Race Coverage

Triathlon Mom...

Friday, 23 July 2021 00:10

ED. We've been sitting on this wonderful story for a while, waiting for an opening in our content queue. That opening is now. Enjoy.

By Jamie Tobias Swenson (from Facebook)

Long, proud mom post to follow 😉 Last weekend (June 19-20) felt so right. My family was finally able to return to racing, and did so in a big way. Many of you know that the sport of triathlon drives my kids like nothing else. Throughout the last 16 months they continued to set goals and push themselves in their training 6 days per week. They trained like every weekend was another race...even though it wasn't. Last Saturday, it was a wonderful feeling to wake up before dawn to head to the Minnetonka Tri,...

where my boys would be competing against some of the area's most talented. Greg had a great race, achieving his goals, and feeling great to be pushing himself in a race again. Kyle had big goals, and far exceeded them. He held the Junior course record (age 19 and under) at that race from a prior year. He took down his own record by more than 5 minutes. He then went on to win...the entire race. He was the first athlete to cross the finish line...and his first words were not about his win, or even the new record he set. They were about the connections he made with several of the other athletes at the race, and about how he hit the goals he had set during his training.

We left that race and headed to Des Moines to watch Kristina compete in her first Half Ironman Triathlon. What a special race in that so many of the talented athletes we've come to know and love were racing that day, and many of Kristina's friends were there to cheer them on. I will never personally experience the grit it takes to get through a 1.2 mile swim, 27 mile bike (they shortened it due to weather 😞 ), followed by a 13.1 mile run. But I do know the pride I felt, while wiping away many tears, as my girl crossed that finish line. The training, nutrition planning, and mental agility that goes in to preparing for a race that long is something that takes courage, commitment, and hard core time. It's getting up at 5am to do a lake swim, running in the rain because that's your training plan for the day, and biking 60 miles in 90-degree heat. She did well, finishing 2nd in her age group, but that wasn't important. Her first words were about checking the boxes on each of the goals she had set for herself and how much she appreciated all the encouragement from her friends, family & strangers in the crowd.

Trophies and top placement are nice, but more important is how you prepare, how you show up, what you learn and how you perform against your own goals. It's about the relationships you build on your journey. I'm so proud of them for setting challenging goals and pushing to meet them. I'm so grateful for the lessons they've learned, the coaches and mentors who've guided and encouraged them, and for the life-long friends they've made. This is one happy mama today.