Weet-bix TRYathlon

 Bright and early last Sunday morning we were at Tahunanui Beach with Jackson getting ready to participate in the Weet-bix TRYathlon along with 1777 other kids ages 7-15.  It was super organized, but quite overwhelming.  The kids were colour-coordinated in age groups and numbered, so all of the 7 year olds had white swim caps.  They stagger started the kids in small groups of 15 or so. 

 Off they went on a 50 m swim in the sea (see all of the great volunteers on foot and in kayaks, making sure they go the right way and don't drown??) . . . 

Cheering him on as they head up the beach towards the transition area to get their bikes.

 
 Unfortunately I don't have a good photo of Jackson on his bike, with 1778 bikes all spread out in rows, the transition area is massive and the bike leg of the race headed down the road away from the park.   He had to bike 4 km, so it took about 15 minutes for him to reappear.  (Nervous mommy waiting).  Clever boy, he had remembered to dry off after swimming, put on his socks, shoes, shirt and helmet all my himself, then finding his spot again to put his bike back in the row of white flags, he even remembered to take a drink and remove his bike helmet - WOW!  No parents are allowed in transition, but there are a few volunteers to help out if needed.    Beginning the running leg of 1.5km here: 

 Finishing the race!  Exhausted?

  All smiles now that he has a cup of water, his medal and his finishing time.  You can watch the finish line video at

http://tryathlon.weetbix.co.nz/pics-and-videos/finishline-videos

 

Select the "Nelson Sprint Cam" and go through the video segments to the right of this (they will be title like 0939-0942 which references the time of day) and find the video segment titled 1006-1009.  Jack appears around 10:06:50 and runs past the camera at 10:06:56.  You can tell because he runs his arms stay straight as he swings them!

 

You can also look at the "Nelson Finish Cam" clips and again he is in the 1006-1009 segment, getting a medal hung around his neck at 10:07:02.  It's just a rolling start and finish the whole morning, so kids are not ranked or placed at all, everyone who finishes gets a medal and waterbottle. 

 The aftermath:  All of the kids are corralled in front of display boards to have their photo taken.

 Chowing down on a some yogourt tubes (they are $7 here for 8 tubes - ON SALE! so we don't buy them often) at the school tent (there were about 20 schools that participated).

Here a pic of Xavier in a rare happy moment for the day - unfortunately he was rather disturbed that he was too young to participate and felt quite left out. 

 Random shots of the crowd around the finish line and waiting for a turn on the inflatable obstacle course.

 Coffee prices from $3.00 - please don't ask me what a flat white or long black is, at these prices, I can't afford to figure it out. 

 
Only a few of the kids from the school out of the 75 that participated, they were the last school to get photographed, so most people didn't wait around for the extra hour and they took a group photo at school on Monday morning.  Overall, a great sporting event - the largest children's sporting event in the world apparently - with over 20 000 kids participating each year in about 15 locations around NZ. 

 PS  Weet-bix is a cereal company - traditional breakfast foddle for kiwi kids (and adults), so there was a FREE breakfast tent set up for all of the participants.  Maybe Shreddies would sponsor an event in North America??