Monday Motivation

HAPPY MONDAY!!

First off, congrats to everyone who survived Irene.  Let me be the first to say "That was a hurricane?!"  Ok, ok...  I don't live on the coast and it was only a category 1 when it hit CT, but I agree with a best friend who lives in NC in saying 'I've seen worse thunderstorms.'  I was not impressed.  I wasn't able to do my bike tour because my planned pit stops were closed, but I went out for a 6 mile run and loved it.  How often do you get to run in the middle of the street at 11AM on a weekend?

On a more serious note, I do know that a lot of damage occurred because of Irene and my prayers go out to anyone affected.  I just somewhat wish I was closer to those areas in order to have witnessed it myself.

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Anyways...  On Saturday, after coaching my awesome 5K group, I headed over to volunteer at the Kids Who Tri Succeed Triathlon.  And let me tell you, it was AMAZING!

This triathlon has been going on for six years and is a sanctioned USAT event hosting age groups of 4-6, 7-8, 9-11, and 12-14 year olds.  If you've ever wanted to watch a race in order to be inspired and entertained all in one, kids triathlons are were it's at.

I got to monitor the "deadly turn" of the bike course.  Apparently there were a couple of wipe outs last year at the bottom of the "hill" and for obvious reasons, they preferred to avoid that.

In the 4-6 year old "OMG, we're so cute" age group, we had plenty of kids with training wheels trudging up the incline and wavering the entire downhill.  Thankfully I never had to catch anyone or steer them back in the right direction.  However, I felt so bad that I had left my phone (aka, my camera) in the car.  There was one tiny little kid on a bike half the size of my bike's wheel who just looked at me blankly as he passed.  Most of the kids just followed their parents directions.  I also noticed that most of the transition setups had bags from a local bike shop that I know had been handed out at the last sprint tri of the season; we all know where these kids got the idea to do a triathlon!

The 7-8 year olds were quite the same with fewer training wheels.  Then came the 9-11 year old "Pushed by their parents" age group.  I should have started counting how many times I heard a parent yelling like a coach.  "Push it, push it!"  "Hammer up that hill!"  "Keep going.  They're catching up!"  The first child in this age group came out of transition with the smallest road bike I've ever seen.  In hindsight, it shouldn't have surprised me, but I laughed very hard.  Close behind him was another little boy who surprised me.  Did you know they make triathlon suits for children?  He ran out of transition, did a flying mount onto his bike, and took off in a full HAMMER triathlon suit; triathlon shorts and a matching jersey.  This was ridiculous!!

The oldest age group had kids of all different sizes; the years of surprise growth spurts.  At this point, it had started to rain and the kids were now doing six laps of the bike course.  Our job was to count their laps.  Let's just say, that wasn't as easy as we thought it'd be.  The check marks on our sheet got switched out for punching holes in the paper.  Thankfully, most of the kids knew what lap they were on or their parents were counting for them.  Then I cracked up when one girl got off her bike at the cones of transition and instead of returning her bike to her spot, she just left it at the entrance to transition and took off.  Apparently she's more used to the Ironman type of transition.  haha

It was a very hectic and rainy event, but the kids had a blast and it was very fun to watch all the kids race and enjoy themselves.  The only thing I wish I could have known was how many kids volunteered for the race and how many were signed up by their triathlete parents.  Either way, there were smiles all around!

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100 at 100

Just to let you know, there is one more follower left before we hit that magic number and we're still short of the goal of 100 questions.

So shoot over HERE and drop off any questions you might have.  Any question will do, no matter how trivial, thought out, or probing!  I know you guys can come up with some good ones!!

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Questions

1.  What did you do this weekend?
I coached a 5K group, volunteered at a kid's triathlon, ran in a hurricane, and watched disaster movies with friends.

2.  Any big plans for this week?
I have my personal bike tour on Tuesday and then it's the start to my taper for Vegas!

Stay fit.  Stay healthy.  Stay safe.