With the booming heat, there was some worry that she wouldn’t be overly keen to take part in the Staffordshire IRONKIDS but from the moment she woke up to the point of getting to the start line, she’s been in high spirits.
Our event took place at 3pm with staggered times for the different age groups. That meant we had to indulge in ice cream before the race to make sure we didn’t overheat. Shugborough is a beautiful setting and ownership has very recently been taken over the by The National Trust so the facilities for the all important loo stops were open and abundant, which is always high on the checklist when taking part in an event such as this.
Always well organised, the IRONKIDS is part of the bigger IRONMAN challenge which will see hundreds of competitors swim, cycle and run around the area of outstanding natural beauty that we are lucky enough to live in.
As she’s only nursery age, her distance was just 500 metres which is more than manageable and was just right for today’s conditions. She was race ready as soon as she woke up this morning and her cheery spirit meant she zoomed off from me as soon as the horn sounded. She came in a respectable 6th and although it’s not really a race against anyone but yourself at this age, I was pleased that she’d gone out and felt good about running.
It’s inspirational seeing healthy fit athletes surround you all (and that’s just me). When you’re four yrs old, it must be even more exciting and I hope that by surrounding her with examples of health she will be keen to pursue sport and gain confidence in her ability rather than worry about body image and be bogged down by other’s judgements.
She believed she could today, so she did.
