Defeat

On Monday morning we finished our swim squad session with a race agains kids.
We train in a private school's pool and take 3 out of 6 lanes, the other lanes are used by the school's swim squad. It's about a dozen boys and girls aged about 12. They are there at 6 when we start, and keep swimming after our finish time of 7.30. I guess they are a "development" squad because of their age and the amount of drillwork they do.

The "race" was a relay 350m, each team had 7 members doing 50m each. The triathletes were all aged over 30 and quite a competitive bunch ( 2 9.30 ironman, 3 sub 35 10k'ers, etc.), however we got a trashing by this kids. At any point in the race we were on top, one of the girls even swam breaststroke on her turn.

That goes to show that no matter what you do, there's always the chance of not winning. However I wouldn't say we were defeated. The kids and us are quite different type of athletes and they're obviously good sprinters in the swim, I had good fun and I'm pretty sure they were a proud bunch right after, knowing they can kick the old boy's bottoms.
Fortunately, though, the race in Budapest is against 30-34 year old guys that may be not as good sprinters on the swim, so we're safe.
So... Defeat.. a big word that doesn't have a place in the amateur athlete's diccionary. Having so many things in one's plate (work, family, uni... you name it), the fact of just going out and training is a huge commitment. And racing is such an indulgence... I woulnd't know where to look for defeat.

Date: 10 August
Sport: Cycling/Running
Time: 75min/15min
Dist: n/a / 3km
Comment: coldest run of the year, lucky it was short!