25 meter swim (and yes - that's one length of the pool).

Landon waiting for his turn!

Liza's best stroke is backstroke -so that's what she chose to swim. It looked awesome!

We told the kids that they didn't need to race to finish first. We just wanted them to give it a try and have fun. Well, as soon as they got going, their competitive edge came out. They hauled through their swimming. Then they went racing out of the pool and sprinting up the hill to their bikes. Tyler and I couldn't get them dressed quickly enough!

Liza getting going from the parking lot

Landon racing for the sign that says "BIKE START"

They biked .88 miles. They started from the rec center and headed down the hill to the park. It's a park with a huge circle sidewalk around the perimeter. (We always take our bikes when we go to this park, so it was a familiar ride for these guys.) Then they had the tough job of coming back up the hill to finish where they started.

Landon standing for some leverage.

Liza on the uphill.

Poor Liza crashed twice while on her bike (crowded course!). She muscled through until the end, though. You may see some of her battle wounds on her run...

The run, according to Landon, was "the easiest part because it was so short!" It was .25 miles. Compared to the "Fun Run" that we had done the day before with Liza's school, it was short!

This race was legit. What you see on Liza's ankle is her timing chip.

We don't have official results yet -but based on our videotaping start and stop times, they both finished their race in about 20 minutes. A very exciting 20 minutes.

Landon at the finish line

Liza with her medal.

   My biggest surprise was Landon's intensity on the race! He even passed his sister who was crashed on the course. You can see in his running shot that he was having fun all the way through the end. Believe it or not, he came home super hyper -bouncing off the walls for the next few hours. Liza was pretty beat and sore from her crash, but after resting up, decided that her first triathlon was fun.

They were both pleased to win a medal (the medals they give out to all the finishers). "My first GOLD!"  - and I know the popsicles at the finish line helped too :)