Kids Triathlon 2014

Today Ava competed in the 7th Annual Berkeley Kids Triathlon.

Heading to the finish line

You may remember that last year Ava competed for the first time and came in second place for her age group (6 & Under). This year Ava moved up to the 7 & 8 age group. Being one of the youngest (and probably the shortest!) in the older age group Ava was up against some stiff competition this year.

Ready to swim (she's in the yellow)

Ava put in a lot of effort and did such a great job. The girls in her heat were all pretty much in the same league when it came to the swim making it a pretty close race. In the older age groups, which raced earlier, there had been a clear winner a lap ahead of the pack but Ava's group all finished the swim around the same time.

About to finish the first lap

From the swim (where I was told off by security for taking photos!!!) the kids headed to the bike leg of the race. As I had Mathilde in the stroller with me I wasn't easily able to head to the bike track. Instead I headed straight to the finish line to be ready to watch Ava finish. Last year I had run around like a crazy person trying to take photos of Ava in each leg of the race. I hadn't counted on her being quite so fast so I kept missing her as she zoomed past! In fact, we ended up having to re-enact Ava crossing the finish line so I could get a photo! This time I wanted to be ready at the finish line and I was so glad that I was. Ava seemed pretty happy to see us cheering her on at the end of all that hard work. And boy did it look like hard work! Check out that red face!

Crossing the finish line

Airborne!

Before Ava crossed the finish line I only saw one other girl who I knew was definitely in her group cross the line. I was pretty sure that Ava had come in second place again - or at least for her heat (there was one more heat for her age group to go). Ava was also pretty sure that only one other girl was ahead of her and she was pretty excited about the prospects of winning another trophy.

After race oranges

After what I'm sure seemed like an eternity for Ava it was time for the medals and trophies to be awarded. Each kid taking part in the triathlon received a participation medal. Yet another for Ava's already large collection!

Ava was so sure that she'd come in second again but when the third place trophy was awarded to the girl who had crossed the finish line just before her I could tell that Ava's heart sank a little. She hadn't won her trophy. I knew as soon as the kids lined up for their medals that Ava hadn't won a place. There were two girls in the group who I had seen cross the finish line a good 30 seconds before Ava but they were so much taller than her that I presumed they were in the older category that ran just before Ava's group. They were obviously pretty fast as Ava hadn't realised that they were ahead of her either!

Waiting for the winners to be announced

Ava was a little upset with the outcome right after the medals were awarded, as you can tell from the look of disdain on her face below, but she was soon over it and talking about how much she had enjoyed taking part. She did her best and she had fun. And that's the whole reason we were there. 

Ava with her participation medal

Ava now has her eyes set on next year's race for which she'll be one of the older kids in her age group. She figures that will surely equate to winning a place!

The official times should be emailed out to the competitors within the next few weeks. I'm pretty sure that Ava came fourth over all for her age group but we'll find out for sure soon. According to the announcer, Ava's group had been the closest competition of the day with all of the competitors finishing within a relatively short time of each other.

Oh, and next year Lola will be old enough to take part! She's pretty keen to join in but considering that she doesn't yet know how to ride a regular bike on her own (she's a speed demon on her balance bike though!) and still can't swim she's got a lot of training ahead of her! At Lola's age a lot changes in just a year though so who knows, maybe I'll have two little triathletes next year.