Ethan the Triathlete!!

Wow!  I am one proud mom this morning!  Yes, my 9 year old did a triathlon, yes he swam in the cold, open water of the Columbia River, then went biking 4.5 miles, followed up with a one mile run.  Yes he did all of these things but the reason for my pride is the character I witnessed in my son.  Overall Ethan is a pretty good kid.  I've been noticing though that he teases more than I wished, gets the attitude of entitlement more than I hope he would and talks back more than I expected him to.  Maybe it's the end of summer mentality and we need to get back to structure and routine.  We just learned about the triathlon registration last week so it didn't give Ethan much time to train.  Luckily he'd been swimming twice a day at Grandma's house in Utah, he rides his bike around the neighborhood with friends, and he does plenty of running 4 nights a week for football so it's like he had been unofficially training anyway.     Kent and I have had the idea that since the kids grow so much each year, we would just buy them the cheapest bikes and replace them each year.  Ethan's chain was off his bike when we registered him for the race so we went out and fixed it so he could start tracking his time on the bike length.  Last night his chain was off again so we made sure it was fixed and tightened up for his big race this morning.  We arrived early at sign in and mapped out the course, talked through the procedures and took pictures- everything was going well.  The swimming was energetic, crazy, exciting and nerve wracking. I don't know if Ethan was as nervous as I was just watching him!  I ran down to the transition point from swimming to biking and yelled the appropriate encouragements (maybe more than necessary- who's counting?) and took lots of pictures as they mounted up on their bikes.  When I met up down the track a little bit with Kent, he told me Ethan's chain came off.  My heart sank.  Kent said he fixed it for him and  down the path he saw it come off again but didn't know what happened because Ethan was soon out of sight.  I tell you- we were on pins and needles!  Kent and I both wanted this first experience for Ethan to be a successful one and a good one to encourage him to continue things like this.  As time went by we started talking about scenarios that could be happening, "Do you think someone will help him if the chain comes off again?", "Do you think he is on the side of the path, defeated?", "Should we go check on him?", "How much time do we wait before we start to worry?"  As we realized that not many kids from his group had come back for the next transition, we talked ourselves into relaxing (a little) and see what happens.  My heart about burst out of my chest when I saw Ethan turn the corner- still on his bike with the chain dragging on the path.  He was sitting on his seat, scooting his legs on the sidewalk as fast as he could get his bike to coast.  He looked at me and gave a look that said, "My chain isn't going to work so I will!" He placed almost in the middle of his age group and I could not have been more proud than if he had come in first place!!  I was so impressed by him and thankful that his first triathlon experience was a success!!!

Here is Kent helping Ethan get his goggles and his swim cap on.

Ethan and his best friend, Ethan.

Ethan and Reid trying to get used to the cold water before they horn blows.

Transition from swim to bikes. 

 Ethan is getting rid of his swim gear as he runs to his bike.

Ethan is making good time and heading out for the bike portion.

You can see Ethan's chain is hanging down and he is just scooting his feet along the sidewalk to make his bike go as fast as it can without the use of pedals.
The last two seconds of the triathlon-- finishing strong!!

The lesson I learned from this experience was that children truly are here for us to learn from them.  Not only did Ethan set a great example for me to roll up my sleeves and work with what I am given, but he gave me a glimpse of the love our Heavenly Father has for us. (Spoiler Alert!!-  I'm about to spew a bunch of jargin about my beliefs).  I helped Ethan prepare before the race and gave him the encouragement I felt would help him compete to the best of his ability. I sent him on his way and watched as he worked so hard to accomplish his goal.  He got kicked in the face while swimming, had issues with his chain when biking and had a side ache during his run but he finished and was in good spirits.  I know that our Heavenly Father prepares us and encourages us all along the way.  When we hit a challenge or a trial in our life we have the right to make our own choice about how will we respond.  Ethan could have gone either way with the challenge of his bike chain.  I am thankful that he decided for himself to make the most of it and work with what he had going for him.  There are lots of other analogies that I learned but this one stuck out to me the strongest and didn't want to pass up the chance to acknowledge how thankful I am that even though I think I am teaching my children how to become better people, they are truly teaching me.