Important Update – Waunakee Kids Triathlon

An important message for those involved with our upcoming Waunakee Kids Triathlon.

Dear parents, teachers, and community members,

I’d like to provide some information regarding our upcoming triathlon on April 30th, with the hopes that it provides some clarity and direction for those interested in participating.

Our races have been incredibly fortunate to have sold out at capacity for the last three years in a row.  In particular, the Waunakee triathlon has been incredibly popular with the community, due to the support for the school district and the Village’s promotion to the many families in Waunakee. I have always loved working with the Village of Waunakee because of the many people who work collaboratively to make this race happen.  You can honestly feel the love and support on race weekend!

This year, we expanded the size of our after-school program, Exercise to Achievement, which helps kids train to complete our Waunakee triathlon while instilling healthy habits for inside and outside the classroom. The demand for this program was overwhelming, and we had almost 400 kids sign up! While this was exciting, we also learned some valuable lessons on size limitations and the downstream effects of enrolling this many kids.

The result is that with all the Exercise to Achievement kids now registered for the Waunakee triathlon, we are significantly over capacity for our triathlon, with only a small percentage of our current participants residing in Waunakee, the community that has welcomed us with open arms for the last five years.

So, what are we going to do about this?

1. We are offering an option to swap races from this event to our two other triathlons – Sun Prairie and Middleton, for any of our athletes in Exercise to Achievement. Some will have date conflicts or will feel more comfortable racing later in the summer.
2. We have started a waiting list on ImAthlete.  When a spot opens up, I will move participants from the waiting list to the participant list, based on two factors:
   1. Date/time signed up
   2. Whether those participants attend Waunakee schools.

We are giving preference to kids from Waunakee so that we can continue to make as much of an impact as possible in our host community, who donates so much to our organization.  Our board agrees that this is the right move for this year.  Keep in mind this policy is in effect for the WAIT LIST ONLY, and anyone who registered before the race sold out last weekend is still registered.

We’re working on expanding capacity slowly for our events to accommodate more kids in general. There are lots of creative ways we can do this, but we can’t risk expanding the size of the race right away for safety reasons.

I ask the following of our loyal fans and followers:

1. Please be patient with us as we try to figure out how to grow safely to meet this demand. We want to keep the races organized, safe, and fun, and we hope you’ll appreciate that.
2. Please be flexible with us if you are not able to get in to the race this year. We have two other triathlons this summer that are open and have plenty of space.

It is with sincerest gratitude that I write this, and I hope you’ll stick with us as we work through these growing “pains.”  If you are available on race morning, we’d love to have your support for every child that has worked hard to get to race day by volunteering.

Sincerely,

Katie Hensel and the Tri 4 Schools Board of Directors