On your bike, if you can find it

The first enthusiastic young entrants take the plunge for the 200m swim off St Heliers Beach. Picture / Martin Sykes

It is the children who do the hard yards, but usually it's the parents who end up exhausted.

The cycling transition stage of the Weet-Bix Tryathlon in St Heliers was the worst for parents. They clustered about the wire fence separating them from their dripping children fresh from the 200m swim.

There were 4400 bikes in there.

Some people were canny and attached coloured balloons or flags to make the bikes easier to spot.

Others were not.

"She can't find her bike," parents wail. "It's to the left," they yell. "Wrong row, Chloe."

"HELMET, Michelle."

Finally, the children head off down Tamaki Drive and the parents can rest for the 8km ride before they have to renew cheering for the 1.5km run.

Some parents have been here before and have the logistics of a Weet-Bix Tryathlon, now in its 13th year, down to a fine art.

Kerry Ludlam is one of these. Her older children, now 15 and 17, started doing the tryathlons when they were 8. She has had nine years to perfect plans, so was up at 5.30am and in St Heliers by 7am with her son Brendon, 11.

"We get here nice and early, so the bikes can get right by that green flag there and they know where they are. That's the hardest bit for them, finding their bikes. It's better to get here before the crowds, and then you can just stand around and watch everyone else panic as they arrive at 8.30."

Before the start, triathlete Hamish Carter was scattering pearls of wisdom.

"You're always going to stumble but it's chasing the dream which is the key. It's about stepping up and taking on the big challenge and learning as you do."

Events like the Weet-Bix Tryathlon did not exist when he was a nipper.

"I was a sawn-off runt. There wasn't much to me. I think if I was racing here today I'd be a little bit nervous."

Later Carter stands by the beach watching the swim. The water is fairly shallow and some are walking. He yells at them to swim, grins, and moves off to the bike area.

He knows children in it - his coach's kids and those of friends. But in the throng of entrants with bathing caps on he hasn't managed to spot them yet.

Nobody wins the tryathlon, in which children set off in age groups of about 30 at a time.

Children and parents all seem to think it is well worthwhile.

Most are laid back. Ask Mitchelson siblings Tessa, 11, and Michael, 9, what their training regime was and there is hysterical mirth from their parents.

"None," says mother Lucy. "We forgot it was even on until yesterday. Although they do a lot of swimming anyway."

Tessa, a student at St Cuthbert's College, said she was doing it for fun.

Michael likes getting the medal everyone is presented with upon crossing the finish line.