Bearded Pig Cats youngest team to do the Socorro Triathlon

Bearded Pig Cats!

Yes, that’s right.

That’s the name these three young competitors chose for their team for Saturday’s 29th annual Socorro Chile Harvest adult triathlon.

“All three of us really like pets. I had a bearded dragon. Both Kellen and Rafael had cats, and Kellen had a guinea pig. So, we just smashed the names together.” That’s the story of the name shared by Dru Cadol, age 11. Her teammates were Kellen Demorest, age 13, and Rafael Morales-Brindle, age 14.

Dru said that the inspiration for wanting to enter the adult triathlon “was that I wanted to have fun with my friends.” Kellen’s mom, Sara Roberts Demorest, said that Kellen had competed twice before; he did the swim portion while his dad and brother ran and biked. Dru swam last year as part of a team with her parents.

“They decided last year that it would be fun to make a kids only team this year and invited Rafa to join.” Sara said.

Rafa said that his inspiration started with his dad, “My dad asked if I wanted to do a full triathlon, but my friends asked me to do a team.”

Rafael started them off with 400 meters of swimming. Once Rafael reached the transition zone, Kellen was up next with the 20k biking part. Then Dru finished up with the 5k run. Their time for the race was a competitive one hour, 52 minutes, and 48 seconds.

“It was pretty fun, but it was hot. The water station was nice. I think I did pretty well, about as I would have hoped for,” said Dru.

Kellen’s mom said her son felt like he did well for his first time doing the bike.

“He realized about half way through the race that he wasn’t using the terrain to his advantage and thinks he will be much faster if he were to do the bike course again in the future.” Sara said.

Rafa responded, “I think we did pretty good, but maybe could’ve done a little better.”

As far as what they liked best about the triathlon, Dru said she liked having fun with her friends.

Rafa had similar thoughts, “Probably just being with friends and doing sports.”

As for Kellen he had a lot of favorite parts,” getting to do the bike part of the race for the first time. The bike course is fun and exciting as you get to ride all over New Mexico Tech and the M Mountain area. It was exciting to do the race as an all kids team because it’s mostly adults and teenagers who do the Triathlon.”