My baby did a tri. Pictures poofed

[wawa]

People on FB already saw the pictures.  Here for a limited time.*pictures mostly poofed*.

omg you guys the kid tri was so cute.  Shorti did really well.  Giant grin on her face whenever I saw her.  

The volunteers at this thing are aaaaaamazing.  It's run by a local tri club and they do a fantastic job.  For a variety of reasons, parents are NOT allowed to run along with their kid on the course, or enter transition.  So I got her all set up in transition, talked through what she was going to do one more time, and then handed her over to the folks at the swim start and cleared the pool deck and crossed my fingers.  They have from 5 year olds up to I think 15.  The littlests started first.

You guys...they had each wave of the little kids walk over to the start area holding hands.  Shorti had her serious paying attention face on.  I died.  I died several times during this event.  I'm actually dead right now.


She slowly doggy paddled her way over to the far end of the pool, just steadily plugging away, though it looked like she slowed down to chat with one of the volunteers in the water for a second.  And then they plucked her out on the far end and a volunteer held her hand and led her across the pool deck to the chute toward the transition area.  She took her sweet old time down that chute, smiling at all the people cheering and then started running after the crowd thinned.  little ham.

By the time I made it over to transition she'd put her shoes on, but still had her puddle jumper and cap on.   A volunteer came over and helped get her swim stuff off and then just tied her race number around her waist instead of buckling it for some reason.  LOL.  oh well.  Got her helmet on, then walked her with her bike out to the mount line.  

And off she went on her bike!  There was a decent hill on the course (1/2 mile) and according to her one of the "pointer wayers" helped push her up the hill.  And then the final stretch into the finish was all downhill, and most of the kids were coming in hot, but my baby rode her brakes the whole way down smiling and looking around at people.  HAM.


She got back into transition no problem, a volunteer helped her find her spot and then she stood there fighting with her helmet and race number (it had come untied) for a few seconds.  And then my personal favorite of the volunteers came over, got her helmet off, buckled her number belt and then just grabbed her hand and did the whole run leg with her.  (1/4 mile)  She tripped heading out on the run, and popped right back up and kept running.  So proud!  Came back in and sprinted into the finish.  

And then that child proceeded to eat everything that wasn't nailed down.  She said her favorite part was "everything.  and also the food"  She wore her medal to lunch.  And told me she wanted to do it again that afternoon, but if she could do it again on a different day that would be ok too.  

[gt7301b]

Awww, she is the cutest thing ever!!!

[shauni27]

omg this is better than I could have ever imagined. SHE IS FREAKING ADORABLE. That second to last picture with her (?) milkshake has killed me dead.

I love love love her.

[dancelnow]

I love it! Starting out early with doggy paddle and training wheels

[sadlebred]

Her bike even has a basket and streamers! Cutest little cyclist!!

I'm glad she had such a good time!!

[cinco]

Love it!

[emilyj]

This is adorable. :-)

[labbie]

I couldn't love this more!! Congratulations to shorti and many great races ahead!

[mrshandy]

That's so awesome!!

[jreeds]

Well isn't she just the cutest?! Good for her!!

[vcubergirl]

Omg that's adorable!

[jade]

This is awesome! I am glad she had such a good time.

[claudiakishi]

So cute!

[mysticmuffin]

Ahhhhh this is the cutest damn thing that I have ever seen! I'm so glad she had fun. Congratulations to Shorti!

[scm1011]

This is the cutest thing ever!!! I love that she was soaking in the atmosphere lol. Way to go, Shorti!!

[itsme]

So freaking cute!!

[hannahb]

Absolutely adorable!

[bullygirl979]

So.Darn.CUTE!

[woowoo]

I am dead also. This is the literal best. Congrats to her and thank you for sharing!!!!

[andreay82]

LOVE THIS!!!!!! Great job little lady!!!!

[mrs.jacinthe]

Kid Tris are so damn cute. Congrats to her and way to get her started early!

[osulori]

Oh my god that is the cutest thing ever! Now that I know that AJ can at least doggy paddle 25m I'd love to find something like this for him.

[hurricanedrunk]

This is awesome! Great job Shorti!