Chapter Text
Nick's foot slipped on gravel as he struggled to pull the wagon up the hill. He was surrounded by a sea of wetsuit-clad athletes and they were starting to blend together, so he focused intently on Charlie's bright blue shirt in front of him. “Sure, you can sign up for an Ironman race!” Nick muttered to himself. “It’ll be fun for the whole family to go! Idiot.”
* * * * * * *
“I just feel like I’m hitting a slump,” Charlie said one night after the kids were in bed. “I love running, and it’s great for my mental health, but it’s getting a bit…rote?” His voice swung up on the last word, uncertain. He rushed on., “But I feel bad complaining because you already take on the lion’s share of the childcare while I run after work—“
“Which I am happy to do, Char. Truly. We agreed on that, remember?”
“I know…” Charlie’s voice trailed off. The crease between his brows deepened as he stared into space.
Nick was at a loss. Running had always been Charlie’s thing. It was how he cleared his head, got back into his body, warded off his depression. Nick felt a tiny bit of worry creep in.
“What about the Detroit marathon? Don’t you usually arrange your workout schedule for that, and use it as a goal to motivate you?” Nick offered.
Charlie had run the Detroit Free Press marathon every October for the past ten years, and usually looked forward to it. Nick always thought it was pretty cool - runners started in Detroit, but as part of the course, they got to run across Ambassador Bridge into Canada, through Windsor, Ontario a little bit, and back to Michigan via the Detroit-Windsor tunnel. The year before Ellis was born, Viola even participated in the kids’ race.
Charlie shrugged noncommittally. “Yeah, I guess.” The longer the silence stretched on, the harder it felt for Nick to say anything else. He didn’t know what he would say, anyway.
A week later, Nick nearly jumped out of his skin when Charlie burst through the door yelling his name. “Nick! Nick! Guess what?”
“What?” Nick was still frozen on the spot, holding the knife he was using to slice carrots.
“I saw Darcy at the gym, and they were telling me about this new lap swim group that meets after work, and how good it feels to get into the water and just tune everything out, and how quiet and peaceful it is, and I think I’m going to give swimming a try!”
It took Nick about two full seconds to process and react, but when he did, he let out an incredulous laugh. “That sounds…amazing? Like kind of perfect for you. A sensory heaven.”
“And it doesn’t seem like a far departure from what I’ve been doing. It’s just a different kind of endurance sport.” He shed his coat, gym bag, and laptop bag as he spoke. “I think I’ll like the full body workout.”
Nick set down the knife and rounded the kitchen island to kiss Charlie on the cheek. “I love it. You should definitely try it.” Returning to the carrots, he asked, “How did Darcy get into this?”
Charlie launched into a long explanation that involved work colleagues, an eavesdropping algorithm, and a water aerobics class, while he pulled out the carton of milk and his post-run chocolate protein powder. “Fortunately, there are a few more experienced swimmers in the group who love to give pointers to newbies. I think I’ll need their help. Darcy said it’s a little more complicated to time your breath than it is with running.”
“Right. What with the underwater part, and preferring to only inhale air.” Nick picked up the cutting board, walked it to the cooktop, and slid the pile of carrots into the pot with one easy swipe of his knife. “I remember hearing David go on and on about timing and bilateral breathing and gallop strokes. It kind of blew my mind as a kid because I didn’t realize how complicated competitive swimming was. Swimming, to me, was just playing in the water and making sure you don’t drown.”
Charlie let out an amused hum of agreement, then looked around as if only just now registering his surroundings. “Where are the kids?”
“Poppy’s in her crib. She fell asleep on the way home from daycare and stayed asleep when I carried her in, so I took advantage of the opportunity to start dinner. Vi and Ellis are watching something on the iPad, I don’t know what, in the other room. Sounded kind of like a Minecraft thing?”
“I really don’t understand why they want to watch someone else chop down trees and make sticks. That game already numbs my brain when I’m the one actively playing it…” Charlie mused as he wandered further into the house.
Nick smiled to himself. Of course Charlie hated an open-ended sandbox game without an objective path. Nick loved it. He would google mid-century modern home designs for Minecraft and try to copy the pictures he found. It was basically digital legos as far as he was concerned, and Viola loved when he played with her. She often rambled on about her day, complaining about things like her third grade teacher who wouldn’t indulge her extensive questions about how kinetic energy is converted into thermal energy, and she delighted in showing Nick the new design blocks whenever an update came out. Even Ellis had graduated from being handed a bum controller at age three, to actually navigating the game the next year. Nick supposed all the hours he spent watching Vi had served as a tutorial and was tickled the first time he handed Ellis his controller and he just started playing.
Charlie began swimming laps a few times a week after work, and really seemed to catch on quickly to timing his strokes and breaths. Though this didn’t surprise Nick at all, given Charlie’s musical skill and extensive experience with stroking. What did surprise Nick was how much gear one could buy for splashing around in the water mostly naked. Charlie bought special jammer swimsuits, hand paddles and flippers, several different types of goggles, even more swim caps, and a laminated book with training plans. It was worth it though, to witness his enthusiasm and the sense of pride he felt for learning something new.
Cycling came along in much the same way, and before Nick knew what was happening, Charlie was registering for a local Olympic distance triathlon race.
“Jeremy suggested it,” Charlie explained as he entered his credit card information. “He and Dan are both doing it. He said swimming is the hardest part for a lot of people so I’ve got a leg up there, and the running part will be easy for me since I’ve been doing that my whole life. And once I’ve got the aerobars on my bike, I could be really fast!”
“So how far do you swim?”
“About a mile," Charlie answered. Nick’s eyes bugged out of his head. “Or 1500 meters. And the bike is 40k, and the run is a 10k.”
“How long will that take you?”
“I’m hoping around 3 hours? Maybe a little longer, I don’t know. I usually run a 10k in about 45 minutes, but that will probably be longer since it’s the very last leg, and based on my lap swim pace, Jeremy said he thought I could get under 40 minutes on my swim. And I think my bike will be like an hour and a half? Plus my transition times…”
Nick later wished he had written all that down so he could have some idea when he would see Charlie loop back to the race site transition area in between the bike and the run, to change over his gear.
The morning of the race, Nick could tell that Charlie was nervous. His alarm went off at 5:30am and he hadn’t stopped moving since, even if it was mostly pacing around the breakfast bar and jiggling his leg when he sat to eat the banana and buttered toast Nick set in front of him.
“You’ve got this, Char,” Nick reminded him as he held the door for him. “You’re strong, you’re in the company of supportive friends, and you've practiced and prepared for it. And it’s all for fun anyway!”
Charlie loaded his bicycle into the back of the minivan and turned to kiss Nick goodbye. “And you’ll be at the finish line?”
“Of course. I’ll be screaming and jumping up and down and generally embarrassing the shit out of you.” Nick smirked goodnaturedly.
Charlie’s dimple flashed at that smirk, and he puffed out a deep breath to settle himself. “Okay. Okay! I’m going to go now.” He turned toward the car, then spun back around to kiss Nick soundly on the mouth. “Thank you.” He paused to look Nick in the eyes for a moment, then nodded to himself, and got in the car.
Nick made his way back inside after watching Charlie pull out onto the road. It was only 6:00am, but he was wide awake with coffee and anticipation. A triathlon! How cool was Charlie?
Nick sat down and pulled out his accordion folder to do some grading. About five students in, he heard the telltale knocking sound from Poppy rocking her crib against the wall. Her little voice calling out, “Pa! PaaPaa!” soon followed. Nick tried to rush through as many more papers as he could, but she was soon wailing and he had to pack up.
“Shh, shh, sweetheart, I’m here, I’ve got you.” Nick scooped her up and rubbed her back. Poppy was quickly placated and together they snuggled on the sofa while she snacked on some puffs. He tucked a little blonde curl behind her ear and kissed the top of her head. “I love you, Pops.”
“Wuvoo,” Poppy answered and laid her cheek against his chest.
A little while later, the older two kids were up and eating breakfast.
“Vi, Ellis, remember the race Daddy is doing today?”
“Yeah! The triathlon?” Vi piped up.
“Swim! Bike! Run!” Ellis punched the air with each word.
“Right. So in a little bit, Nana Sarah is going to come over and take care of you, while I go watch Daddy finish his race.”
“I want to watch Daddy’s race!” Viola pouted.
“Me too!” Ellis echoed.
“You’ll have lots of fun with Nana, don’t worry. And maybe, if all goes well, Daddy will do another race and you can watch that one.”
Nick had been standing at the finish line for 30 minutes, unsure when exactly Charlie would cross, and he finally saw him right at the three hour mark. He looked flushed and tired, but his face was split by a huge grin as soon as he locked eyes on Nick. He finished with his arms over his head and a whoop.
Watching Charlie cross the finish line was incredible. Nick couldn’t believe he had done the entire race. He was so, so proud of him. And quietly, very relieved that Charlie had discovered a new, exciting way to take care of his body and mind.
The entire ride home, Charlie recounted to Nick each step of the race. “Open water is a very different beast to a swimming pool. We all just ran into the water at the same time, so I had to be careful not to get pushed under or kicked in the face at the beginning. And then I saw someone crash on their bike! They were flying really fast down a hill and hit a patch of loose pebbles on the road near the bottom. It looked really gnarly. It definitely made me extra careful for the rest of the bike.” Charlie paused to take another swig of his electrolyte drink. “Once I started the run though, it was like I just sank into instinct and coasted the rest of the race. Made me really glad to have all that experience as a runner, on the last part of the race when I was most tired.”
Nick noticed that Charlie started training much more seriously. He would stay at the gym until dinnertime several days a week, swimming laps or running on a treadmill. He bought an indoor trainer to mount his bicycle on and did biking workouts after the kids were in bed. On the weekends, he did longer brick workouts where he rode his bicycle, then immediately ran afterward to practice the transition.
“I think I want to sign up for a half Ironman race,” Charlie said one evening. They were stretched out on opposite ends of the sofa, toes rubbing in the middle.
“Oh?’ Nick responded absently, scrolling his tumblr feed.
“Yeah. Look, this is the race promo video from the world championships that took place last year in New Zealand.” Charlie scooted closer to Nick and they both turned their bodies forward so that their shoulders brushed. “Doesn’t it look incredible?”
Nick watched the professional race footage, including drone-captured video and fast-paced action shots of athletes bursting out of the water, flying by a low camera on their bikes, and running through the large finish line arch. This was an altogether different race than the local city park triathlon. This race had professional athletes competing and logo insignia everywhere. Nick looked at Charlie. There was uncertainty in his eyes, but also a flicker of bravery for even considering it. Nick resolved then and there to support him all the way. “It does. That looks so cool. How do you get there?”
“Well, these are the world championships. I’d have to qualify, and I’m nowhere near fast enough for that. But there are regular half Ironman races all over the continent - Wisconsin, Tennessee, even one here in Michigan.”
“You have one in mind already, don’t you?”
Charlie let a small smile play on his face. “I do.” He paused, clicking around on his screen, then angled the laptop in Nick’s direction.
“Muskoka? Where on earth is that?”
“Canada. Ontario, to be more specific. It’s only about a six hour drive from here, and it looks beautiful.” He glanced over at Nick. “Would you like to visit Canada?”
Nick grinned at Charlie. “My home and native land? Yes, I would love to visit Canada! You should absolutely do this. We could make a whole summer trip out of it! And the kids would love to watch you. Maybe we could even head up to Algonquin Provincial Park after the race and stay there a few nights?”
Charlie chuckled. “Okay, hold on, we can think it over. The kid part, I mean. Whether we want to make this a whole big thing or not…but you think I should definitely do this? It’s twice as long as my last race.”
Nick nodded. “Yes. I definitely think you should do this.”
We are definitely making a family vacation out of this, Nick thought the next day as he searched for an AirBNB in Huntsville. And I am convincing him to camp at Algonquin. Nick hadn’t been there since he was 16, the last time his family drove up from their home just outside of Ottawa for their annual camping trip. Those were some of his best summer memories. He and his cousins would march through the trees pretending to evade velociraptors, and splash in the frigid lake water, and pick wild blueberries to have in their pancakes (the ones that actually made it back to the camp kitchen, anyway). His uncle would strum the guitar by the campfire at night as they toasted marshmallows and tried to out-scare each other with made-up stories. Sometimes, his mom would even let him stay up late to lay on the beach and stargaze.
It wasn’t hard to convince Charlie. Over the course of a week, Nick fed him a steady drip of rental cabin links, photos of Vi holding handmade signs at his past marathons, and funny stories of his own childhood camping trips. Charlie fully knew what Nick was doing, but the more they talked about it, the more he liked the idea. It was decided - they would all go to Charlie’s race.
It took a lot of planning and preparation, but they packed the minivan full of their clothes for the week, Charlie’s race gear, their large tent, and all their other camping supplies, and set off.
Not long into their drive, a large red pickup truck came up fast behind them, tailgating closely before recklessly passing. Charlie kept his cool driving, but Nick muttered quietly to himself and glanced back at their kids. And then, not one mile later, Nick saw a police officer pulling the same red truck over for a traffic stop.
“Hmm,” Nick smiled and shook his head, "karma's a..." he caught himself and stopped with a sip from his travel mug.
“…dish best served cold," Viola finished smugly. Nick snorted a small amount of coffee out of his nose.
The race weekend schedule swept them along like a tornado as soon as they arrived. The race wasn’t until Sunday, but Saturday was full of events at the race site. First, Charlie had to attend the athlete check-in in the Canada Summit Center where he signed in and they gave him his race bib, timing ankle bracelet, and lots of other freebies; then he had an information meeting to attend; and finally a bicycle check-in. Nick pulled Poppy and Ellis along in the wagon while Viola chattered alongside Charlie, asking him questions about his bicycle and all the athlete number stickers he had affixed on it.
On race day morning, Charlie wanted to arrive at the transition to set up his things at 5:30am, so they all woke at 4:30 to pack up and drive to the race site. Poppy was remarkably easy - she barely cracked an eye open as Nick carried her to the car last. Vi and Ellis were less than thrilled, but Nick tucked them both into the car with blankets, stuffies, and pop-tarts, which helped a little.
Charlie parked the car at the race site and Nick encouraged him to go on. “It will take a while to unload the kids - you go ahead to set up your things.” Charlie hesitated, then checked the time and hurried down the sidewalk.
Nick unfolded the collapsible wagon and grabbed the tote bag he had hastily filled with diapers and granola bars that was very much giving “third child” vibes. “Vi, Ellis, let’s follow Daddy down to the race, alright?”
He worked to arrange his five year old, tote bag, and various comfort amenities in the wagon, then strapped a sleepy Poppy to his back in the carrier.
Halfway to transition, Vi had also acquired a coveted place in the wagon. Nick had tried to dissuade her - “It’ll never work, Vi! How can I pull both you and your brother?” - but whiny nine year olds at 5:00am can be very persuasive, and Nick felt a little guilty at having made them all wake up so early. That didn’t stop Ellis from starting a kicking war over his half of the territory, however, and by the time they caught up to where Charlie was at the Canada Summit Center, Nick’s nerves were starting to fray.
When Charlie emerged from setting up his things in transition, he looked back and forth from Nick to the wagon a few times.
“Those two large lumps under the blankets are children,” Nick explained dryly.
Charlie giggled. “Well, we’ve got to make our way to the swim’s start now. It’s about a three-quarter mile walk along that path.” He pointed in the direction a long crowd of athletes and spectators were headed, and started in that direction.
Nick's foot slipped on gravel as he struggled to pull the wagon up the path. He was soon surrounded by a sea of wetsuit-clad athletes and they’re starting to blend together, so he focused intently on Charlie's bright blue shirt in front of him. “Sure, you can sign up for an Ironman race!” Nick muttered to himself. “It’ll be fun for the whole family to go! Idiot.”
They finally arrived at the heavily wooded lookout site where the athletes were to get in the lake, Nick powered by spite alone for the last 100 steps. Fortunately, they still had 15 minutes until the race started. Nick was completely knackered and his legs were killing him.
Charlie smiled sympathetically at him. “Never been more glad about those strong rugby thighs.”
“Never?” Nick wagged his eyebrows.
Charlie laughed and playfully swatted his arm. Then he gently lifted the hood on Poppy’s Tula. “Well, hello there, bright eyes.” She looked back out at him. “She has that ‘I just woke up’ confused look on her face.”
“Viola, Ellis, would you emerge from hibernation? Daddy’s getting ready to start his race.”
The temperature had warmed up slightly with the sunrise, and the other two kids got out of the wagon to hug Charlie before he bid them farewell. There were other kids around, too, Nick realized. Ah, good. They weren’t the only ones foolish enough to drag small children along with them.
Ellis and another little boy nearby became fast friends. Nick overheard them discussing their ages.
"I'm four!" said the other little boy, carefully holding up four fingers.
Ellis responded, "I'm five!" and showed the boy all five of his fingers. Looking at his hand, he raised his eyebrows and said with pride, "I'm a whole handful!"
Viola had wandered over to the edge of the path to collect a few pretty stones. She brought them back to Charlie. “Are these diamonds?”
“No, but they are beautiful, Vi. I think they may be quartz?” Charlie answered. The music playing over a portable sound system nearby quieted, and a voice announced that all athletes should line up.
Charlie locked eyes with Nick’s. “You’ve got this,” Nick reassured him, just like he had at the first race. He wrapped his arms around Charlie and gave a comforting squeeze. “Big deep breaths in and out.”
Charlie smiled and gave him a peck on the cheek. “I’ll see you at the finish line!”
“Be safe out there!” Nick called after him.
After the cannon start, Nick and the kids made their way slowly down the path. Viola and Ellis took turns steering the wagon down, with Poppy seated inside destroying a banana. Nick was so glad for the break that he was beyond caring about the mess.
When they reached the event center where they had started, Nick looked out over the water. The rising sun made it sparkle as the athletes splashed their way toward the swim finish.
“Shall we head back to the cabin for a bit and relax?” Nick asked the kids.
Thankfully, by the time they returned, all three of the kids were worn out and ready to snuggle up in bed with Nick and Bluey on the TV. It was already 9am, and according to the Ironman tracker app, Charlie was nearly halfway through the bike leg of the race. Nick spent an easy while scrolling his phone, fetching snacks, and restocking their day-out bag. He prepped an early lunch for them, then started the process of herding cats kids out the door.
“Come on, Ellis, quit faffing about and hand me that other shoe! Vi, have you gone to the bathroom recently? It’s a 20 minute drive back to the race, and I can’t make any promises about the conditions of the porta potties!”
They arrived back in Huntsville with plenty of time to spare, and it was a good thing they did, because parking was so much worse than at 5am. Once again, Nick pulled the wagon, this time with Ellis and Poppy sharing the space, Poppy seated between Ellis’s legs and leaning back against his chest. It looked like Charlie was still about 20 minutes out from the finish line, so Nick stopped at one of the many vendors and bought each of the kids an orange push-pop to keep them occupied. It was tricky to navigate the crowd near the finish line, but Nick waited patiently for a spot to open up by the fencing, and soon he was able to sidle the wagon up against it and lock the wheels so the kids could stand inside and peer over the fence.
Nick’s phone pinged with a notification that Charlie had crossed the last timing point before the finish. “Okay, here he comes, kids! Be on the lookout, Daddy will be coming through at any moment!”
The woman next to Nick smiled at Poppy’s sticky face. “You’ve got your hands full!”
“Yeah, today has been a lot. I think I’d like a medal as well.” Nick chuckled. “Who are you watching today?”
“My son. But it might be awhile - this is his first race.”
“Ours too! Well, our first Ironman. The kids’ first race.”
“And you’re watching for your husband?” She asked.
“I am. He got into triathlons just last year and really loves it.”
She peered over at the kids. “And how long have you two been together?”
Nick’s tired brain did the quick math. “About…15 years now? Well, married for 15, but we’ve been together since we were in college.”
“Oh, isn’t that sweet! I don’t hear much about that anymore.”
“Yeah, I’m kind of glad we did. Our meeting was so tame compared to some of the stories I’ve heard from coworkers trying to navigate dating apps. Like, what if we met via a Grindr threesome! Can you imagine?!” As soon as the words traveled from Nick’s unfiltered brain and fell out his mouth, his hand clapped over it.
His spectator neighbor laughed loudly. “I’ve read - heard! I’ve heard wilder tales.”
Just at that moment, Charlie rounded the corner and Nick shouted to the kids. They all yelled at the top of their lungs cheering for Charlie, and his face lit up when he saw them. He waved and ran close by the fencing to high five each of the kids as he passed.
“Okay kids, let’s hurry to the end of the finish chute to find Dad! It was so nice to meet you, good luck to your son!” Nick said to the woman.
They found Charlie in the grass, hands on his knees, breathing heavily, and with a large medal around his neck.
“You did it, Charlie! I’m so proud of you.”
Charlie looked up at Nick and then over at their children. “Oh, what have you got there, Ellis?”
“A push-pop!” Ellis beamed a sticky smile.
“Oh, bugger,” Poppy mumbled at the ground when the last inch of hers slid off the top.
Nick purposefully didn’t meet Charlie’s gaze. “Who’s ready to pack up and head to our campsite!” He clapped his hands and set off at the fastest wagon-pulling pace he’d set all day.