Akron Kids Triathlon

[watchman]

I had 2 daughters do the Akron kids race today. Anna 13 and Abbey 12.

Anna has the natural build and ability more so than Abbey but Abbey has the stronger will. They are even in the water , Abby is better on the bike, Anna better on the run. I pretty much made them do the race because I knew they would like it. I thought Anna would be ahead of Abbey.

Anna was resisting out of fear of the unknown and is shy. Abbey resisted because she just did not want to do it. They both did swim lessons all winter and swam in a friends lake all summer. Both have cycled and run with me.

Before the race as I looked at the other kids I thought they would be about 2nd and 3rd to last so I wanted to encourage then by saying."just finish, if you feel sick slow down and don't worry about winning.

Well
They were average out of the water with Abbey about 40 seconds ahead of Anna.
After the fist part of the bike I noticed Abbey was flying on the bike and passing people. Anna was about 6 places back but slower. After the first lap Abbey had passed every girl and only had 3 boys ahead of her. Anna moved up about three places. At the end of the bike they were 1 and 2 of the girls. Abbey stayed about 1:30 ahead of Anna but Anna was gaining on the run and finished 2nd. The first thing Abbey said was " I am never doing this again!"

So 1st and 2nd overall for the girls 11 to 14. I was proud and jealous. I told them I will never do that.

This was better than racing myself.

After she got the trophy I think Abbey may do another one. Anna would have been right there but I put her on a bike that was too big. Abbey had the better bike. Riding home Anna said she would have beat Abbey with a better bike. Abbey said " no way". I think they are hooked.

I had 3 other kids with me and they all want to do it next year so I will have Anna 14, Abbey 13, Melody 11, Becky 10, Daniel 9 in the race next year.

If I could get my wife to do the women's only we could make it a family day.

I stuck around and watched Mark Durno do the elite race. These guys are animals Aussie , you should do this race. There was a bad crash the guy landed face first on the road. Not good. He broke his wrist and had some loose teeth. I was 2nd person to him. He should be alright. He and his girlfriend are in this club. Ehren was his name. She is Kkovach on the forum. They tried to put him in the ambulance. He asked " will that cost money" It was classic. Typical triathlete no way was he going to carried off.

You all would have been proud of Mark.

Also Mark said he has never been filmed so I took video of him the whole race. About 25 different spots and since this was swim, bike run repeat 3 times I could get some good stuff.
I also got comments from his wife and mother who were watching. You have all heard of "Durno the Legend" now you will get to see him.

I will post a youtube link of this in a couple of days.

Sorry this is so long a post

Mike

[Kim Zepp]

Mike,
Thanks for the race recap! All very interesting.
A big "great job!" to your girls! - and Durno! I look forward to the video.
Kim

[MarkD]

First - Mike, thanks for all the support out there. Now I know what its like to have someone popping up out of no where when you least expect it. You and your girls were great. I'm recruiting you into the IronFan program !!

I also had a boy and a neighbor boy do the kids race. My son had a good swim and looked good coming around from the first 1/2 mile on the bike. When he came around at the end of the bike, he looked terrible - total look of disgust. I asked "what's wrong". He replies "I hate these hills". I laughed hard. He rallied and had a good run and ended up 5th in his AG. Quite an improvement from his dead-last place finish last year in Mentor. The neighbor kid took second AG - I'll be curious to see how he finished OA when the results come out.

The Portage Lakes weekend is really cool to experience the whole thing. We came to the park during the middle of the Women's Only tri. I was amazed at the number of racers. It was most impressive - there were at least a couple hundred and there was quite a fan base for this one. The Kid's race is well done. It starts time-trial format, 2-kids at a time over the timing mat. The youngsters do one bike loop and the 11+'s do 2 laps. As noted above - its challenging. They really treat the kids well before and after the race.

The park pretty much clears out for the elite race. A few stragglers will hang out for the first of the 3 tris, then take off. It was good to see Patrick and Christian (fun role reversal after IM KY). As Mike noted, you do 3 super sprints with less than 10 minutes rest between the races. The first race - especially the swim and bike, is a total lung burner - I haven't felt that much burn is several years. My run fitness is superb right now (high intensity marathon training going on), so I felt good on the 1.2 mile run. On the second and third triathlon, you are still going really hard, but its more controlled - folks settle into a groove.

I knew I would get my a** handed to me in this event and I certainly did. My better-half even commented - several times that she couldn't get over how fast this race was - from top to bottom. She told me after the first race to slow down - LOL - she should know better !! Even though I got stomped by some amazing athletes, I would definately do this one again. If you can hang (i.e. consistent top age grouper and reasonbly strong in all three disciplines), I would recommend doing this type of race for a really cool change of pace.

On the way home, as I was enjoying a Big Mac (yes !), all I could think was, how in the world am I going to do an Olympic Tri tomorrow....