Yesterday marked the end of an era in the Carpenter household: our last Junior Ski to Sea race in the elementary school division—and what a way to finish!  Ben and his teammates pulled off a first place win in the boys’ division but none of it came without a few glitches.  The race consists of 5 legs: a bike, run, three-legged race, soccer dribble and obstacle course.  This event is a big deal in our community and an even bigger deal if you’re the youngest brother in a family of competitors.  Most kids start in February deciding on their team name, the t-shirt design and who will take each leg. To be honest, the one thing I do dread every year is the question: “which parent wants to take care of the shirts??”  Fortunately, Will (our biker) secured a sponsor for the team.  A local biking apparel retailer—a huge shout out to Disidual!) agreed to furnish the boys with t-shirts, sweatpants, beanies and sunglasses in exchange for a team photo.  I’d say they got quite a bit of publicity while the boys waited on the podium.

At last year’s race, “The Hot Rods” took 3^rd place and were determined to finish out 5^th grade as the reigning champs.  But it did not look too promising at the beginning.  Our runner was in 5^th place as he handed off to the three-legged team.  These boys lost their Velcro ankle strap at least 4 times before they could gain any momentum.  They made up for it by the time they handed off to the biker.  While waiting to see the our biker dismount and hand off to Ben, a girl came out of nowhere and was easily 2 minutes ahead of the next competitor.  We figured they had no chance of placing at this point—until we learned she was part of a co-ed team.  Along came 3 other boys to take off dribbling their soccer ball down the field.  Lo and behold, Ben appeared and passed all 3 of them just in time to hand off to Bryan who would finish it off with the obstacle course.  Bryan’s bad case of nerves caused two puking pit stops both up and down the stairs.  Not to be deterred by a little vomit, he pushed through and was the second participant to ring the bell.

After the medal ceremony, we were making the hike back to our car when Ben’s proud grandma said, “All 3 of my grandsons were on a first place team in Junior Ski to Sea.”  When we got home and announced the results to Ian, he reminded us, “my team got first in 4^th AND 5^th grades so I have more swag!”   Such a supportive brother. 

I tried to dig up old photos from past year’s races and all I could find was a page in Ian’s scrapbook from 4^th grade—so his claim really is true.  I took a snapshot of the article and photo with my phone.  I also found a past post with the event brochure that had Ben obscurely placed in the lower right corner when he was 6 years old. 

Regardless of what place they came in, I love the community support as we all cheer our kids on in the spirit of low stakes competition.  It’s a win-win for everyone.  Well done, Team Disidual!