Hey all,
volunteered at the kids try-athlon today. It was a blast. My first job for
the day was one of the helmet checkers. Pretty much every kid that hadn't
either raced before or participated in a school cycle program needed a
complete refit. Then I was on the cycle exit from transition.
The laughs soon started. They have "catchers" at the mount line, because
so many of the little ones run, jump on their bike and fall straight off
the other side. All the kids also want to jump on their bikes as soon as
they're clear of transition but before they reach the line, and as soon as
one gets on they all do - trying to get them back off is a challenge
(although the older kids are cute and they apologise!)...
On the scary side of things, I pulled up two kids on mtbs who had their
front brakes disengaged. The second girl told me "no, my brake hasn't
worked for 2 years..." and I said "really, just let me check" and sure
enough, once I popped the cable back in, no worries! She was very pleased.
Finally I saw a young boy bolting down the hill to the mount line, with
the chain hanging off. Yelled out for him to pull off the side and he was
pretty unhappy! There were the usual stacks over the pedals while running,
a few little girls just had a cry and had to get pulled over the fences.
They'll make great triathletes one day...
One of the older girls came out of transition with shoes already on her
bike, jumped on at high speed and vanished into the distance. I felt very
inadequate 🙂
If you get the chance to help out at something like this, go for it.
You don't actually have to be a triathlete, and the cycle course is
where the kids have the most problem. Hope everyone had a great weekend.
Tam