The sign said it all: "Powered by Thin Mints."
Members of Girl Scout Troop 16400 Brownies from St. Paul's Catholic School in St. Petersburg held it up Saturday morning at North Shore Pool, posing with Matilda the Manatee, the mascot of the St. Anthony's Triathlon Meek & Mighty event. They also stretched, giggled and traded high-fives.
Then they got to work.
The third graders, ages 8 and 9, swam 100 yards in the pool, biked 3.6 miles and ran a half mile. It was the first triathlon for each of the girls. They all finished within 20 minutes of one another.
Race Director Patrick McGee said about 700 athletes competed in the Meek & Mighty, the event for youth and novice adults that kicks off the St. Anthony’s Triathlon weekend. About 3,400 athletes are expected across the two-day event. The Olympic- and Sprint-distance events are set for Sunday, April 26. All races are sponsored by BayCare’s St. Anthony’s Hospital, whose president, Scott Smith, welcomed the crowd on a bright sunny morning.
Youth groups have routinely entered, McGee said, but he could not remember another Girl Scout troop doing it as a team. He thinks more schools and troops may follow. “The Meek & Mighty is truly for the young and young at heart to try a race to test themselves,” McGee said. “It’s the perfect way to get into the sport of Triathlon.”
It was also the first year McGee could remember starting the younger athletes ahead of the adults. Sterling Stewart, 10, was first across the finish line, well ahead of his 7-10 age group.
Twins Kendall and Grace McKellar, 11, of Apollo Beach, ran their fourth Meek & Mighty. They got their start in makeshift running, biking and swimming races in their neighborhood before deciding a triathlon would work even better.
While kids took the spotlight at the beginning of the race, there were plenty of adults who were up to the challenge of the Meek & Mighty. For Melissa Paulk, 47, of Atlanta, it was her first triathlon as well. Just six months after learning to swim, Paulk was cheered on by a large contingent of friends in matching shirts.
Marc Dubrick, winner of the last two professional men’s St. Anthony's Triathlons, and Grace Alexander, the 2025 professional women’s champion, spent Saturday handing out high-fives in the pool area and water at the finish line. "This is where it starts," Dubrick said. "You want to give back."
Dubrick was a competitive swimmer as a kid and ran his first triathlon at 10.
"If there were more events like the one they have at St. Anthony's, I probably would have started sooner," he said.
For Alice Burns, 8, one of the Brownies, the swim was the easy part. "I wasn't thinking about anything," she said. "Just swimming."
The bike was harder. Alice fell, scraping her left side and leaving a red mark. It hurt. But she kept going.
"You got this," the girls called out to each other through every leg. They had set up their bikes side by side in the transition area and stayed close throughout the race.
The run was the toughest stretch, Alice said. She finished anyway. Asked what she would do differently next time, she had a simple answer: swim, bike and run faster. At the finish line, there were hugs, more photos and medals.
Tracie Domino, who co-leads Troop 16400 with Megan Grove, is Alice's mother. She said the troop trained together and leaned on each other on race day. "They came in prepared," Domino said. "They cheered for each other. They set up together as much as possible. That helped.
"They can go home knowing they finished something hard, and no one can take that away from them,” Domino continued. “There are going to be hard things you face in life. Now they know they can get through hard things. That's special."
Grove watched her own daughter, Gracie, cross the finish line and she choked up a bit. She had seen Gracie's confidence build for weeks, to the point where her daughter was swimming, biking and running on her own without much coaxing.
"It was the pinnacle of testing her limits," Grove said.
The troop earned their Outdoor Adventurer badge in the run-up to the race, walking through each leg and practicing transitions with a personal trainer. The training paid off Saturday. So did the company.
Alice has advice for anyone her age who thinks a triathlon sounds too hard. "Just try it," she said. "It'll get easier."
Want to be part of the excitement? Learn more about the St. Anthony’s Triathlon at SATriathlon.com.
