However they added that she could not use training wheels. I could swear when I saw this event last year that some kids used training wheels.


My kids have been racing triathlons for three years and I have found that almost all of the rules are ignored.

Last year, I asked a race director if they would be enforcing the rule about having to cover your torso with a shirt or some other clothing. He said that they would.

At least four boys did the entire race in jammers only.

I showed my video to the race director after the finish and he refused to comment or do anything about it.

The reality is that in our daily lives we all make decisions about which 'rules' to follow. So teach them that. Don't teach them to be a hypocrit. Do you ever drive over the speed limit? Do you ever take a video of others doing it to a police officer and ask them to do something about it? Are you that guy who gets in the left lane ... drives the speed limit right next to another vehicle doing the same ... and blocks up traffic? Are you the guy who decides that if the police aren't going to adequately enforce the rules then you will?

I speed. I do jaywalk. I do many things that violate rules, especially minor ones. Sometimes out of ignorance of the rule, sometimes out of unawareness of the rule, sometimes out of simple non-compliance. What I don't do it complain if I am penalized for it. What I also don't do it complain when someone else violates a minor rule.

He's not helping his kids. He's trying to get someone elses kid tossed out with a video. If he did that to my kid I would punch his nose.

Funny story about a parent being "that guy". 2 years ago in Des Moines (national level junior elite race), one of the junior girls was on the run, kinda falling back. It was hot, she was struggling, so her dad comes running along with her. She tells him to stop, cus it's not allowed, and he keeps going. The poor kid STOPS, tells him to stop running with her and then continues on.

My funny story: A year ago my daughter is doing a small local kids tri. The run is 6 laps around a soccer field. My daughter is chugging along at 11 mins/mile - slow but consistent. A boy who started out faster is slowing down and my daughter passes him. The boy's father starts screaming at him, "Come on! Run Faster. Look. Even that girl is passing you!" The boy has enough of this. "No! I'm not running anymore," he yells. He stops and starts walking." If you want it so bad, you run it," he yelled.

There was a girl in HS who had a dad like that. He was so toxic and overbearing to EVERYBODY that the coach told him not to come to meets. He blustered about, saying that as long as his daughter was on the team, he was coming to meets, and he'd cheer people as he saw fit. And the coach sure as hell wasn't kicking his college scholarship bound, #1 fastest girl off the team, right? This is about the point when the rest of the team starts snickering with excitement(the girl in question included).

Except Coach was perfectly willing to do so, and did. Coach DQ'ed her from that very race even. Whoops, Dad! Shouldn't have called that bluff.

Despite being a very good coach(and adored by his runners), Coach was shangai'ed into the job, didn't want it, and wasn't at all invested in how fast we were or how the teams placed(this is what you should do today, if you want to get faster...but if you don't, that's fine too. I'll live, and so will you.). So yeah, he'd kick people off no matter how fast they were.

So Monday morning rolls around, the girl&her mom shows up to practice(with blueberry muffins for everybody; the mom was wonderful), and Coach cheerfully welcomes them back-contingent on her dad never showing up at a meet again.

The dad was eventually allowed back at meets. On parole. Halfway through the next season. The team Mom wrote him some notecards with encouraging phrases, and he was only allowed to go off the notecards at the mile markers. And he had to cheer everybody with the stock phrases, he couldn't ignore his daughter's teammates like he had been.

This thread is gold.

My kid just did his first race this weekend...a thousand kids at the Atlanta Ironkids tri!...

He had a great time...maybe top 15 in his group...tons of fun...On the drive home, he says "Dad, there was this mom on the run course screaming at her son that she'd buy him a WiiU if he caught 5 more kids.......I caught like 20 kids, including him....sooooo, whaddaya say?"

"Nice try." I said...

No lie, some of the parents at these things are fully nuts...every over bearing stereotype imaginable...