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RACE REPORT: Clark County Junior Triathlon

Amanda rarin’ to go moments before the start of her first official solo triathlon.

Las Vegas is starting to grow up and become more than a cultural mecca for those New Yorkers and Los Angelinos willing to part with a few hundred brain cells and a few thousand dollars in our multitude of casinos. We are slowly, but surely, beginning to add “real” culture to our community and yesterday marked another milestone in that advancement.

Saturday morning marked the return of the Clark County Junior Triathlon for kids between the ages of 6-13. Held at the Desert Breeze Aquatic Facility, the race was comprised of different distances for the age groups of 6-7, 8-9, 10-11, and 12-13. For Amanda’s group (10-13), the distance was 100 yards in the indoor pool, followed by a dash to T1, five laps around the parking lot for 1.75 miles and finishing it all off with 1-mile run.

Rather than a mass start, the race director held four different races, one for each age group. Once the last person from the previous age group crossed the finish line, the next group would head to the pool to get ready for their start.

This was Amanda’s first solo triathlon and it was neat to see the butterflies take residence in her stomach, instead of mine, as race time drew near. Unfortunately also like her father (and 100 percent his fault), Amanda had little training time under her belt. The night before, we sat down and talked and made sure her main goal was to cross the finish line…and if she had a chance to pass someone, do it! Other than that, just enjoy the sweat and the sound of her breath.

Swim (100 yards)
There were 16 kids in the 10-11 age group and we set up with two kids in each lane. When the whistle blew, Amanda took off in a nice freestyle. Most kids were using freestyle, with one or two breaststroking and an occasional backstroker . She kept a steady pace the first 50 yards and stayed up with the main pack. After that, she ran out of gas and slowed down to a heroic, but ineffective, crawl. As anyone who’s swam competitively knows, once your form goes, you’re working twice as hard to go half the speed. It just kills you.

At that point, she quickly went from middle of the pack to second-to-last.

T1
One parent was allowed to help the junior triathlete in transition and I helped Amanda get out of the pool, dry her feet get her socks and shoes on. We were a bit clumsy, but we got her going and out of T1.

Bike (1.75 miles)
Amanda was making up some ground here and held strong the first three laps. She lost a bit more energy on the fourth and fifth, but was hanging in with the main pack.

Now, here’s where things get fishy. Every age group had a different number of laps to complete. In Amanda’s case, it was five laps. As she came around on her fourth lap, her pack suddenly disintegrated. Although there were volunteers stationed on one corner to count laps for the kids, many of the parents were giving lap counts to their kids…and several were confused on how many laps their kids were supposed to do.

I’ll leave it at that. Amanda finished her five laps.

Run (1 mile)
The out-and-back course had a minor incline on the first half. Amanda started off at a decent pace and then I saw her stop to walk about a third of the way in. I took off after her to give some moral support. By the time I rounded the bend, however, she was running again and was quickly nearing the turnaround point. I held back and waited for her.

At that point, I saw two boys on the return leg battling it out for the lead. They were shoulder to shoulder and it looked like an epic race in the making. But, when one slipped ahead by more than a pace, he would look over his shoulder and veer over to cut off the other boy. One of the volunteers yelled at the kid to knock it off and “be a good sport!”

My wife later told me that this shenanigans continued as the boys neared the finish line, neck and neck. It finally ended when both boys tripped over each other and went sprawling, assholes over elbows, across the pavement. Hopefully a nice case of road rash will be a reminder to the lesson they hopefully learned about sportsmanship.

I kept Amanda company until the finish line was in sight. At that point, she said she wanted to walk for a bit and would run again when she got closer to the finish line. Absent throughout the entire race, my “Stage Dad” kicked in: “You will not walk with the finish line in sight. You have two minutes of suffering left and you can run for two minutes.”

She ran.

Fifty yards from the finish, that run turned into one hell of a sprint. Amazing how much energy we develop the closer we get to the finish line, isn’t it?

Amanda finished as the 7th place female in her age group and has been very proud of her accomplishment ever since. The lane number that is etched with red marker on her hand is not getting washed off and I’m sure will be proudly shown around the school tomorrow.

Asked if she would do it again, “Oh yes!” she exclaimed.

I’m turning the keyboard over to Amanda to sum up the experience in her own words: “It was exciting, interesting, hard, and some good exercise. My legs are sore today, but otherwise I feel great! I’m now a triathlete!”

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