The Animo Sprint Triathlon and my Podium Finish :)

Once again, the Annual Animo Sprint Triathlon was a success. Now on its 5th year, the two day event attracted around 500 participants with Day 1 dedicated to the Tri Kids and beginners and Day 2 for the "main event".

What impressed me the most during the 2 day event is the emergence of teams among the kids. It seems current triathletes have been effective in encouraging their kids to embrace the sport and form part of  the next generation of triathletes. You could see the kids in tri uniforms provided by their team (well actually, by their parents).

Kids from Tri Clark awaiting the Swim Start

The future of Philippine Triathlon is secure as these kids are exposed to proper training, nutrition, mental preparationa and motivation coming from both their parents and the tri community. The Animo Sprint Tri and similar events provide these "Super Tri Kids" with a good venue to show and develop their talent. It's also good to note that the kids are exposed to this discipline and balances off the influences of gadget games and being hooked to the internet.

It was a thrill to watch the kids battle it out in the race course. For every kid, there would be around 3 to 4 people to support the child: the mom, the dad, the yaya and sometimes even the driver. A fifth support person would be either the Lola or the Ninang. In short, it was a huge family event. Kids as young as 5 years old participated.

Youngest Triathlete reporting for body marking.

Stage Parents: Triathlete, Tony Lu, his wife Therese and their daughter Kate, finisher.

Super Tri Kid sprinting to th finish.

Some of the Podium finishers among the kids.

Tri Idol, Art Ifurung of Tri Clark with his son - a future tri superstar?

My Race

In my case, I did a very rare 3-medal haul today at the 5th Annual Animo Sprint Triathlon.

My most notable medal was for 1st Place in my Age Group thus allowing me to defend my title versus Frenchman, Laurent Baucher who finished 3rd this year behind runner up, RJ Lorenzo a teammate with the Century Tri Hard Team.

I also won a medal each for in the La Salle and Ayala Alabang resident categories. The Animo Sprint Tri, being a De La Salle event, awarded the top 3 La Sallites who raced. The Ayala Alabang Village Association also awarded the top three village residents who competed.

Lucky Day - on the Podium 3 times.

Despite not having enough sleep because I attended my neice's debut party the night before, I was very happy with my "new" swim (which I've been working on the past 3 weeks), enjoyed powering through the 30k bike portion even if I didn't have water (I forgot to pack a bottle this morning), and had a really strong run. This gave me today's podium finish.

Sharing with you some of the breathtaking photos of the event:

I think we should also congratulate LSGH Batch 81 for pulling off the event for 5 straight years and to TRAP and Chili Grass who've both patiently partnered with our team to get the race going each year.

Thank you to all the sponsors - Century Tuna, Arena Swim Gear, SM Southmall, Goldilocks, Nizoral Cream, Gatorade, SBR, Philippine Star, David's Salon, OneSport and Swim Magazine.