Tri-ing a Triathlon at 12 Years Old - Reginas Universe's MySpace Blog

My son has always been very physically able. He loves football and basketball as well as track and field and he never backs down from a challenge. We were working out at the YMCA a few months ago and we saw a sign for a kid's triathlon that was 15 minutes from our house. I asked him if he thought he would want to try it. At first Nicholas seemed to not be interested in doing it.

I gave him the break down of the challenge: 75 meter swim, 3 mile bike ride, and 1.2 mile run all in his age group of 11-12 year olds. He seemed intrigued but a little leery, he's never done a triathlon before and he wanted to think it over. I told him that was fine. He then asked me "Will you be at the finish line?" I told him I would be there every step of the way and that since I was looking to do a triathlon too that if he did it I would do one too. Deal.

I registered him for the race and the USA Triathlon Association requires that all triathletes are registered for every event, including children, with their organization. I went to register both of us and discovered this rule: Athletes will compete using their age as of December 31st of the current year. Nicholas really isn't 12 since he will have been 13 for the last 7 days of 2009.

With this change came the news that the distances and age group would be very different. Instead of participating with 11 and 12 year olds he would be competing with 13 - 15 year old kids. The distances were also changed. He would now swim 125 meters which changes the number of laps in the pool from 3 to 5. Then he would ride the bike for 4 miles instead of 3 and follow that with a nearly 2 mile run.

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