Nate the Triathlete

Nate competed in his first triathlon on Saturday!! It was the Tuscaloosa Kids Triathlon at Lake Lurleen, and all the proceeds went to the Secret Meals for Hungry Children organization.

 

I registered him months ago, and we did some "training" this past month so he'd be ready. His age group was required to do a 50 yard swim (the equivalent of 2 laps in a pool), plus a 2 mile bike ride and 1/2 mile run. Greg handled the biking portion of the training (duh), while I handled the rest. I was really only nervous about the swimming part, but once I found out that it was in very shallow lake water - and he could stand up & take a breather if need be - I stopped worrying. Well, mostly :)

Let's do this!

Warming up & stretching

Excited to watch my boy!

Aunt Lora came all the way from NC to cheer Nate on! (And good thing she did....Miss Priss was a handful during the race and Aunt Lora graciously agreed to follow her around :)

And they're off!!

SO happy once the swimming portion was over :)

Swim-to-bike transition

Looking good!!

Click here to watch Nate make the swim-to-bike transition. (And yes, he does actually ride his bike eventually! They just had to run up the small hill until they got to the road.)

 While we waited for Nate to complete his bike ride, Abby found the playground and Big Al found Abby :)

Click here to watch Nate on the biking portion of the race.

He made up a LOT of time on his bike ride!!! #gregjr

Coming towards the finish line!!

So.proud.of.our.boy!!



One of his many cheerleaders :)

Nate's buddy, Jake competed too. I'm so glad he had a friend doing this for the first time with him!

Proud Daddy :)

Aunt Lora may be a great cheerleader, but she's not the best photographer. Ha!

Nate placed 12th in his age group (out of 22 kids) and was super excited to hear that he beat five 10-year-olds. I told him he'd be one of the older ones in the age group next year, and that he might even get on the podium if he tried extra hard :) #goals