Today NBC re-aired their coverage of the 2009 Ironman World Championship, so of course I DVRed it and watched it with the kids. Right away, Mateo recognized it as "Mommy's race". Haha, not quite. I do little managable sprint triathlons, not 112 mile bike rides followed by a marathon. But, as I have mentioned in the past, this is one of the advantages of having small children. They think you're a super hero.
Nico, in fact, is convinced that I turn into Batman when I put on my wetsuit. He kindly ignores the fact that the real Batman's suit doesn't cling to a post-baby belly. A dead give away in my opinion. When we are watching the swim portion, Nico reminds me about Batman.
"Batman swims! It's you mommy!"
"Hey, mommy," chimes in Mateo, "which one's you?"
"I'm not in this race, Mateo."
"Oh" he replies, "Mommy, I'm confused. Are you Batman or Ironman. This race is an Ironman."
"I'm Batman. Hey, let's just watch, ok?"
"No, let's just talk!" Mateo then proceeds to ask me one question after the next about the race. He is occasionally interrupted by Nico asking over and over again which one of the racers is me.
The coverage follows the elite racers and then, of course, introduces us to a few of the age groupers with inspirational stories. Cancer survivors, stroke victims, amputees. The story that captures Mateo attention is that of Rudy Garcia-Tolson who was born with severe birth defects and did not have lower legs. He was riding his bike with two prosthetic legs which fasinated Mateo.
"Look at his legs. Why do his legs look like that?"
"Because he wasn't born with good legs, so doctors had to make some for him. Cool, huh, they're like robot legs."
Mateo looked a little nervous and asked, "Mommy will I need robot legs?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because you were so lucky to be born with perfect legs. That guy wasn't so doctors had to make him perfect legs. Perfect robot legs so he could race."
"Mommy, I have robot legs?" asked Nico
"No, your legs are perfect too. I'm so lucky that all my kids were born with perfect legs and are healthy." At this point, I'm tearing up. Damn inspirational stories.
"Mommy, I want robot legs." said Nico.
"No, Nico. Remember, you have perfect legs. You don't need robot legs."
"I want robot legs! I want robot legs now!" I tried to explain again that he could not have robot legs and when that didn't work I tried to distract him & calm him down. But, Nico was hell bent on a pair of robot legs and totally pissed off that I could not amputate his legs immediately and fit him for some prosthetics. In the end, the solution was to close him in his room where he promptly feel asleep after about 5 more minutes screaming about robot legs.
Back to the triathlon. The elite guys were on the run and Mateo was quite into it. Craig Alexander was closing in on the lead, and about to pass the guy who was currently in first place. As he came up on him, Mateo said, "Uh-oh. Look out. Here comes Alexander!" Mateo was very excited to see him win.
After that, the coverage shifted to the women's win and the age groupers. Lots of people hobbling along, trying to make the cut off. People starting to walk, collasping.
"Hey, why are those people stopping and lying down?" asked Mateo.
"Because they're tired."
"Why?"
"Because they've been running for a really long time and they're really tired."
"Oh. You don't get really tired, mommy. You don't lie down in your race."
That's right because I'm Batman. I am, however, too tired to do the dishes...