With a beaming smile, a little out of breath, Sarah Gawith, of Te Anau, clearly enjoyed the Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon at Memorial Park in Mosgiel yesterday.
"I’ve run a mile," she said — and she was one of the parents.
With 1450 children entered in the TRYathlon, the crowd was well into the thousands. Parents and siblings were slip, slop, slapping on sunscreen before chasing the children around the park in the sun.
The finish line was packed with parents holding their phones out for photos as they greeted the children, aged 6-15, after the run.
The oldest children swam 150m, cycled 8km, and ran 1.5km yesterday.
And many gave it their all.
While his sister Maisie Gawith (9), of Te Anau, liked the biking leg most, Harry (8) enjoyed the run.
He left nothing in the tank, finishing off his 1500m run with a determined sprint to the finish line.
"He was gunning it, wasn’t he?" his proud mother said.
The event was a "big deal" for her children.
"It was great."
A small army of 283 volunteers steered parents and children in the right direction yesterday, offering words of encouragement to the young athletes as they swam, cycled or ran by.
Sanitarium’s Peter Levett, an organiser yesterday, said the event had been running nationwide for 28 years.
Twenty events were held around the country with 33,000 children taking part.
Grant's Braes School, in Waverley, won the prize for having the most entrants on the day in Mosgiel.
