Tulsa Kids Triathlon Report

Life has been very crazy lately and my blogging has severely fell behind. Not that I am trying to make any excuses, but it is a matter of life choices. Obviously, I chose to do other things beside blog. I am going to try and catch up on some things that have happened since the last post. For this post, I am going to concentrate on the kids race they had a few weeks ago.
At the end of last month, the kids had an opportunity to do the 13th annual Tulsa Parks kids triathlon. This is a very low key and kid supportive race put on by the Tulsa Parks crew at McClure park. They offer a long and short course race with the main emphasis being on participation. My kids have done the race the last three years and they both decided to do the long course, 150m swim, 2 mile bike, and 1 mile run. Here they are getting set up in the transition area.
Being a typical Oklahoma July day, it was hot and muggy. I am sure the swim felt pretty good. The long course goes first and they line them up according to race number. After they start the first kid, they kick them off every 10 seconds. I was not worried about Shannon's swim as she is on the swim team for Swim Tulsa, but Wyatt dropped out of Swim Tulsa and has not been doing much with it over the summer.
Shannon started first and had a really nice freestyle stroke going in the water.
Wyatt started next and it showed immediately that he has not swam much lately. He was trying to do a freestyle stroke, but he would not keep his head down. I was not for sure if he was going to make the 150m. He managed pull through it by making the shallower end and then hanging on to the ropes to help guide him along.
Shannon was first into the transition area and got her bike to head out on the 2 mile course. I bet Will that Shannon would be the first one back into transition with the loser doing the dishes. Shannon has had a strong bike in the past, so I felt pretty confident.
Wyatt was next in transition to head out on the course. I knew that he would catch her on the run, but I thought she would hold him off until the run. He is a great runner as he did a 6:18 mile in a race at age 7.
Well, I lost the bet. Wyatt passed her on the bike. He had a big smile on his face and told us as he went by that he beat her.
Shannon came in next and she was ticked. The photo does not show it well, but she was not a happy camper, plus she had to run next, which she does not like.
Her comes Wyatt sprinting towards the finish in a time of 26:40. Great job Wyatt!
Next was Shannon hitting the line in 32:15. She was not happy that she got beat by her brother, but she still did great.

They had several kids at the race that were part of some Tulsa Youth Triathlon team. I am not for sure who they are, but it seemed to be all the Tri Mettle team's kids and appears to be not open to the public. I am on their Facebook page, but it really does not have any information. Too bad, as it seems like a great thing for all Tulsa kids.

I am really proud of the kids being in the race and no matter how fast their time was, they still had fun. I always tell them before any race, that the main thing is to have fun. Sometimes, I need to take some of my own advice. The results for the race can be found here.