So last year I was really trying to get me and my family to go over to fayetville to participate in the Trifest for MS. The cool thing about this tri was that it had an olympic tri, a sprint tri and even a super sprint tri. It was one of those events that almost anybody could participate in and that really sounded like alot of fun for a big family with lots of varying fitness levels. Everybody really liked the idea and everybody that they would commit some time to preparing and for some it was commiting to doing more than nothing. Everybody was really motivated and we planned this about 3 months out so It seemed very possible in everyones minds that they could do it.
Sadly none of us even registered two weeks out and everybody really wasn't ready to spend all the money to take the huge family across the state to participate in something that they might not be ready for. Soooo me and a couple of my bro's and my wife melly came up with the idea, well, why don't we just do our own mini family tri? It would be really easy, being that we had all spent a good amount of time going over cycling routes. We could put something together if we could get someone to open a swimming pool to us. So we sarted planning and it turned out that my older brother jeremy knew somebody at the YMCA who could open the pool up for us just for this. That was the only real hurdle and it was great that it was at the Y because we could make a route easily going around the outside of town making our way to Craighead Forest Park.
We actually got most of our family to show up to the pool on time and actually got a couple of our close friends to join in on the fun. We were really shooting on having nothing but a good time so when we got to the pool what we did was let everyone dicide how long they wanted to swim a couple people said 250 meters a couple said 500 meters and me and my brother in law john said we would do I think it was 600 meters just to make it interesting.
Another big difference is that we all waited after the swim so that we could all get ready and get on our bikes and role out at the same time. We tracked a pretty hilly 13 mile course which was sure to give everybody alittle burn. It was so much fun we had our neice and her boyfriend driving around catching up with us and taking fun pictures of us which really added some spice to the bike which had some pretty discouraging hills in it.
The course made its way to Craighead where some of the family was setup at the boat ramp area with water and our running stuff. Then we went straight out onto the chat. ( A tri wouldn't be a tri if it didn't at least have the bike to run transition). Me and my brother in law John Miller rode together the whole way there then we set off running together he really suprised me having never done triathlons he ran really solid off of the bike so we actually ran a pretty good pace and pushed each other all the way till about a half mile to the finish where my stomach really started to get mad at me and John ran away from me. Me and John finished and I could tell he had a good time then we got to go motivate our siblings and spouses. Everybody really pushed it hard I was really motivated by watching them all get into it! I have always loved triathlon and pushing through pain and it all began watching others so I still enjoy watching people blow of pain and show some grit!
So as far I can tell based off of what everyone has told me it was smashing hit for a family having fun doing a little fun day triathlon. And now everybody is super excited for this years. Hopefully we can all train hard and really have a good time motivating each other. And hopefully we can have some friends join us again. I love sharing this stuff with people!
If there is anybody out there who this motivates them to maybe do something similar that would really make me a happy dude. Our bodies really are magical and we should cherish them with everything we got! And for me I can't wait till my kids are old enough that I can really be a big part of helping them realize that. Booyaka!!
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