My 5 year old is going to do his first triathlon on Sunday. On September 11th.
I can’t even believe it, I’m so excited that he seems so excited!
Don’t be alarmed, I am not making him do bricks with me or have a long run day in the schedule or anything.
This is just for fun.
In fact, it’s our triathlon group that’s helping to put the kids tri with the local YMCA that we fittingly called, the “Swim Bike Run for Freedom “(guess who came up with the name?!)
He’s always gone with us to our races and he’s always wanted to participate, so with this being teeny tiny distances, he is really psyched to try it. It is only 1 lap across a pool, which we have gotten down pat this summer, a 1 mile bike (this kid can go forever on a bike like me) and a 1/4 mile run. We’ll see what happens when he puts it all together! But he will have his bike with his training wheels on it like many of the 5 year olds.
And we will try to remind him this is all just for fun. I wonder if he’ll feel like he’s racing. I wonder if he’ll get scared of the chaos. I wonder if there will even be chaos, probably not! I wonder if it’ll just be like one big playdate (fingers crossed!)
I’m probably more nervous than he is, sometimes he gets frazzled amid chaos and I have never been to a kids triathlon so I am not sure what to expect. But I’m not going to expect anything, in fact if he wants to bail early, I will be ok with that too. Stay tuned for the race report and also, I’m going to do a post about kids tri-ing if YOU are interested in having YOUR kids tri but have no idea where to start! (Start here: the Tri Kids Rock website full of resources!)
What I am equally excited about is spending time with my family doing something amazing on September 11th.
It’s the 10 year anniversary as everyone knows and one of my best friends who I worked with in New York at the time of the attacks and I had always planned to fly to New York for the 10 year anniversary. To remember, to reminisce, to commemmorate, I guess. But earlier in the year, we called that off and soon after, the kids triathlon popped up. It was an amazing coincidence and in my mind, divine intervention perhaps, a sign that maybe I wasn’t meant to do that after all.
Instead, I was supposed to be here, with my family, spending that day thinking about all the ways 10 years will change a person.
I plan to mark that day in my own way, here on my blog of course and in my heart and with a phone call to my friend like we do every year.
But there will be a finish line involved on this September 11th, and finish lines are always symbolic to me for how far a person can come and on this day, how far a country can come.
Even for having been 10 whole years, it is still very fresh to me in my mind. But I’m keeping my promise this year and every year.
I will never forget.
Do you have any plans for September 11th?
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lets see…I have an 11 mile training walk scheduled that morning then I will probably go home and spend the day PRAYING that nothing bad happens in our airlines, airports, etc, etc as my older son is taking a plane half way across country Sunday for a last ditch vacation before he leaves for the Marines the following weekend.
The kids tri sounds like a blast and a great way to spend the day with the family!! Give your little man a big hug for me and tell him I’ll be thinking of him as he swims, pedals and runs his was to the finish line!
Yes ill be praying that nothing happens in our skies or anywhere else for that matter on that day too! Xo
I love that your son is doing this & a great way to be together & he is active & WANTING to do it. LOVE! Hard to believe it is 10 years! That is my middle stepdaughter’s bday… so, we remember but also it is OK to enjoy too. It is her bday….. we can’t let it take life away from us.
Exactly, there are a lot of birthdays that day, we know of quite a few too. It’s good to have some happy memories to be made on that day. Happy birthday to her!