More than 200 young athletes completed the annual Swim, Bike, Run for Freedom Kids Triathlon at the Greater Palm Harbor YMCA on Friday, Aug. 28.

The finish was five days in the making. On Sunday, Aug. 23, around 200 kids had started the triathlon before lightning forced organizers to shut down the race for the 11- to 15-year-old age group, WFLA reported. The YMCA of the Suncoast rescheduled, and the full event ran to completion Friday.

Athletes ages 5 to 15 each swam a course in the YMCA pool, biked a second course and finished with a footrace. Families, volunteers and community members cheered them on, according to the YMCA of the Suncoast.

The Greater Palm Harbor YMCA confirmed the successful completion in a Facebook post on Saturday, Aug. 29, congratulating all of the young athletes who participated.

The triathlon has run for more than a decade and raises money for the YMCA of the Suncoast to fund youth athletic programs at the facility, where many of the participating athletes train year-round, according to WFLA.

Christian Engle, president and CEO of the YMCA of the Suncoast, spoke about the event on Aug. 23 before the lightning delay. "It's just a great thing to see kids putting this kind of effort into doing something that the rest of us may wake up at this time of day and say, 'Yeah, I'm not going to go do that,'" Engle told WFLA.

Parents at the Aug. 23 event described the pride of watching their kids push through something difficult. Graham Jankura told WFLA he and his family were nervous at the start but felt a wave of pride as the kids pushed toward the end. Nicole Klinger said she was proud of her son for taking on something hard and sticking with it, adding that finishing a triathlon teaches kids they can accomplish tough things.

Parent James Hoofnagle said on Aug. 23 that his kids had trained with him four to five days a week for two to three weeks before the race. Keeping it fun, he said, was the priority so they would want to come back.

The YMCA of the Suncoast listed a Freedom Run on Sept. 11 as its next community event, though that date was posted before the Aug. 23 weather delay.