In the Waterstone neighborhood, a group of parents’ active lifestyle have inspired their children to do the same.
Hillary Jacobson, an Oxford resident, and several of her neighbors enjoy competing in triathlons in the warmer months. She said her children and those of the other triathlon enthusiasts wanted to give the rigorous race their parents were participating in a try. So Jacobson organized a small, kid-friendly triathlon complete with swimming, biking and running for the children in her neighborhood.
“We all do this and our kids have been watching us do these things for five or six years,” she said. “So, a couple of our girls asked if they could do a triathlon so one of the moms organized a triathlon for them. Later, my son joined in with them and after that I decided to make a Facebook page to invite more people.”
These mini triathlons have been happening in Waterstone throughout the summer and have recently wrapped with the school year starting. To keep things fun and competitive for all of the kids who wanted to participate, Jacobson set up three age divisions with events friendly to each age’s physical ability.
The 5-7-year-olds swam 200 meters, biked a mile and a half and ran a half mile. The two divisions including children ages 8 and up swam 200 meters, biked three and a half mile and ran a mile.

The last triathlon hosted 32 children across the three age divisions.
The overall winner was Jacobson’s son, Carter Jacobson.
The fastest 10-years-old and up boy was Dominic Cassisi and the girl winner was Isabelle Carbrera. Ages 9-7 saw Caden Canham and Jaylen Jacobson take home wins.
The youngest age division hosted winners Wyatt Cramb and Ally Marvin.
“Kids really inspire their parents more than anything,” Jacobson said. “We watch them and just tell them they can do this amazing thing and they have no idea how hard what they’re doing is. Obviously we love seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces, but it’s the inspiration they are to us that was a takeaway for a lot of the parents.”
Jacobson said she and the other parents hung around “transition areas” where the children would change equipment between events, and they all enjoyed seeing their kids have a good time.
Though the summer, and the triathlons, have ended, Jacobson says they’re already talking about next summer.
“People are already asking about next year and getting the word out,” she said.