Mission Man Triathlon

Tim competed in the Mission Man Triathlon on Saturday. The race was about an hour and ten minutes from home, so I had to get the boys and myself out of the house at 6:45 that morning. That was no small feat, but we made it and the drive actually wasn't bad. Nathan slept most of the way, and Tyler kept me company with his continuous commentary on the passing trucks and scenery.

We were just a couple minutes late by the time I got the boys out of the car and ran with them in the double stroller to the lake where Tim was already swimming. Tyler liked watching all the racers swimming back toward the shore where we stood. Unfortunately, he didn't get to see his dad get out of the water because there were so many other spectators standing around who blocked his view. I would've picked him up, but I was carrying Nathan at the time.

While Tim was biking, I had a chance to stop and feed Nathan while Tyler watched the racers mount their bikes and ride away. He kept saying, "nutter (another) bike, Mommy!" Since there were over 850 racers, I got to hear that a lot. Granted, we didn't sit there and watch everyone get on their bike, but still.

After I finished feeding Nathan, we walked down the street a little ways so we could watch the bikers coming back. I saw Tim riding toward us, but I wasn't sure that it was him until he zoomed past us, so again Tyler kind of missed him. By that point, he was probably thinking that his daddy wasn't really at this race. He kept asking, "see my daddy?" The good thing was that Tim came running back by us just a couple minutes later when he started the run portion. This time Tyler got to see his dad up-close (literally 2 feet away) and Tim smiled and said, "Hey, buddy!" Tyler was more interested in the race after that and he then commented on all the runners. "Nutter runner, Mommy!"

We got to see Tim one more time before we headed to the finish where we saw him running up the final hill. Tyler never did cheer out loud for his dad during the race, but he said he had fun. He loves bikes and he loves to run, so we may have a future triathlete on our hands. More than anything, he just wants to be like his daddy, and that's a pretty good thing to aspire toward. Tim ended up finishing 4th, which he was pretty happy with since he had the fastest bike and run splits of all the racers. Of course, he's his toughest critic. I think 4th place is fantastic! Good job, Hon!

I'm glad we got to see this race because we won't be able to see his next few triathlons since they're further away from home. Both Tim and Tyler wanted us to be at the race, so it was worth the early wake-up call and the drive to make it happen for them. I'm sure it won't be long before Nathan catches the triathlon bug and he'll be just as excited as his brother for Tim's races.