Becoming a Weetbix athlete at age 8!

This story is all about the Sanitarium Weetbix TRYathlon I have just done in Nelson. It is something that both of my sisters did when they were my age, and something I have really been looking forward to. I never imagined that I would end up getting interviewed by the local newspaper in the build up to the event, but it was cool to see my story and hear from my old friends that they had seen it to. Read until the end, there is a video about my whole experience. 

Photo : Gordon Preece, the reporter for the Nelson Weekly, taking my photo at Tahunanui Beach in Nelson in the lead up to the Weetbix TRYathlon in March.

This is a story about how I have taken my love of speed, being super awesome at running, and turned it into my superhero skill.

I really love super heros. I always have. Ever since I was a little kid I always loved Spiderman, the Avengers and before that Paw Patrol. Being a super hero would be so cool. I really love how fast and strong they are, and that is why I have always tried my hardest when I play sport, or go running.

One day I will be able to write all this down on here for myself, but for right now Dad is helping me get it all done, so that I have something to look back on when I am older. This is a very important part of the reason why we have the website, and all of our social media, so that in many years time, all of us can look back on our childhoods and be able to access and share some of the cool adventures we have gotten up to as we have grown up.

The story begins when I was 6, in my second year of going to school. It was a fun time, and my big sister Maia was also going to the same school in central Nelson, just around the corner from our family home. Every winter there is a school cross country day, which is basically running around a huge park close to our school. This was my first cross country as I started school too late in the previous year to participate in my first year's one. I was very excited as I love to run. My Mum and Dad, and baby brother Max were all there to watch me race and I was very keen to do well, as I am quite competitive deep down. That is what having two big sisters does!

Photo : Sophia and Maia dropping Alex off to school in early 2021.

The cross country day came, it was winter, the sun was shining but it was cold and crisp, and a little bit muddy underfoot. Lining up at the start line was a little bit crazy as everyone wanted to be at the front. The start gun went off and we were racing, all of the classes combined so it was all of the 6 year old boys all at once, and to my surprise I actually won! Not by a little bit, but by a really big bit. I was shocked. Once I started running I didn't look back and kept on running until the end. I didn't realise that everyone else was miles behind me. My Mum and Dad were there and were absolutely amazed to see how fast I was. They were so proud of how hard I had tried, and afterwards they even took me out to my favourite restaurant to celebrate! I was learning that hard work really did pay off, and this really encouraged me to try really hard at everything that I did. 

Photo (2021) : Our celebration dinner at our favourite restaurant in our home town of Nelson.

Fast forward to 2023 when I was finally eligible to enter into the Sanitarium Weetbix TRYathlon. You have to be over 7 years old to enter, so this was the first year In could do this, but we were on a huge trip into the Queen Charlotte Sounds so I couldn't go. Both of my sisters had done it ever year, and I had always gone along to watch them. It is a proper triathlon, but just a little easier as it is only for kids. A swim, a bike ride and then a run. Because I am on the boat and in the water so much, I have gotten quite good at swimming. It is one of those things that you have to get good at when you spend so much time on a boat. I love that I can swim to shore, and not be scared to be out in sometimes quite deep water, where there is absolutely no way that I can touch the bottom, not even close!

Photo : Alex in training mode in the lead up to the Weetbix TRYathlon in March 2024, taking the opportunity to get some running in at Double Beach.

Turning up to the 2024 Sanitarium Weetbix TRYathlon was very exciting as my Mum and Dad were contacted in the lead up to the event to see if I would like to be interviewed for the local paper. The people at the event organisers read my application and thought it would make a great story so they got in touch with our family to meet up with a local reporter when we were next in Nelson. I went down to the beach and met a local reporter Gordon Preece, who interviewed me and took some photos. A couple of weeks later an article published in the local paper which was pretty cool. I have saved lots of copies of the newspaper because I am very proud that they chose me to be part of the Weetbix story.
Turning up to the event in Nelson was exciting because I hadn't really done anything very competitive in ages, and I also got to see heaps of my old school friends that were also doing it to. It started off with a swim, but it wasn't really the kind of swim that I was used to because you could still touch the bottom, so some of the kids ran/swam in the water, and some like me just swam. It was all a little bit crazy at first because every one wanted to be in the front. Next it was onto the biking which was the event that worried me the most because it was the thing I hadn't had a chance to practice a lot of, and then my favourite, the running.  I ran so fast, and tried so hard, that when I got to the finish line I needed a huge drink. It was such a cool experience. I am glad that I did it. 

You can see the article by clicking here: https://issuu.com/nelsonweekly/docs/nw_02212024 - it's on Page 7. The awesome thing is that we also made a video about the whole thing. 
I hope you enjoy it. See you next time. Alex (aged 8).