A Great Mako Finish in Youth Triathlon Sunday!
Sometimes Makos do other things outside of the pool, and Olivia Romine is one of them...swimming can prepare you for anything...
Unfortuantely, Olivia had a bad crash in the Swim-for-Smiles Youth Triathlon on Sunday, in Chapel Hill, NC. She swerved on the bike to avoid running into some slower kids in front of her, hit a big pylon and crashed. She later discovered that she had a radial buckle fracture of her right arm, a pretty banged up wrist, and some other scrapes and bruises...it would not be surprising if a fracture shows up when they re-x-ray her arm again.
Despite the crash, she got back on the bike and rode another 3 miles and ran 2 more all with a broken elbow! Her time was around a 40:11, for a 300 meter swim, 5 mile bike, and 2 mile run! Olivia ended up making the podium, finishing 3rd in the most competitive age group at what is widely known as the largest youth triathlon in the country, in the longest course division!
Olivia is a tough kid. She couldn't move her elbow, so she clenched her fist and held her shoulder back to get it out of the way. You can also see her bloody chin on the picture we've included. Olivia will sit out practices this week. Then, after she sees the orthopedist for a followup visit next week, she'll have a better sense of when she can get back in the water for kicking.
After the race, Olivia said, "I would have rather done this race and broken my elbow, than to have not done the race and not broken my elbow".
If she hadn't gone down, she probably would have won the age group! Despite this and the crash, Olivia is a BIG winner for finishing, and we are all very proud!
If you have ever had any interest in competing in a triathlon, we may have just talked you out of it....But if not, we've posted one that's being held at Hamilton Lakes in Greensboro, posted under "OTHER EVENTS" , that fits nicely into the GCY meet schedule (June 9th).
Olivia: We are all wishing you a complete and fast recovery!
