Weise's World

I'm so proud of Christian... A couple of weeks ago we got an email from the swim team regarding a youth triathlon being held in Folsom. I talked to Christian and thanks to the Olympics he knew exactly what a triathlon was and was excited to give it a try. The 7-8 age group would swim 50 yds, bike 1 mile and run 1/2 mile - a perfect distance for his first ever triathlon. 

We figured the swim would be no problem, he swims 50 yards in his sleep. We also figured that the bike ride wouldn't be too big of a deal, we were mainly concerned about the run. We measured the distance from our house to his soccer practice field and it was exactly 1/2 mile, so his main training for the triathlon was running... okay, jog/walking... to his soccer practice. And when soccer was over he was just as excited to run/jog/walk back home. I think he was able to do this 4 times in the past weeks. Not much, but it did work - that jog/walk started out at about 30% jog and 70% walk and turned into 100% jog with a faster (not quite a sprint though) finish.

Today was race day. Grandpa/Grandma made it up to support him in his effort. With twelve 7-8 boys racing I figured Christian would place around 8th or 9th with my estimated time for him around 18-20 minutes. It was a hot day but Christian was excited and ready to go. Pictures are below, I love the first one where he's coming out of the water - I think he looks like true triathlete in this pic. He did an amazing job. We reviewed several times what he needed to do to transition between the different legs and the importance of doing it quickly and he took it all in... When he got out of the pool he rushed to the transition area got on his gear for biking and hit the road. I wish I can get him to rush like that whenever we want to go somewhere! He hit the bike course, did the loop, handed his bike over to me, took a quick drink of water and started the run --- okay, jog/run... Notice, I did not say walk!! Even after swimming and biking he managed to jog the full 1/2 mile and even increased his speed to a run toward the end.

So how did he do?? Awesome! He placed in the worst position to place --- 4th (where the 1st through 3rd places get medals). He finished in 12 minutes, 18.40 seconds. He totally blew my expectations out of the water!! I'm so proud of him and he feels great about it! Check out the results...