Nate the Triathlete!

On Saturday, Nate competed in the Tuscaloosa Kids' Triathlon for the second year in a row! He had so much fun last year that he even convinced his buddy Chandler to race too. Abby's good friend Cate competed as well! (Her older brother, Jake, raced last year with Nate.)

First up, a 50 yard swim in the lake. This is Nate's weakest event but he improved a good bit from last year's swim.

The transition from swim to bike is always tricky, because he has to dry himself off - quickly! - and then put on shirt, socks, and shoes. Then he runs his bike to the top of the hill and takes off!

Abby wanted to make signs to encourage Nate, Chandler, Cate & Jake, so she recruited Nanny to help her on Friday. They did a great job!!

The bike portion of the race is 2 miles and Nate kicked some serious butt!!!!! He was third in his age group at this point.

He quickly parked his bike, and then took off on the last leg - a half mile run. He trained *really* hard over the past month, so we knew the run would be a piece of cake for him. He did not disappoint!! He easily passed the boy in front of him and never looked back....

#eatmydust

He beat his time from last year!

Part of Nate's fan club :)

His buddies, Jake & Chandler, did a great job too!

He deserved that sno-cone!

Miss Priss LOVED all the new activities this year....poster making station, sandcastle building, and face painting!

And Poppy loved all the freebies! T-shirts, pom-poms, hats, sunglasses, koozies, cookies, chips, water bottles, bubbles......he got it all!

Modeling some of Poppy's finds

We had to wait for all of the other/older races to finish, and then finally the awards ceremony was at 11 am. Nate was super pumped to not only get a finishing medal but a trophy for 2nd place!!!!! To say we are proud of him is a huge understatement. He worked so hard! And next year, he moves up to the 11-13 year old age group, and the distances double. So this was his year to get on the podium and he did it :)

He also won a door prize - $15 gift card for BBQ plus 2 movie tickets!

It was so fun to have Nanny & Poppy there to support Nate and cheer him on!

#proudgrandparents