The best inspiration is not to outdo others, but to outdo ourselves

Photographs

Racking the Bike	First Run
The Bike	The Bike
Second Run	Second Run
Scootathon	Scootathon
Scootathon	Scootathon
Scootathon	Scootathon

Today saw both kids again making their way in the world of multi-sport events.  April took part in her first ever duathlon, while Ryan faced his second scootathon.  We were quite a long from home at Stanford Hall, but very near to where Daniel's Mum lives, so the kids had the added bonus of having Grandma and Derek there to support them on their big day.  It was a full morning of racing with adult races going off before the children.  We arrived rather too early in the end and that put the only blot on an otherwise good morning out - they were hanging around waiting too long and were rather bored before anything actually happened.  We had tried to avoid that, we knew April's race was first, so I took her down first to get her registered and Ryan came down a little later.  April was very pleased with her goodie bag that she collected at registration, she got a black drawstring kit bag and her very own 'proper' water bottle.

April was racing in the Tristart category as she is still only 8 years old.  There were ten children in her age group and unusually there were more girls than boys, 6 to the boys' four.  What amazed me was the difference in the development of the girls who were there, some of them looked so much more grown up than her, obviously they can't have been all that much older in a single year group age category, but they looked it.  She was really pleased when the racking was lowered so that she could manage her own bike on and off it, she thought that was great - at the Rother Valley it was hanging in midair and had to be taken down by an adult, at Wakefield it was leaning against a chair.  Her first run was 400m, a straight out and back on grass.  She tried really hard but I could see the results of us not being able to get to tri club recently, she was finding it harder.  Still, that didn't deter her in the slightest and she gave it all she could, she really looked like she was trying hard.  The positions of the girls were pretty much set by the end of that run, she came in fourth out of the six and stayed there.  Her time for the 400m was 3:10.  She managed transition well and zoomed out for the 1600m cycle, along closed roads in the grounds.  Again, a straight out and back.  She was really pleased with herself about this bit, and rightly so, she even remembered to make us of her gears on what was definitely not a flat course.  She looked like she was really pushing hard - she says the cycling is her favourite bit of her races - and she had the distance completed in 6:12.  Her second transition went well too and she was off out onto the second run.  It was out in the same direction as the first one but the turnaround had been moved to make the run 200m.  She did that in 2:23, finishing the whole race in a brilliant time of 11:45 and coming in 4th girl in her age group.  She seemed to really enjoy it again and we were all so proud of her.  She tried really hard, kept at it and did a really good job.  She was rightly very pleased to receive her medal at the end - well done, April!

Then, after all the older children had raced, it was finally time for the scootathon.  Ryan was desperate to get going, he'd had more than enough of watching other people, he said he was nervous and just wanted to get on with it!  The children in his race were aged between 5 and 7.  The course for the little ones was rather different.  The first run was 400m and was all around the outside of the transition area on a closed road.  They weren't timing the little ones, so Ryan asked me to time him - I don't think he really knows what the time means but he likes to hear the numbers, so I had my stopwatch at the ready!  Anyway, his run.  He ran the whole way, that impressed me for a start and came back to transition with a massive smile on his face, it was fantastic to see.  The organisers clearly thought so too as they asked if they could have his photo for their website!  So, he grabbed his scooter and headed out for 400m on the same bit of road, he tried to scoot on the grass out of transition (allowed) but decided it was too much like hard going and carried it out to the road.  He got confused half way round, nearly turned back into transition, fell over a kerb, picked himself up, declared that he was okay and went on his way.  Then his last run was 200m, half way around the same area then into the finish.  He came in to finish in 9:46, dead last and very happy with himself.  It's great to see him embrace the inclusive nature of multisport and enjoy doing his best and not care what anybody else is up to.  We were all really proud of him, he tried very hard, enjoyed himself and also collected a well deserved medal.  Good on you, Ryan!