Young people are regularly encouraged to try new things despite their reluctance:

Food: How do you know you don't like it if you've never tried it?

Clothes: Trust me. No one will know they're girl jeans.

Sports: Just finish out the season. After all, I've already ordered the pictures including that personalized button.

At some point, people lose their group of encouragers. There's no one pushing them to take up the violin. There's no one forcing them to try the newest vegetable from the supermarket.

As for sports ... if a person didn't participate in the sport as a youth, they are not likely to take it up as an adult. (Volleyball is an exception for me since I never touched a volleyball until I reached college. Of course, this fact is easily recognizable these days as I make a feeble, uncoordinated attempt dive for the ball.)

Yet, last weekend, a group of women from McCook traveled to Denver for a sprint triathlon, tackling not just one sport, but three: Swimming, biking and running.

For Jennifer Kool, Sandra Gray and Julie Gillespie, this triathlon was a first-time event.

The first time of swimming with hundreds of other ladies ... through hundreds of kicking and flailing legs and arms ... in open, cold water.

The first time to see how fast they could pull on shorts and a T-shirt ... while soaking wet from the swim ... in as fast a time as possible.

The first time to see how their legs would hold up as they jumped off a bike and transitioned into a run...with another three miles to transverse ... uphill the first half ... in the Denver altitude.

I'm proud to report that everyone finished with a smile on her face, mostly from just being done.

While the finish provided a natural high for all the participants, the excitement actually started the day before when we received our race numbers and were transformed into true triathletes.

Organizers encouraged us to mark our race numbers on our legs and arms the day before to prevent long lines the morning of the triathlon.

For the uninitiated, our tags with the race numbers would make the swimming portion rather difficult, so everyone is marked in permanent marker on each limb with her number. Consequently, the numbers don't come off for several days, allowing for plenty of questions and recognition for days to come.

Our first taste of fame came just hours later when our group went shopping.

Complete with shorts and sleeveless shirts to accommodate the writing of the numbers, we easily stood out in the crowd.

Gawking among other shoppers was so common that we presumed their reasoning:

We were escaped convicts and had slipped away from the penitentiary for a leisurely day of shopping at Nike and the Gap.

If I had a dime for everyone who stared at my numbers or asked out-right what they were for, I could have paid for the entire shopping trip, or at least put a dent into the cost.

Actually, I had a lot of women ask about the numbers and the event and remark that they wished they could do that or that they used to participate in triathlons B.C. -- before children.

I never mentioned that I had five kids who would be waiting for me at the finish line.

Some people may be wondering why we would take up something like this at this stage of our lives. Along with the camaraderie and the fitness, there is one final benefit: The finisher's medal.

Most triathlons, as well as marathons and shorter road races, usually give out medals to those who finish the race. For my kids, the medals my husband and I have earned are a lot more fun than the T-shirts we sometimes receive.

And they can be awe-inspiring to our children as well.

Kathy Farrell, who participated in the Denver triathlon last year and this year, returned home last year with the medal around her neck. Her daughter was in awe and made her mom feel even better: She thought the medal meant Kathy had not only finished, but that she had won the entire event.

Why set them straight at this early stage in life?

*

A thank-you to everyone for the congratulations on my bronze medal at the Cornhusker State Games' triathlon last month. I would especially like to thank Jodi at the McCook City Pool for allowing lap-swimming time to help prepare for open-water swimming segments. She'll never know how similar open-water swimming with hundreds of other athletes is to lap swimming through hundreds of splashing, thrashing kids. They're nearly identical.

And a big thank-you to the organizers of the state games, who distribute the results and boost my ego by just saying I placed third ... without noting how many, or in this case, how few people were in my division. If you weren't there, you'll never now whether I was third out of 214 athletes or third out of four competitors.

-- Ronda Graff has quite a few triathlons under her belt this summer, but still cherishes that first step onto solid ground after the swimming portion.