Maybe, in hindsight, we shouldn’t have had Kevin do the Michigan Mile AND the OCE triathlon on the same weekend that he wanted to do the Hawk Island Triathlon. Oh well. Just shows what kind of shape that kid is in…….
Sunday rolls around and we have to be up early to get to the park to register. It’s cold outside, 42 degrees is the low, and Kevin is not happy. He’s shivering, inside, under a blanket and the concept of going out and swimming in a lake has no appeal.
But, a bowl of Fruity Pebbles and encouragement get him moving, and, at 6:40 am, we’re off. Get there and register, get Kevin marked up (with a sharpie, his number on his arms and his age and sex on his leg…that was already there from the OCE festivities). Get his bike settled in the rack, get his transition stuff laid out, and, all there is to do is wait. Part of waiting is having Kevin wade out into the water to get used to it. I have no video of this; I wish I did. Imagine Kevin, hands crossed, slowly, slowly, walking out into the depths. I don’t think he ever got more than up to his waist.
Anyway, race starts at 8 am, and I guess Kevin could have waited to start individually but, he chooses to go off with the under 29 crowd. Tell Kevin to be near the back of the crowd as they hit the water; he’ll certainly fall behind as they get started. Air horn sounds, and off they go. It’s easy to pick Kevin out from the distance; he’s the one in the back with the funky stroke (he basically kept his head above water the whole way). Kevin’s rounding the first of two turns and the air horn blows again, the 40 and unders are off, and the leaders in that group are passing Kevin by the middle of the 2nd leg.
I’d say most of that 40 group had passed Kevin before he reached the finish of the swim. Looked, as he left the water to be in pretty good shape, and I’m sure, was completely relieved to be out of the water and onto the parts of the race that he was comfortable with.
Coming out of the depths….bought the body suit on Ebay…Kevin wore it all the way through the race and we wonder if maybe he should do it differently next time. Swim caps required, and provided by the sponsors.
Kevin transitions pretty quickly, and leaves the park for the 10 mile road course. He does well; again, wave after wave of adults pass him (unlike the OCE triathlon, where he was just buzzing by kid after kid) and, again, maybe next time we’ll purchase new tires so that he has racing tires, not mountain bike tires…..I guess we’ll see if he keeps doing this or not.
Kevin out on the bike course; this picture is near the 1/2 way mark on the Michigan State farm property not far from our house.
Kevin finally makes it back to the park (without wrecking…a big worry of Mom!) and transitions to the run. I’m sure he was completely relieved by this time to be back to just a 5k.
leaving the transition area for the run
about midway through the run
finishing. No. 469 out of 700, but, 1st in his age group. 2nd in his age group is a kid we know, a really good football player, one of the best in that age group. Kevin beat him by 5 minutes. What does 1/4 mile swimming and 10 miles running do to you? It slowed Kevin down by about 2 minutes a mile on the run.
Kevin after receiving his award. The small medal everyone received for finishing the race; the big one, that’s for finishing first.
Kevin describes the whole experience as “the hardest thing I’ve ever done”. Remarkably, to me, he’s not gulping down water and drinks at the end, about 5 minutes after he finished he was pretty much ‘normal’. He had a water bottle on the bike ride, and, he did drink it all, but said that was enough and didn’t need more. He did avail himself of all the drink stations on the run.
