Children's Triathlon

[jeee]

My DC (8, 9 and 10) are desperate to enter a triathlon at the end of September. I don't know anything about them, beyond the obvious. Does anyone know anything about changeovers, i.e, can we help them with shoes, speed tips for this....? Any information would be gratefully received.

Hopeful bump

Good luck to them, I hope they have lots of fun.
Most experienced triathletes tend to use a tri-suit which is worn for the entire race to save time with changing. Elastic laces in shoes so they can be pulled on are pretty popular too. However, unless you are keen to go out and buy lots of new equipment, the best thing that you can do is practice laying everything out in a small space in the order in which they will need it and then get them to have a go at changing from swim to bike and then bike to run. I usually lay everything out on a small handtowel apart from my bike helmet which goes on the handlebars of my bike to remind me to put it on before touching the bike.

Thanks, CardiCorgi. I'm certainly not rushing out to buy loads of expensive gear, but the elastic laces sound a really good idea, particularly as DS is not good with laces.

ds did a few triathlons before swimming took over completely ...

presumably the swim will be in a pool - swimmers are supposed to be seeded with the fastest going off first so they get a clear lane, but it doesn't always happen. If your dc are 'proper' swimmers and are faced with a pool full of kids who are much slower than them, they could try ds' tactic which was to swim underneath them - seemed to work!

definitely elastic laces and sprinkle talcum powder in the shoes beforehand - makes it much easier to slip slightly damp feet in. If possible go without socks but they'll need to make sure they can run in their trainers without getting blisters - no point gaining a few seconds in transition if you then lose it all because your feet are too sore to run!

If they're not using tri-suits (and they do make life a lot easier) then jammers for boys rather than briefs (and definitely not board shorts) as they can cycle and run in them and just put a vest on top. Running vests are miles easier to put on slightly damp skin than t-shirts - the number of kids I've seen struggling to get their arms through the sleeves as their tri-suited rivals zip away.

bike in a low gear so they can get away quickly and then change up and drum into them that they must put their helmet on first

If they can, practise changing from cycling to running a few times - legs can feel like they've turned to jelly in the first few minutes of the run. And get them to pace themselves, no point sprinting the first half and then crawling to the finish line.

I hope they have fun :)

The first tri my dd did she swam in a normal swim suit and then ran outside and put on a loose fitting t shirt with her number pinned (with safety pins) to the front, I got elastic laces and put in her trainers recently - they are a swearing emototive time to put in, so make sure you do this a few days before the race and then get the children to practice putting them on.

use talc as well in the trainers - this way the feet will dry of with the talc and make things easier to get on.

The helmet before bike is really important - they must not even touch the bike before they have put their helmet on...

get to the event early enough to walk the course - so they are confident about where they should be going