Yesterday Georgia participated in the Tasmanian schools triathlon challenge at Bellerieve oval. We could not be more proud.

Georgia is the type of child who wants to try everything. Even when she was in kinder she was so brave and confident. So much so that she sang into the microphone in school assemblies, and for one talent contest, she played her harmonica. Have you ever heard a five year old play a harmonica? Incredibly sweet.

So Georgia wanted to participate in this triathlon. She even started training for it, sprinting around the house; going bike riding with Monte; and I have been taking the children swimming after school for a few weeks.

She was really excited about it, and during the evening before, we got her gear organised and talked through how the event will go and what she needed to do. We had to leave home early to get to Bellerieve by 9 am. She was so excited – and nervous too! Guess what. I was nervous as well. I didn’t let her know that though.

She did a great job. She had to swim or wade through 50m of sea water. The water was cold, being at the beach and all. We watched Georgie hop into the water, and we could just see that she was going ‘oh oh! Cold cold!’ It was interesting though that the athletes were able to wade in the water, except the waders went much faster, which meant the swimmers were at a bit of a disadvantage. After the swimming they ran to the transition area to get changed and go for the 1500m bike ride, and then they came back, put their bikes away and went for a 500m run. These distances may not sound like much to a lot of adults, but to a group of little 8-9 year olds, it is quite an effort! we could see that the kids were working really hard!

The most awesome moment was watching Georgia make a sprint towards the end of the race! Go Georgia!

Elora loved sitting on daddy’s shoulders to watch everything that was happening; I think she had the best view of all!

Georgia spent her recovery time chatting with her friends, eating her lunch, watching her school mates participate in their races and cuddling her dad, who is so very proud of his little girl!

And we took her out for lunch afterwards to celebrate!

We think it is so important to show our children that a healthy, active life style is really important. Promoting activities that encourage them to get outdoors and use loads of energy is something we prioritise, whether it is competing in triathlons or weeding the lettuce patch or playing chasey around the house.

One of the sponsors for the triathlon was the diabetes association. The speaker, who opened the competition, said that one in three children will develop diabetes at some stage in their life because of the amount of sugar they consume in their childhood: ‘and we can’t let that happen!’ By encouraging children to eat healthily and be really active, we are protecting our children and giving the gift of good health.

Active kids are healthy kids and healthy kids are happy kids.