it's a "try"athalon

Since we signed up e up for baseball last fall we've been receiving emails from ISB (the international school that held the t-ball games, they are outside BKK by about 30-60 minutes). They've been sending us mass emails for all sorts of kid and adult events--cooking classes, basketball sessions etc. Usually we just glance through them and think, "That would be fun to do if we didn't have to drive an hour to do it. Maybe we should move out there.  Nope, we're not ready to give up living down town." 

Then we go order ourselves some ice cream and Korean fried chicken and 30 minutes later we are recommitted to living downtown.

Anyways, about a month ago we got an email for a kids "tryathalon". It went out to all the parents whose kids did t-ball and within a few minutes of getting the original email, there was an email chain going on racing bikes for 5 year olds and how to make their helmets more aerodynamic. I thought it was all a joke until I got a call from Rocky telling me he'd already signed E up. 

She was, of course, thrilled. She is entirely convinced she is the fastest thing on the planet. The only thing faster than her running, is her riding her bike. She frequently tells me that she is so fast, no one catches her during PE freeze tag games. We had clearly fostered a healthy amount of self esteem. Now it was time to bring her down to earth. 

 For the 5-6 year age group the distances were 50 meter swim, 1 kilometer bike and 200 meter run.
 We trained hard by going swimming whenever it was too hot outside, riding our bikes before the hot season came and running occasionally when her bike had two flat tires.

 It became obvious early on we were in over our heads. Almost all the other kids in the race were wearing swim team swim suits and warming up their freestyle stroke. Meanwhile, the kids we brought were wondering why there were no toys in the pool and what those caps were they had to wear.

 In the 5-6 year division, there were four kids to each lane. Eliot was given number 4 in her lane--as she lacked the swim team swimsuit and swagger. The rules were explained, they would call out each number and the children would start, staggered, so as to allow for circle swimming in the lanes.

I checked with E to make sure she understood. Circle swimming is not something we practice--our focus is more on the occasional front flip off the diving board and not drowning. Eliot assured me she knew exactly what she was supposed to do. She proudly announced that she was swimmer number four, while holding up five fingers.

We were clearly good to go.

They called out number one. Eliot started. They called her back. She stopped. They called out number two. She started again. They called her back. This time she kept going. It's a race, isn't it?

 Her fierce breast stroke/doggie paddle kept her in time with some of the freestyle kids and she was all business when she got out of the pool.

Rocky was volunteering at the bikes so it was my job to help her with the transition. The kids who had parents who knew what they were doing, didn't change clothes, they just threw on their number and bike helmet. It was a 20 minute race. We had packed a change of clothes for her and a pair or socks. Rocky had given her strict instructions on her transition. When I tried to deviate from those, she firmly told me, "No, Mom, that is not what Dad said."

I finally got her to abandon the Oscar the Grouch socks she had packed and it was on to the bike.

 This was her favorite and was the quickest.

I think she would have been happy riding several more laps on the bike.


Last was the run. She ran the entire 200 meters and at the end she said, "That was really hard, I didn't think there was any way I could run that far."

 After the race Rocky said to me, "She has the worst form I have ever seen" at the exact time I was thinking, "She runs exactly like me."

He has since been googling 'running form coaches for five year olds'.

 By the time she finished it had heated up outside and was the Bangkok hot season at it's finest--feels like 120 degrees with humidity.

She had zeroed in on the popsicles at the finish line and wanted nothing to do with anyone until she had one.

It was a blast and she's ready to do it next year. We've already started a hard core training circuit--though we have yet to find a running form coach. Temperatures have gone back up and now that E's month long ear infection cleared up, we'll be at the pool every day focusing on not circle swimming.