Aug. 19--Gianna LaPerna finished her first triathlon in Naperville at age 6, with training wheels on her bicycle.
"The bike course, there was a ginormous hill at the turnaround, and it was awful," she said.
Laboring up that incline, she eventually crossed the finish line. When she got home that day, she wanted the training wheels removed from her bike immediately. Her parents obliged, gave her a little nudge and watched as she pedaled confidently away (down a hill this time).
Now Gianna's 12 and, while swimming is her main sport, she also has finished eight or nine triathlons. She and her brothers, Henry, age 9, and Nathan, age 7, will be among the more than 1,000 participants in the Life Time Kids Tri, celebrating its 25th year in Chicago on Aug. 29.
The course for senior kids, ages 11-14, includes a 200-meter swim at Foster Beach, followed by a 7K bike segment, finishing with a 2K run. The distances are halved for junior kids, ages 7-10.
The appeal of triathlon for these children?
"Well, it's fun," said Gianna. "I like the thrill of having people watch you and competing against other people in different events."
For the past five years, the Life Time Kids Tri has topped 1,000 participants, about the most the event can handle, said Scott "Hootie" Hutmacher, regional brand manager for Life Time Athletic Events.
He credits the addition of triathlon to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney for attracting newcomers to the sport.
"The adults started getting into it" -- like the LaPerna kids' dad, who is training for his first Ironman -- "and they are now educating kids to get into the sport as well," Hutmacher said.
Braxton Bokos of Oak Brook, whose parents own Urban Tri Gear in Westmont and run a swim school for adults, has been doing triathlons since he was 5.
"So, for six years," Braxton said, "My dad and mom used to do triathlons. I wanted to try it. And I got hooked. I've done over 50, under 90 -- somewhere around there."
His parents no longer do triathlons -- it's the peak season for their shop and for their son. "We're spectathletes," dad Preston said.
Braxton completed an Olympic distance triathlon, which entails a 0.9-mile swim, 24.8-mile bike and 6.2-mile run (or 10K), last year in Hammond, Ind. For moral support, Braxton asked his swim coach, Jason Holbrook at Westmont Swim Club, if he'd like to do it with him.
"He said, 'Yeah, I'd love to' -- he does Ironmans. The motivation from him and from myself got me through it," recalled Braxton, who raised $2,500 along the way for W.I.R.E.D. Athletes, an organization that supports wounded veterans. "I want to do an Ironman when I'm 17."
He's undeterred by the minimum age of 18 for an Ironman, which involves a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run.
Kennedy Calcagno, who won first place for her division at last year's Life Time Kids Tri, is the oldest of five children, three of whom are doing the triathlon this year. Kennedy did her first triathlon at age 6.
"Running is my favorite part," Kennedy said. "And the before and after, when all your teammates are there. And if it's out of town, you get to stay at a hotel. And just racing against other people is fun."
Now, at 12, Kennedy isn't sure how many she's done.
"Last year Kennedy did maybe nine in a season, and that was a little excessive," said her mom, Dawn Calcagno, who did triathlons before she had children.
This year Kennedy and her younger sister joined MMTT, a youth triathlon team in Geneva, to keep their participation levels healthy, her mom said. Although they live in Elmhurst, the drive to Geneva is worth it for the fantastic program and safe place to practice, she said.
There's prestige too. The MMTT team finished first for the third year in a row in the youth club division at the USA Triathlon Youth and Junior Championships, which were Aug. 1-2 in West Chester, Ohio. Three MMTT participants also won their category, but the team aspect is what motivates every child to race hard, said MMTT coach Chris Palmquist. Each one's finish contributes points toward the team's total.
Palmquist said MMTT membership has grown, through word of mouth, to about 52 kids, ranging from age 6 to 16.
"They all have fun, so they bring a friend and all of a sudden you've doubled in size," she said.
MMTT has branched from Geneva to add groups in the Barrington area and on the North Shore.
"Kids love triathlon, because you're swimming, then you're done, then you're riding really hard, and then you're done, and then you're running, and you're done," Palmquist said. "Nobody's perfect at all three. Everybody has some strengths and some things they need to work on. That provides a nice perpetual challenge, and it kind of equalizes everyone in a way."
Triathlon also brings variety to young athletes' regimens.
"The kids who have always been on a swim team, you can have ups and downs with how much you enjoy a sport. If you throw triathlon in the mix, all of a sudden you have a reason to keep swimming; same with running. And everyone loves the biking, and it gives them a chance to develop cycling skills, and all of a sudden you have families that can ride together, and it's a good thing."
One casualty of triathlon's popularity is that Palmquist no longer has time to compete herself, "but I sure have fun with the coaching," she said from San Diego, where she was coaching a youth paratriathlon camp for 12 kids living with challenges such as amputations; about half use wheelchairs.
The Paratriathlon will be in the Paralympics for the first time in 2016, which are right after the Olympics in Rio. To earn slots to compete in Rio, the world's best triathletes, including paratriathletes, will be competing around Grant Park on Sept. 18-19 in the World Championships of the International Triathlon Union (ITU).
"It's a huge, huge deal, it's never happened before in the U.S.," Palmquist said. "These are by far the biggest races for this year leading up to the Olympics next year."
The event is spectator-friendly because it's a circuit race, with many laps, she said, a great way to expose kids to the sport to see if it stirs interest.
The Lifetime Kids Tri, meanwhile, is an opportunity to expose adults to kids' example, Hutmacher said.
"As kids we all grow up swimming and biking and running, so for kids, it's no big deal to them to do a triathlon. They're into it," Hutmacher said. "When you ask an adult to do the same thing, they freak out. They're like, 'I don't have shoes, I can't run. ...' We love for adults to come out and see the fearless look in the kids' eyes as they do a flying mount onto their bikes in the transition."
Competition isn't the focus of the Life Time Kids Tri, he said.
"Sure, you see kids that look like Olympians with 4 percent body fat. They have the parents who are die-hard athletes and they're usually the ones getting yelled at to go faster," Hutmacher said. "But there are kids who are wearing helmets backwards, there are swim goggles being worn on the bike course... It's a riot. And it's amazing."
