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2018 Splash 2 Dash youth triathlon race recap – guest post from my seven year-old – Morgan Hill, CA

2018 Splash 2 Dash youth triathlon race recap – guest post from my seven year-old – Morgan Hill, CA

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In late April, my eldest raced her first triathlon in 2018, the Splash 2 Dash youth triathlon in Morgan Hill, just a little ways south of San Jose. She was fresh off a kids’ run at the Silicon Valley Food Truck 5k a few weekends prior, though she hadn’t done a triathlon since last summer’s Santa Clara kids’ triathlon in August.

tbt to the SC kids’ tri last summer. old school ankle chip FTW!

 

same swimsuit, different tri. isn’t it wild how fast kids grow up?!!

Honestly, after the SC triathlon, I wasn’t sure that she’d want to do another triathlon because she didn’t particularly care for the running part of the event. It’s cool; I’m not really into pressuring her to do this type of stuff. That said, when I asked if she wanted to do the MH triathlon, she enthusiastically wanted in. Even better, Saraubh’s son was also going to do to the MH tri, so the kids would be able to play and hang out before and after the event. That seemed to seal the deal for my daughter.

friends!

There were some big differences between the SC triathlon last summer and the MH triathlon in April. I’ll include my interview notes with my daughter here in a second — gotta keep those primary sources whenever possible, right — but for the parents in the area who are looking for information about the event, or how they compare to each other, anyway, I’ll elucidate on some details below.

Distance

The MH triathlon, like other youth tris I’ve read about online, offers staggered distances and start times for the kids. At the time, my daughter was six, the youngest age group, so accordingly, she had the shortest distances of the day and was the last group to compete. Her distances included one length of the pool, a 1 mile ride, and a ½ mile run.

On race day, there was a little bit of confusion though because it looked like the ride was longer, based on a discrepancy between email communications and the website, making it maybe closer to 1.5 miles. At any rate, the kids didn’t seem to complain. The transition areas were in a parking lot, very near the pool, and the ride was through the large aquatics center campus. The run for her age group was an out-and-back in a field on the campus. Everything was pretty close together and closed off to vehicular traffic, as much as I could tell.

For the six-and-unders and the seven year-old age groups, the race divided the boys and girls into separate heats, but for the older groups, boys and girls were co-mingled.

official. let’s do this! (standing in T1)

Field size

When my daughter did the SC triathlon last summer, the event seemed huge, with easily over 100, if not 200, child participants. Since that was our first foray into triathlons, it was pretty overwhelming, to be honest. Giving ourselves an hour to park, set up transition, get bib numbers, and figure out where we needed to be was barely enough time, and I felt like we were scrambling the entire time.

In comparison, the MH Splash 2 Dash was much more low-key. There were 50, maybe 70 participants total, and each age group only needed one heat to begin their race (save for the littlest ones who were segregated by sex). All the logistics of the morning — parking, setting up transition, getting bibs, yadda yadda yadda — were much easier to handle because everything was on such a smaller scale.  

the perks of a small-scale event: being able to effortlessly watch the participants go before you. the race cordoned off part of the pool deck during other AG heats, presumably for both safety and logistical reasons, but a nice side benefit was pumping up the kids for a good 20 minutes before their race began.

Post-tri party

Finally, one of the biggest differences between the SC triathlon last summer and the MH triathlon earlier this month was in its post-race offerings. I don’t recall there being much after the SC triathlon last year; basically, if you wanted to stick around for the awards ceremony, you could, but otherwise, once your child completed his/her race, you were free to go. If I recall correctly, there really wasn’t that much else or left to do.

In contrast, it almost seemed like the real party was just beginning to start after kids completed the Splash 2 Dash triathlon. The City of Morgan Hill hosted several community partner booths that had games and crafts set up for the kids, which helped make the morning that much more fun and memorable. Once kids finished their triathlon, they were free to walk over to the vendor booths to make their own handprint tiles, courtesy of Home Depot; to make some bookmarks, courtesy of a second-chance organization; to get their hair spray-painted crazy colors, courtesy of a local hair salon; to play a spin-the-wheel game at the local Second Harvest Food Bank table, and more. Games and crafts: this is the stuff six year-old girls’ dreams are made of, folks! If memory serves, I think the City of Morgan Hill also had a table set-up, advertising their summer programs and camps, and someone else — maybe the YMCA? — had set up a station giving kids and families fruit kabobs. My child spent fewer than ten minutes actually doing her race, but we easily dropped another hour afterward at the race venue because she was having so much fun doing all this other stuff.  

super cute and easy idea that I absolutely stole for a Girl Scout meeting a couple months later

Amenities

Both the SC and the MH triathlons gave participants similar amenities: a medal for participating and a t-shirt. I think the SC tri may have also given the kids a reusable grocery bag, too.

Registration Costs

If memory serves, perhaps because of when I registered her for the SC race last year, the SC tri was significantly more expensive than the MH triathlon. In addition, the SC triathlon mandated that all participants pay for a one-year membership to USAT, presumably to help guarantee insurance coverage for the day of the event. In contrast, the MH triathlon — perhaps because it was organized through the city of Morgan Hill and (presumably) wasn’t a sanctioned USAT event — didn’t require USAT membership/insurance, which ultimately affected the lower price tag. The SC tri had participants ankle-chipped for the races, whereas the MH didn’t have any chip-based timing to speak of, though participants still got official (gun-based) times.

Summative Commentary

So parents out there – if you’re looking for a fun and low-key triathlon for your child, I’d definitely recommend giving the Splash 2 Dash event in Morgan Hill a try. The atmosphere wasn’t cut-throat competitive; the kids all seemed to enjoy the awesome post-race party and craft tables; and it was extremely family-friendly. In retrospect, it would have been manageable to bring the two year-old and wrangle her while waiting around and then cheering for big sister.

aww.

Realistically speaking, too, your child will probably have much more favorable weather in early May than you will mid-August at the SC triathlon.

My daughter had a great time at the Morgan Hill triathlon and didn’t hesitate to say that she wanted to do it again… but you can glean that from her commentary below.

—-

You did your second triathlon ever, your first in 2018, a couple weeks ago. What do you remember most about your experience?

Not really anything. It was kinda the same as the last one but more fun. (Eds. note: honesty).

morning steam

Why did you want to do another triathlon?

Because I wanted to do one triathlon per year?

Did you train for this tri any differently than the one you did last year?

Yes, because I did some, a lot, of running at my school. Like we ran around the track three, two, or one times, and yeah. Yeah! That’s running!

What was your favorite part of this triathlon?

Seeing K. in the triathlon that I’m doing. Doing it with him was a part that I liked.

Tell me about your swim. How long was it? What type of stroke did you do? And why?

My swim? Oh, like only a few seconds because we only did one lap. I did … I think I did freestyle? I don’t know, I just picked it. I like every stroke of swimming, so that’s the stroke I picked.

her happy place

After you finished the swim, you had to get out of the pool, get dried off, and get up on your bike. How was that? Were you cold when you were riding your bike?

A little tricky cuz I had to go quick and usually I don’t go that quick. Usually I just, like, I take my time and hurry it up a little. That time, I had to hurry it up a lot. (I wasn’t cold) because it was a hot day. (Eds. note: I think it was when in the 50s).

Can you tell me about your bike ride?

That was a little tricky because there was a little girl who had a bike but a little more smaller than mine, and she was super quick! She saw me behind her, and she speeded up, and then I seemed to pass her after a little while. (Eds. note: A was the second girl out of the pool for her AG and caught the first girl later, presumably on the bike. As a parent, it’s so interesting to hear how A talks so casually about competition. It’s evident that she wants to work hard to be the best she can be, and she likes competing against others to be the fastest, but when she talks about it, she couches everything in having fun. It’s not a mutually exclusive enterprise for her).

the bike course looped through the parking lots area. older kids did multiple laps, so it all still remained fairly self-contained.

Once you finished your bike ride, you had to drop-off your bike and then start running. What was that like? How did your body feel?

Tired, wiggly. And sleepy! And a little sleepy!

What was your run like?

My run? That was really tiring! But once I kept running, I mean jogging, it didn’t feel so awful.

#seenonherrun. she’s one of those specks.

At the very end of your run, you approached the big finish line arch. What was it like to see the finish line? How did you feel when you crossed it?

I was like smiling because you were telling me, “you can do it!” or something like that. I was super happy that I ran a little more quick and I didn’t feel that tired. (I felt) super happy and tired (when I crossed the finish line).

Did you earn anything special for completing this triathlon?

A medal, some snacks, hair paint, a handprint on a piece of glass. Yeah, that’s all I earned. I don’t remember the rest.

channeling their inner Kriss Kross

How did you do at your race overall? How did you feel when you finished?  

I was tired! I was happy, a little. I was happy, but I didn’t really crack that much of a big smile.

Which triathlon did you like more, the one in Morgan Hill or the one in Santa Clara?

The one with K. Because it was with my friend! And, yeah. And they gave me a green medal, and I thought the green meant for luck. (Eds. note: proof positive that these things are always “funner with another”).

What type of advice would you offer to kiddos like you who may want to do their first triathlon?

I would say, well, you guys should really do this because it’s awesomely fun! I’ve done it before, and it’s like super fun and awesome that you should really try it out with your friends. You should tell your friends the day you’re doing it so they can do it. It’s awesome and fun! Get out there, and have fun in that triathlon. When you’re done, you feel so strong, like never before. (Eds. note: TRUER WORDS NEVER SPOKEN).

I remember we stayed at the aquatic center a long time after you finished because there were so many crafts and stuff to do. What was your favorite part about that?

I liked it when they did my hair spray colors. And along with that, I liked it when they told us that when you put up the piggie face, that the hair spray they put on your hair won’t get into your face. (Eds. note: It took me a while to figure out what the “piggie face” was).

*this* was the piggie face she was talking about

 

post-spray painted hair

Do you think your sister should do a tri once she gets a little bigger?

Yeah! Yeah, because then she can get a lot of strength and it’s ok if she gets tired ‘cuz after a few days later, she’ll feel not that tired. Or when she gets home, she will not be that tired.

Do you think your dad or I should do a tri sometime?

Yeah! Cuz I haven’t seen Dad do a triathlon before. And I haven’t seen you do a triathlon before. (Eds. note: gauntlet thrown, kid. Did it just get warm in here?).

Was there anything you didn’t you like about this triathlon?

Um… no! Cuz it was super fun and that was my second triathlon and I did a pretty good job on it. The second triathlon in my life. And my sister, I’m sure when my sister does a triathlon like that one, she will have a lot of fun! And I’ll tell her that I had a blast. (Eds. note: she did well compared to her peers. I think she was in the top 3 or 5 for 6 and unders and the first OA female for her AG. I told her, and she cared for about .2 seconds. Kids are great). 

What did you like the most about this triathlon?

Doing it with my friend!

Do you want to do another tri this year?

Yes, with my swim buddy, Z. (Eds. note: Z is a friend from her swim team who travels, with her family, all over the Bay Area to compete. Her older sister is a serious youth triathlete and has recently qualified for nationals). 

Do you have anything else that you’d like to add?

Maybe. (explaining what that question means). … (thinking) … No.

Alright!

While my own personal interest in pursuing a tri is very, very small — perhaps remote would be a more appropriate description — I do love watching her have fun and compete. Children can be such fantastic teachers.

SO PROUD!

“getting back your body after baby” is bullshit

“getting back your body after baby” is bullshit

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Ah, nearly two months postpartum now. Running is getting more comfortable, though the somewhat unpredictable schedule leaves me guessing when each run will happen each day (if it does at all), which is a-okay; my focus for the rest of the year is to slowly build volume, so I’m where I should be/want to be. It has been just a joy to see little Spike and A “interact” with each other over the past almost-two months, and particularly for Spike, it has been cool to see her awaken just a little more each day and get just a little more intrigued with her surroundings and her big sister, the latter whom just can’t get enough of her.

pay no mind to the ladder in the background
pay no mind to the ladder in the background; we seem to have a never-ending list of home to-do items that necessitate a ladder being in our living space at all times

 

So: two months. Eight weeks. As a mother now to not one but two girls, I feel like it’s in my best interest — and theirs — for me to radiate the image and notion of body positivity, even (especially) if it means getting comfortable with myself and my own body, which — no surprise — can be a tricky thing postpartum. After I had A, I became acutely aware that she’d eventually mirror the way I talked about myself and the way I carried myself. Consequently, I’ve been intentional over the past 4+ years of the language I use when talking about my looks, my body, and anything physically- or aesthetically-centered when she’s around me — which is basically all the time. When I hear about tweens and younger-aged kids going on diets and expressing self-loathing because they hear the adults in their lives (my guess would be their mothers) do the same, I seriously think a part of me dies inside. “I’m so fat” or “I’m so ugly” or “I don’t like my _____” and the like shouldn’t have to cross any child’s lips ever, in my opinion.

So here I am, nearly two months postpartum, and all these notions of body positivity and “female empowerment,” if you will, are coursing through my head more than ever before. As I’m nursing Spike at WTF o’clock each morning, I often scroll through IG and come upon images from the 4th Trimester Bodies Project or from the hashtag #takebackpostpartum, like the one below, and it really gets my wheels turning:

 

Seriously, let’s talk about how awe-inspiring the female human body is for a minute. Think about it. Once a woman gets pregnant, her body goes through tremendous change — every single part of her, from the obvious aesthetics on the outside all the way down to the cellular level. At no other time during a woman’s life will she actually grow — physically grow — an organ (the placenta) specifically for a set amount of time in her life (pregnancy) that, once her pregnancy is over, her body will eject. That, in and of itself, is mind-boggling to think about. An organ! And her body knows when it’s no longer needed and oof! out it goes!

And besides this organ-growing business, there’s the also-obvious aspect that the female human body cultivates what eventually becomes a living, breathing, growing being, beginning as merely a fertilized zygote and  culminating in a squishy, wrinkly neonate (only after the incredible process that is birth, which is an amazing process by itself), a brand-new baby that smells so sweet, looks so darling, and seems to do nothing but eat, sleep, and poop and is perfect in every way imaginable.

[Here, I’d post a picture of Spike’s placenta that I insisted on my husband taking after I gave birth, but I’m guessing you probably don’t want to see it. It’s AMAZING though. Seriously. So cool. Yay biology!]

Women’s bodies endure this this enormous and transformational, downright profoundly life-altering process for a good 10 months — 40 weeks, nearly an entire year — with the excellent takeaway being lifelong membership into Club Mom. Those 10 months can and I’d imagine, often do, change females’ bodies forever, and the changes themselves can change with subsequent births. It’s amazing. I’m repeating myself, but seriously. It’s all so amazing to me.

Why then, if we know that our bodies go through this tremendous change that take the better part of an entire YEAR, is there such a push to so quickly “get our pre-baby bodies” back?

I mean, seriously now  — why do people buy into this notion that women need to look how we did pre-pregnant nearly immediately post-delivery?

Are we really that oblivious, and our short-term memories that shitty, that we forget exactly how much change our bodies just endured for nearly a year?

Maybe I’m going out on a limb here, but to think or even hope that our bodies can “return” to the same way they were pre-pregnancy so quickly after birth — assuming they do at all — is delusional, and on the side of the people/organizations/companies who make us think that this is rational, completely manipulative and predatory.

A cursory search online will lead you to a flurry of products that offer beleaguered moms the “easy” and “effortless” opportunity to get their pre-mom bodies back. The options are endless here, gang. You could use or ingest anything from bodywraps, lotions, creams, “detoxes” or “cleanses” (and we all know how I feel about these… gag me), magic foods, hell, there’s probably even a special song-and-dance routine out there that someone is touting as the magic elixir that’ll promise moms their original bodies back.

What. bullshit.

Imagine how this feels if you’ve recently become a mom for the first time (or the 8th time, whatever), and you’ve got the fun circus that is maternal hormones pumping through your body at full-tilt, and you see products and advertisements espousing how much better you’d look and feel or how much higher your self-worth would be if you merely looked how you did pre-pregnancy.

Here’s the thing, though, the important thing that I’m taking it upon myself, by way of my little corner of the internet here, to remind you: you just had a baby.

Without exaggeration, you literally grew and birthed progeny (as well as the accompanying organ necessary for said progeny).

And, better yet, if you’re breastfeeding, your body is literally sustaining the life of your child.

In other words, not only did your body grow and expel another being, now your body is still working, even harder perhaps, to ensure that your little one lives and thrives.

Yet somehow — growing and birthing and sustaining life — that’s not, you’re not, good enough.

What the hell.

Cut yourself some slack when you’re postpartum if (read: when) you don’t look how you did before. Give yourself a freakin’ break, moms.

I want to use my MA skills here for a second and examine the shoddy rhetoric implicit and explicit to claims and promises of “returning to your pre-pregnant body.” When you say that you’re going to return to your pre-pregnant body, that implies that it’s possible in the first place, that somehow, you can make your body go backwards in time to mirror how it looked before — before the growing-of-a-human-and-organ and before the sustaining-of-a-child business that I talked about earlier.

It ain’t gonna happen, kids. It can’t.

To say that you can “return to your pre-pregnant body” implies that your body can be how it was before you were pregnant — and that’s simply just not true. Once you’ve had a baby, you’ve had a baby. There’s no other way around it, no halfsies or kinda-sortas. For some women, myself included, you might have visual “scars” from your pregnancy or breastfeeding years. Some women own their scars, calling their stretch marks their “tiger stripes,” for example, and others hide them, maybe out of shame or resentment or embarrassment that their once-taut midsection or perfect ass or whatever no longer looks or feels the way it once did.

It’s really a matter of personal choice and preference, but I think some women’s inability to own their postpartum bodies is due to these bullshit products/companies/organizations out there (and their corresponding advertising) that make my fellow mothers feel like their postpartum bodies are somehow “less than” or otherwise not good enough, at least compared to how their bodies were pre-pregnancy.

Again: I call bullshit.

This soapbox is as much for me as it is for any reader who might stumble across this entry. Being two months postpartum now (and nearly four and a half years since my first daughter’s birth), I’d be lying if I said that I haven’t been periodically frustrated that I’m not at my exact weight as I was pre-pregnant with Spike or that I’m annoyed that my pants don’t fit me as perfectly yet as they did before — and who knows, maybe I’ll never get back to my pre-Spike weight or my pre-Spike pant-fitting-perfection. Whatever. I’ve implored my husband to correct me if I start body-shaming myself, even casually, because I don’t want that shitty behaviour and language to rub off onto my girls, and in particular, my incredibly impressionable four year-old.

Just because you might not look exactly like you did before you had your child doesn’t mean that you’re somehow less worthy of a person, less beautiful, or in general, less of anything. It’s aesthetics, and we all know that health can and often does look very different from person to person.

Allow me to remind you, again, that you grew, birthed, and if applicable, are still sustaining human life.

Cut yourself some slack.

If anything, celebrate that amazing body of yours because it’s obviously strong as fuck, and while I don’t think that “strong is the new sexy” (ugh, that should be another post entirely), I absolutely believe that “strong is the new strong” and is damn worthy of celebrating.

from a Sierra summit (over 2,400' of climbing in an ~11 mile run) a couple weekends ago. I could easily admit that I think my ass still looks bigger than usual or pinpoint exactly where I'm carrying the leftover pregnancy weight, but no fucks can be given for those menial matters, my friends. I'm no special snowflake or anything, but that body there grew and birthed and sustained two kids over the past 4.5 years and runs a shit ton of miles. Strength FTW, amigos
from a Sierra summit (over 2,400′ of climbing in an ~11 mile run) a couple weekends ago at 7 weeks postpartum. I could easily bemoan that my ass is bigger than usual and pinpoint exactly where I’m carrying the leftover pregnancy weight, but no fucks can be given for those menial matters, my friends. I’m no special snowflake or anything, but that body there grew and birthed and sustained two kids over the past 4.5 years and runs a shit ton of miles. Those matters — **not** the fact that I still can’t wear some of my pants  — are far more significant to me. Strength FTW, amigos [PC: S]

Besides, going on a limb here, but I’m guessing that if someone asked you at the end of the day, was it worth it? — was it worth gaining X number of pounds or Y number of inches on your waist and butt or your breasts never looking the same again — or whatever — if it meant that you’d get to experience the gift that is motherhood, you’d resoundingly say yes, and some, and even consider doing it all again.

There is definitely an importance and a value to practicing self-love postpartum, which includes the obvious stuff that we all know full well by now, like eating well and exercising, and how that looks to you will be different from how that looks to me. Therein lies the beauty of it. Just because you may not right now walk or run or whatever as fast (or well) as you did before you had your child doesn’t mean that you won’t ever return to that benchmark or, more importantly, it doesn’t make you any less of an athlete. I promise.

probably the most challenging run I've done since living here is just down the street from me. top: Nov '14, about a month or so before I got pregnant (and was in the thick of 50k training); bottom: last weekend, 8 weeks postpartum. Here again, I could talk about how much "better" my body was in the top pic, or how much faster I was then, or whatever, buuuuuuuuut no fucks can be given. That my postpartum (x2 now) body can throw down a double-digit run and climb nearly 3,000' through what is practically Everest, as far as I'm concerned, is way more valuable to me these days. [PC: S]
probably the most challenging run I’ve done since living here is just down the street from me (Monument Peak), and I like to stand at the top and pretend that it’s all my kingdom 🙂   top: Nov ’14, about a month or so before I got pregnant (and was in the thick of 50k training); bottom: last weekend, 8 weeks postpartum, just building volume and getting back into shape. Here again, I could talk about how much “better” my body was in the top pic, or how much faster I was then, or whatever, buuuuuuuuut no fucks can be given right now, friends. That my postpartum (x2 now) body can throw down a double-digit run and climb nearly 3,000′ through/over what is practically Everest, as far as I’m concerned, is way more valuable to me these days. [PC: S]

I’ll step off this soapbox for now. With the chaos that is the postpartum period, and especially the fourth trimester, we moms need not waste any of our extremely valuable and scarce mental real estate on stuff like this, stuff that somehow makes us question our worth as females, as mothers, or as humans. (And really, who the hell has time for stuff like this in the first place?) Body positivity is an acquired habit and one surely worth emulating as much as for ourselves as for our children.

Please, if no one else will say it to you, allow me to: your postpartum body is never, in any way, less than your bod pre-pregnancy. Promise. If anything, it is more than because it is your body — and yes, that emphasis is necessary — that did the work of growing and sustaining life. That, amigos, is serious strength and beauty. Own it.