State Nipper Championships

Tom has had a very busy weekend starting on Thursday.  I dropped him and his bike at school at 5.30am in the pitch black where he jumped on a school mini bus which took him and his team mates, Connor and Levi, to Penrith where they competed in a triathlon.  Levi did a 400m swim, Tom did a 15km bike ride and Connor did a 3km run.  Tom's training consisted of a couple of laps round Tania Park the weekend before where he established that perhaps his gears didn't work quite right but he would probably be ok.  I could not believe the bikes that other kids had at the triathlon - they had the thinnest, largest wheels imaginable and the kids wore skin tight shiny fabrics, googles and funny shoes.  Tom pedalled for his life but it was inevitable that he would be overtaken by a number of these incredible machines.  The boys did very well and ended up coming 50th out of 159 competitors.  They've decided they might train next year - as long as Tom doesn't think we're buying him one of those bikes!  

 Tom on the bike leg

Connor, Levi, Tom

Tom, Levi, Connor

I took Tom, Connor and Levi straight from the triathlon up to Swansea Belmont where the annual State Nipper Championships were being held.  We had a training session on the Thursday evening to get used to the local conditions and then it was early to bed for a 6.30 start on Friday morning.  Jules was originally supposed to take Tom whilst Tess and I spent the weekend at home but his broken arm put paid to that idea so I was constantly texting him with photos and details of what was happening in each of the races.  I have talked before on this blog about Tom's commitment to nippers this year and State Nippers was his opportunity to show how far he has come - to say he was nervous was an understatement.  However, he needn't have been.  He got through to the finals for 4 out of the 5 races that he competed in: Individual swim, Individual Ironman, Board relay and Surf swim relay.  Most of those events involved getting through quarter finals and semi finals before qualifying for the final.  In all those races he was competing against some of the best nippers in the State and he held his own and did better than even he thought he could:

• Individual swim - 12th
• Individual Ironman - 10th
• Board relay - 6th
• Swim surf relay - 9th

When it became apparent that Tom was doing seriously well Jules could not stay away so he jumped on a train on Saturday afternoon to be there for the finals on Sunday.  We are so incredibly proud of Tom and his steely determination and it's been lovely seeing how pleased all his nipper friends are for him too.  He has learnt that you really can achieve anything if you put your mind to it and work hard and he's already applying that learning to other areas of his life - what a legend! 

 Warm up on Thursday - we were worried it might rain all weekend as it has the previous 3 years

 Boys checking the conditions: Harry, Duncan, Tom, Miller

 Ironman coach briefing - this was the most important event to Tom

 Running in to finish the Ironman Final (Tom on the right) - he ran faster than we've ever seen him run!

 Happy boy after the Individual swim final

Nipper mums - we lived every moment with our boys - I have my blood pressure records to prove it!

Due to Jules' last minute decision to come up to Swansea Belmont we had to leave Tess at home.  I wanted her to have a sleepover at a friend's house but she had one on Friday night and she never likes to double up on sleepovers as she struggles to sleep well.  Tess insisted that she would be fine staying in the house on her own especially with Ted as guard dog!  I was not very comfortable with this proposal but there really was no other option and I made sure that Lisa was at home with her phone nearby in case of a panic attack.  Unsurprisingly Tess loved being at home on her own and I'm a bit worried about how often she will now insist on staying at home if she doesn't want to go somewhere with us.  Teenagers are hard work!