Duathlon Boys

Charged up from their Kids Triathlon earlier in the summer, William and Andrew decided to enter the Fitchburg Kids Duathlon—a run-bike-run—event. What a ball they had! Eliminating the sport that was most difficult for the two of them (swimming) resulted in a truly pleasurable race event.

Both boys were extremely competitive and did exceptionally well in their age groups.

William had a neck-and-neck photo finish where he and another boy fought for third place. In the end, William earned fourth place (losing third place by just an inch).

He also learned a tough but valuable lesson in sportsmanship. We learned, after the finish, from witnesses on the course (we were stationed at the finish), that the boy who won third place had been purposely pushing and elbowing William the whole way. It's a shame that a third place trophy was won in this manner (causing William to miss the trophy), but it provided us an opportunity to talk about the challenges that life places in front of all of us and how we handle those challenges with grace and good sportsmanship, no matter the outcome.

I think Joe and I wanted William to win more than he did. So we had to bite our tongues and walk the good-sportsmanship-walk as well. There will be other races, and we look forward to them.

We are very proud of our running, biking boys. These two are going to be some competitors to reckon with in the coming years.