Lexington Road & River Relay

Lexington Road & River Relay
May 5 2007
Seth's first triathlon

Wow, what a day for a race. Weather was great and I had a strong "stoker" to pump us up the hills. First the equipment. This is Seth's new 29er ss. Well, not exactly a 29 but probably to scale for his size. This is an old school Motocross Mickey bike. Not many of these left. Most of the kids bikes you get now have all the fancy shocks and gadgets that brake in a few days and weighs 50 lbs. This baby weighs in at 32 lbs.







Keith Simpson let me use his Old Town Discovery Scout canoe. Great canoe for the river! Sturdy and no keel so that it handles the rapids with ease.





Boy does it take a long time to get ready. Not only do I have to remember my stuff but his too. I wasn't sure on the temps so I wanted to make sure I had the right extra clothing with us in case it gets chilly for the little guy. Sure we ride bikes in the park and play hard but he has never done a real tri. Here are the specs:

3.5 mile run

9.1 mile bike on pavement

2.2 mile canoe down the Maury

1.3 mile road/trail run to finish

Total of 16.1 miles

Notice we are sporting the El Toreo team jersey. We stopped by Ron's that week and picked him one up. He was really pumped that he was part of the Taco Team. Everywhere we went that day, he would tell everyone about the big race he was going to do. Funny thing is the night before, we were watching some survivor show on the Discovery channel. This episode was about a guy and gal who got lost in the Amazon forest for about 6 days. They reached a point where they wanted to quit and give up. Seth said, "They shouldn't quit, they need to keep trying." What a great opportunity for a pre-race lesson. Our motto for the day was:

NO WHINING-NO QUITING

I wasn't sure if we could finish and I wanted him to enjoy it and have fun. Maybe he might want to do another. The race begins around 10am and we take off. The first of the run was down hill to the river, then run along the river. Once he felt comfortable riding, he kept asking, "daddy, can I speed up and pass people?" I was trying to keep up with him.

He spots Keith and makes his move around him





crossing the bridge and about to head along the river.

It was all I had to keep up with him. He was flying along the river. The was one small climb I had to help push and we got to the top and he takes off again. We did the 3.5 miles in about :30. That has got to be the most he has ever ridden the bike and now we have 9.1 on the tandem.

Now for the new tagalong tandem. These things really rock. Great way to drag the kids around while getting a great workout, especially on the hills. I heard the course was a little hilly so I opted for a easier gear ratio. Plus I figured if I had to walk, then my mtb shoes would be better than the roads. After the first mile, the course has a 2 mile climb. Not sure the grade but it felt like 12% pulling an extra 70 lbs. Glad I had the granny gear. I like to stand climbing but wasn't able to do that because it would cause the tandem to rock back and forth. We nearly caught one rider at the top then a long descent. This is where I underestimated my speed. We hit about 12 and I hear, "daddy slow down I am scared." WHAT! I just carried you up hill and now we have a chance to get speed. Yeah, so I road the brakes all the way down holding around a 12 mph. The terrain was rolling hills and beautiful scenery. The main problem I had was he wouldn't stop talking. I am riding hard and all I hear is this chatter behind me asking me questions. AUGH. So I am trying to talk and pedal which I don't do very well. About the 40 min. mark I could tell he was getting a little bored. Not tired, just bored. So I sucked it up and played some games of I-Spy. Total 9.1 miles, 853 feet of climbing, 1:01, not too bad.

Oh yeah, at each transition, I have to remember to ask questions like, "are you hungry, thirsty, or need to go to the bathroom." Off to the canoe. We have been down the Cowpasture and the Jackson and he loves it. Especially the rapids. He uses my double end kayak paddle and I have the old school wooden paddle. The Maury was up which was nice, made the trip a little faster and we hit a few rapids. One small waterfall about 1.5 ft high, that was real cool for him. We paddled hard and reach the take-out in :45 min. Oh yeah, my canoe was the only one with a bike in it. I needed it to finish the final leg.

Out of the canoe, he gets back on the bike and I run. He can smell the finish and pedals hard. I think I didn't 'work him hard enough on the tandem. He had time and energy to find every pothole full of water to rider through. We came across the finish line with a total time of about 2:12. Folks were cheering for him and he like that part. He even started waving to folks during the last 100 ft. I thought he might wreck doing that. We were both pumped about the finish and performance. No whining and we finished the course.

Seth crossing the finish. Funny thing he would take his hand off the handlebars and wave to the crowd. He is working on the nohander over the finish. A big thanks to Claudia Schwab for taken the photos. She mailed me a few copies and the writeup from the paper. More photos available at http://www.thenews-gazette.com/photo_gallery/

Post-race nap.