IronKids!

I have to say, I have never been more proud of my oldest two sons than I was at the IronKids race last Sunday.  They did an awesome job, and just kept going when it would have been easier to quit.  I could learn a thing or two from them...

The pictures tell a pretty good story, so I'll let them do just that:

Nathan and Ben, after getting their swag before the race

Of course, you know that Ben had to put on his swim cap right away.  :-)

Then we went to get marked up for the race: race number on the arms, ages on the back of their calves.

Ryan was having none of it - we woke him up at 5-fricken-thirty, for goodness sake, and then we made him walk through dewy grass.  It was at this point that he decided it was time to clean his feet, regardless of the fact that there was a race going on right in front of him (the oldest kids went first, and the boys were watching that race and marveling at how fast the teenagers were).

Then it was time for Ben's race to begin.  Ben was in the Intermediate Division, for ages 9-11.  Swim 150 yards, bike 4 miles, run 1 mile. 

Here he is, waiting in line to start his race - the swimmers went one at a time in this ginormous pool - every three seconds a kid jumped into the water and swam. 

I don't think Ben had ever swum 150 meters at one time before this day.  (way to prep, Lathrops!). 

This was evident pretty quickly, so he switched to his backstroke, where he is much more comfortable, and just went along his way.  I was so proud of him for just continuing on.  He didn't worry that he was being passed.

Out of the pool!

And then it was time for the bike portion.  Ben got ready all on his own, and then he was off!

Nathan and Ryan enjoyed watching the bike ride

Ben made it back and started off on his run, and before we knew it, he crossed the finish line.  He ran the whole way!

Here he is, my proud triathlete!

Then it was time for Nathan's race.  Nathan was in the Junior division for ages 6-8.  Swim 50 yards, bike 2 miles, run 500 yards. 

Nathan was a bit more nervous than Ben, especially about the swim.

Ryan tried to cheer him up, but Nathan was having none of it.

But I was so proud of him.  When they called his race, he got in line, waited and jumped into the pool right when they told him to.  Here he is, waiting for his start.

He swam his heart out.

Once he was done, he was out of the pool so fast I only caught the back of his arm as he ran past toward the bike area.

He laced up his shoes, put on his shirt and hopped on his bike - and he was off on the bike ride!

And then it was running time.  He fell right before the picture above and scuffed up his knees, but he just kept going.  If you look closely at the next picture, you can see his knees are a bit bloodied.  We didn't see the fall, so we didn't even know it until after the race.  I am so proud of him for persevering, even in the face of pain!

500 yards is a pretty short race, so Stephen ran to get this pic - he was just in time to catch Nathan crossing the finish line.

Another triathlete!

I think you can tell that the theme of this post is how proud I am - they accomplished something I have never done, and inspired me.  Here they are again -

Afterwards, we went to Fuddruckers and had burgers and milkshakes.  Ryan took some time out of his hard day for some deer hunting.

All in all, a fabulous day.  My kids are awesome, if I do say so myself.