Kids Tri! Ballantyne 2014

Ella and Jack competed in the Kids Tri! Ballantyne race (for the 3rd straight year for Ella and 2nd for Jack) in July.  That morning, Jonathan participated in the adult triathlon race on a relay team as the runner and, unfortunately, tripped at the finish line and injured himself.  Over a week later we found out that he had in fact fractured his tibial plateau in two places (and was therefore on crutches and in recovery for a few months), but on this day we just knew his left leg/knee hurt.  Jonathan was a good sport about it, though, as we were on our feet for a good 4 hours that afternoon to watch the kids compete in their triathlon.  And boy did these two compete—they are awesome little triathletes!  I videoed on my phone and handed Jonathan the big camera to take our pictures for the day (and thankfully, I finally spent the time to figure out how to switch my focal point selection from manual to automatic—handed someone my camera way too many times with it just fixed on a certain focal point).  Anyways, point is, Jonathan did a great job photographing our day at the race, bum leg and all.  Ella placed 7th in her age group out of nearly 50 girls ages 9-11.  Jack placed 3rd in his age group out of 71 boys ages 5-8 and actually received a medal.  Go Jack!  When Ella was 8, her first year participating in the triathlon, she actually placed 3rd, too.  We are exceedingly proud of our little triathletes! 


{jonathan had the camera, so i’m actually in a pic. :) }


{ella’s always so polite in her races, not wanting to push past someone.  it’s hard to teach a nice balance of good manners, sportsmanship, and competitiveness.  it has definitely never been in her nature to be cut-throat.}




{passing the boy she had a crush on at the end of last year…if he’s a good one, he’ll think that’s cool or at least a fun challenge.}



{ages 9-11 do twice as many laps in the pool as the 5-8-year-olds and 3 laps around the track instead of 2.}





{that song was playing when she finished the race—love it.  also, fyi, the videos montages are done in instagram format and therefore 15 seconds or shorter and square.}






{his transition between the pool and bike was definitely faster this year with yankz laces (he spent like 2 minutes tying his shoes last year), but because he “didn’t want to lose them” he decided to carry his hand towel and swim cap for his entire bike ride…i thought for sure he’d drop it before his run, but…}


{still carrying his towel and swim cap—i guess it didn’t really slow him down, though, because he killed the run.  :) }



{2nd lap without the towel and cap because we told him to throw them down.}



{look how hard he pushed right to the end, and it paid off.}


{the race was at 2pm, so it was H-O-T.  jack dumped some water on his head when it was all over.}





Jack - Kids Tri! Ballantyne 2014 from Tricia Williams on Vimeo.



{way to go, jack and ella!}


{congrats to jack!  called up for 3rd place.  the medals were pretty cool—hand-made pottery.}





Jack - 3rd Place Kids Tri! Ballantyne 2014 from Tricia Williams on Vimeo.