Reid's Race Report- What possibly could go wrong???

The bad luck started yesterday. First we got the "scariest" hotel in Barrie and then we went to Hooters to watch UFC and they wouldn't let us in because Reid was under 19 years old.

On the way to Hooters, Reid started complaining about stomach troubles from all the skittles and beef jerky he ate.

I jokingly suggested Reid sit in the car while the rest of us watched UFC inside, but he didn't go for it and when I said, we'll drop you back off at the hotel, he said "I'm not letting you ditch me!"

Reid's suggestion was to put on the fake mustache that he brought for the race (which was part of his cowboy outfit) and pretend he was a grown man.

We ended up going back to the hotel and it took at least an hour after the lights went out before we fell asleep. It felt like summer camp, Reid wouldn't shut up and we couldn't stop laughing.

The best was when he started talking in possessed person's voice like in "the Exorcist" and blamed it on the demons coming out of Alyssa's mouth. Or when Alyssa said that Reid's was picking his bum because his hands smelt like "poo" as he was grabbing her face. Reid replied, "it's not "poo", it's the smell of "beef jerky" on my hands.

We were up at 6:00 am and the moment we showed up at the race site everything went wrong. At registration, they ran out of shirts and gave Reid a large "volunteer looking" orange shirt from last year and there was no water bottle gifts left.

The one thing about the "Kids of Steel" race that is different than any Adult race I've done is the strict rules and officials. It took us 5 minutes just to get his helmet strap set to the standard "one finger under the chin" rule and for the side straps to fit nicely around his ears. At that point, we both agreed they probably won't allow us to put the steer horns on the bike and scraped that idea.

Moments after racking his bike an official came by and said the pedals are not regulation. I had the old race pedals with "rat traps" and no tie strap. They were not dangerous, if he fell, there is nothing preventing him from getting caught in the pedals. I insisted it was not a dangerous setup.

The official explained that "the rules" state he can't have them, that he could "fumble" getting his feet into them and others could crash into him as he's trying to mount his bike. I told him that Reid's used them a lot and getting into them would not be a problem. At that moment, I had visions of him not being able to start the race.

I think the fact that I had my Ironman Lake Placid finishers shirt on and my Ironman hat, the official realized he was dealing with a seasoned triathlete father and cut us some slack and gave us a pass. I was relieved and frankly, surprised. He seemed like a pretty "staunch" type of a guy.

It was raining and cold before and during the race, not the ideal conditions. As we were camping out under a tent, I noticed that a women was moving Reid's bike. The rack had 5 bikes in it and it could easily hold 30. The official insisted the women move all the bikes exactly 12 inches apart from each other, it was "the rules".

The website said the transition closes at 8 am and the race starts at 8:30 am and that's why I got up at 6:00 am. It turns out the transition stayed open until 8:30 am and Reid's wave went off at 9:00 am. Had I known, we could have gotten more sleep. It was a long wait in the rain and cold until race start.

We went to the truck to warm up and while we sat, I asked Reid if he had his swim cap? He said, "no, I don't have one". Into the rain I went with my umbrella and back to the registration area. The women working the area said it should be in his goodie bag, which it wasn't. The only thing in the tied up plastic shopping bag they gave us, was some brochures and a pack of gum. She reluctantly gave me a cap. Another disaster averted.

When I got back to the truck, we realized Reid hadn't taken off his socks and put them in the transition area. Off to the transition with umbrella in hand I went.

Reid said he wasn't nervous, but I took his pulse and it was 100 bpm. In his group, there was 14 boys. Even though he's only 13 years old, he was racing in the 14-15 year old age group because his 14th birthday is before December 31st. The kids in his age group were pretty big, muscular and had much more hair on their legs than Reid.

One kid had an awesome "six pack" and was as muscular as you could get without steroids. He was a nice kid. When he saw my Ironman finishers shirt he came over and said hi and shook Reid's hand and wished him luck.

Before the horn went off, one of the volunteers gave all the kids instructions. All the under 14 year old kids swam in water that they could walk in. In fact, most did a walk swim. They walked and moved their arms like they were swimming. Reid's group was the only one that was different, it was a deep water swim.

They basically had to swim the near identical course as the Adults. The pre-start instructions were "poorly handled". When the guy explaining the course said, "the water is DEEP, about 24 feet", the tone he used scared even me. Reid must have been terrified.

I had Reid line up to the outside of the swimmers, out of the way. When the horn went off, he was off. Right from the beginning I new something was wrong, he started dog paddling. I thought it might be his swim trunks were dragging him down, he didn't want to wear his Speedos. I started cursing myself for not forcing him to wear his Speedos and imagined he wasn't able to kick properly.

He got to the first buoy and there was a girl on a surfboard that started talking with him. I joked he was probably trying to pick her up. She stayed by his side for about 75 meters and then another young guy on a surf board took over and he did another 75 meters until handing it off to an older guy on a surf board. The entire time Reid was dog paddling.

I was yelling from shore, "Reid swim!!!" and was making freestyle stroke movements. Reid was about 300 meters from the finish of his 500 meter swim. I kept saying to myself, "keep going Reid, keep going!". The next thing I saw was him grabbing the surf board and the guy on the board signally trouble to the officials on the shore and starting to bring Reid into the beach area.

I walked out into the water up to my knees and instead of saying, "Reid are you okay, is everything okay?". I said, "what's going on, what are you doing? why did you quit?" I kept thinking, "I can't believe this, I paid $62 for his entry, $124 for the hotel, $50 on two days of McDonald's food, skittles and beef Jerky and the worst part was I wasn't going to see him suffer."

I asked him what happened and he said, "I don't know, I panicked". He couldn't catch his breath, he couldn't see the ground and he freaked. As we stood on the beach I asked one of the young girl officials if he could at least continue on the bike and run. She said no, he's disqualified.

I wasn't sure if Reid was still freaked or happy he didn't have to do the bike and run. In a split second I grabbed his arm and told him to come follow me. I told him, "I don't care what she says, you're doing this race."

I walked us towards the swim finish and blended us in with the spectators lining the swim finish. When I couldn't see the official that disqualified him, I pushed him in the direction of the swim finishers chute and told him to RUN!!! He crossed the swim timing mat and into the transition zone. It was "race on", again!!!

It was pouring rain since the start of the race and everything in the transition was wet. It was hard for him to put on his 100% wet cotton shirt and end ended up going sock less. I was so relieved to see him leave the transition and start riding. I thought the drama was now over. Wrong!

The bike was 10 kms and consisted of two 5 km loops. I was waiting at the side of the road to take his video, but the rain had damaged the video camera and it didn't work anymore. I pulled out my regular camera and eventually I saw his "Jersey Shore" white shirt. As he got close to me, he started to slow down to stop.

I was like, "what now?" He said, "Dad, I have a flat tire!" I was like, "Flat tire? Damn! Wait, that's okay, I've got a spare, I can change it" and told Alice to run to the truck and get the pump". I took the tire off and tried to change it as fast as I could, it wasn't as fast as I would have liked, but I got it done. Reid anxiously grabbed the bike and was back in the game. Before he left, I told him, "If you flat again, just keep riding on the rim, don't stop!" It was "race on", again!!!

There was some tense moments waiting for him to finish that second loop. I was worried that whatever gave him the flat may still be in the tire, although before I put the new tube on, I checked the tire thoroughly. He probably picked up some "beer bottle glass" as he test drove the bike in the parking lot of our hotel last night.

When I saw him in the distance at the end of his second loop I was relieved. He made it! Now he just has to finish the run and he's done it. Before he got off the bike I was yelling, "Go Cowboy". It was my way of reminding him to wear his cowboy stuff. When he got off the bike I could see he had "spaghetti" legs. There's no weirder feeling in your legs than getting off the bike and starting the run. Anyone that's done a triathlon knows that first hand.

I waited for him at the start of the run, right beside the "water aid station". As he ran by he grabbed a cup of water and rather than drink it, he held it in his hand and splashed me with it. The folks at the aid station got a kick out of it. It was funny. It would have been even funnier if I wasn't already soaking wet from the rain.

He was running pretty fast in the beginning and his cowboy hat fell off. It was a good thing he had a neck string, he looked like a little kid with the string wrapped around his neck and the hat bouncing off his back. Now it was a waiting game. How long would it take him to finish the 4 km run? I assumed it would be a long time, over the past week he insisted he was going to walk it.

Eventually all the other kids, but him, had finished. I went to the finish line to wait and insist that the guys giving out the medals to the "kids of steel" finishers wait for him. I told them, "my son is still on the course, he had bike troubles." I also wanted to make sure they had enough medals left. I did NOT want him not getting a medal.

As I waited, I envisioned him crossing that line and started "welling up" a bit. It was the Ironman "cry" I'd been wanting for so long. I had to catch myself. I was feeling just so damn proud that he did this and was going to finish this race despite his misfortune.

Then I spotted the white shirt and cowboy hat. This time the hat was on his head. The crowd started cheering him on and I yelled out to the medal guy, "here comes a "kids of steel" competitor, get the medal ready". Reid ran across the line strong and when he stopped he was "gassed". I got an immediate post finish line interview on my cameras video, he looked like he actually tried hard.

I was just so DAMN PROUD OF HIM!!!! He did it!!! Not only did he do it, but he ran farther than he had too. He said 8 km, but I think it was closer to 5 km. One of the guys had to stop him and tell him he missed the turnaround.

I was originally going to make him get back in the water and finish the remaining 200 meters along the shoreline, but after hearing that he ran at least 1 km more than he had too, I gave him a pass. You can't believe how happy I was that he finished AND that he was suffering. Everything went according to plan and he DESERVED that cell phone.

On the ride home, he told me that "no cell phone was worth doing a triathlon for". He said if he could time travel like the movie "Back to the Future", he'd go to his earlier self and tell him NOT to take the cell phone bet. He then started asking me, "how far are your triathlons?"

When I told him, he said, "Your crazy" in a respectful way. He said, "Dad, you don't even look tired after your races, I'm dying." On the drive home, I couldn't stop praising him. I told him the swim IS scary, even for adults. I should have taken him to a lake to prepare him for it.

I told Reid he experienced every adversity that one can experience in a triathlon except a bike crash. He said, "Dad, when my tire flatted I was swerving and thought I was going to wipe out!"

At that point, I realized I got my money's worth and he got the experience of a lifetime. It was raining, he had a pedal rule violation, he almost didn't have his cap or socks, he freaked out in the water and DNF'd the swim, he flatted and near wiped out on bike and then missed the turnaround point and ran longer than he needed too. Afterwards, he was so sore, he said every part of his legs, including his ankles and heels hurt.

Most triathletes may experience the same bad luck over a number of years, but he experienced them all in his first race. I couldn't ask for anything more. He'll never forget his first, and probably ONLY triathlon.

Like Alyssa, he says, "He'll NEVER do another triathlon" and if he was to do it over, "he'd pass up on getting a cell phone". The BEST was when we were getting close to pulling into the driveway and he asked me not to use the "T" word around him for the next little while. When we got in the house, he couldn't walk up the stairs to his bedroom and crashed in the family room on the couch under his blanket.

In the end, Reid just put "another notch" in his "Renaissance Man" belt.

Barrie Triathlon "Kids of Steel" / 14-15 year olds

500 meter Swim/Walk - 11:36 (2:20/100)

10 Km Bike (with Flat) - 35:10 (17.1 kph avg)

4 K Run (passed turnaround) - 39:03 (9:46 per km)

Total Time - 1:25:48

AG Place - 14/14

Overall - 30/31 (one girl DNF'd)