Hello, I’m Henry Renno, and I participate in triathlons and swimming. My triathlon team is Endorphin Fitness, and my swim team is Northwest Arkansas Aquatics (NWAA) in Bentonville, Arkansas. We train in Bentonville for a few days every two weeks, and for the rest of our workouts (six days a week), my brothers and I swim alone here in Little Rock. 

My Nana taught me how to swim when I was 4. I started swimming competitively in 2021 in a summer league when I was 8. I started swimming year-round in January 2023. I have one older brother, a younger brother, and a younger sister, and we all did the same. We started triathlons in 2021 as well and do those every summer.

I love learning and competing in swimming. I always feel tired afterward, but during, it’s just fun, especially backstroke and freestyle. I love swimming with friends. This is a new team for us this fall, but I’ve already made some great friends that I look forward to training and racing with. So far, most of my triathlons have been in Arkansas, but we got to race in Pennsylvania and Iowa for the National Championships this summer. 

Next year, we have even more travel planned because I will be old enough to race in the draft-legal youth elite development series, which hosts races all over the country. Swim meets are throughout Arkansas and our neighboring states. For triathlons, I like that there is so much more than fitness on the swim, bike, and run. There is a lot of technical skill and a lot of strategy involved. I love feeling the wind in my face on the bike. I have the most room for improvement on the run, but I like that I can keep learning and progressing. 

My mom has always been my triathlon coach until this year when we joined Endorphin. My coach Michael lives 1000 miles away in Virginia, but he gives me all my training assignments, technical advice, strategy planning, and feedback. We talk with him almost every single day. 

Coach Quincey at Marlins helped me learn proper strokes and fall in love with swimming. Now my coaches are in Bentonville with NWAA. It’s hard to not be able to train with my team all the time. But we live here in Little Rock, so my mom leads my brothers and me in practices every day with workout assignments that our coach sends to her. Then every other week, I get to swim with all my friends and teammates in person. 

In July, I was the fastest 11-year-old in the state in 50 freestyle. The next weekend, I competed in the Conway Kids triathlon and was third overall for ages 11 to 15. I was pretty proud of that since the only people who beat me were my 13-year-old brother and a 15-year-old. 

Another really fun memory is crossing the finish line with my Oma in her very first triathlon two years ago. She had just finished chemotherapy two weeks prior, and she was determined to stay strong to be able to race with me. She won the 70+ age group!