Mother and Son Giving It A Tri

Swim to bike transition

 

I woke up in the middle of the night Thursday worrying about it.  Was I setting my son up for failure?  He hadn't been in a pool since last summer.  Would he freak out and be afraid to jump in the water?  Would he even remember how to scoop and kick enough to propel himself forward while wearing a life jacket?  Would he be the only kid wearing a life jacket? 

 

It was the middle of the night and although the kids were staying overnight at Jamie's so I could attend a Ragnar team meeting and rest up in preparation for my own coming triathlon, I was wide awake thinking I had failed Sam as a parent.  In less than 36 hours I'd ask him to jump in a pool and swim its length and then bike a mile and run another half mile, and although he was excited, until just now I hadn't allowed for the possibility that he wouldn't be able to do it.

 

After a long week of work and training (have I mentioned how freaked out I was about my OWN swim in Lake Winona?) I loaded up both kids and we headed to the Aquatic Center for a last minute remember-how-much-you-love-to-swim pool reintroduction.  And although I was exhausted and I generally don't react kindly to crowds, we had a blast.  Sam got right in the water and paddled around into the deep end.  He practiced scooping and kicking and putting his face in the water and climbing in and out of the pool.  And every time I tried to get him out of the water he'd say "One more lap.  I don't want to get out yet."

 

I won't go into details about how I'm crowd averse and not necessarily patient and how I don't always have the best attitude when I'm not sure what's going on, but I'll say that as emotionally challenging and exhausting as the 3 hours leading up to Sam's actual race were for me, they were worth it.  Three hours of wrangling my tired, whiny, stubborn 3-year-old daughter were quickly forgotten when I saw Sam beam with pride coming out of the pool and running to his bike transition.  And as soon as the race started and she could cheer for her brother, Eva paid attention and listened to directions as we ran to watch Sam on the bike and then for the final lap around the track near the finish.

 

It was all over with so fast... way too fast for this mom of a first grader.  Wow.