Cross country

Robert is running cross country this year.  Moving here has made the fact that his practice schedule is all over the place much more tolerable.  Anyway, we are very new to this sport, although my dad ran it in high school and enjoyed it, and has been helpful with info.  The coaches of Robert's cross country team are very laid back.  This is both good and bad.  It's good in that whatever happens is what happens, but it's not so good in that they are NOT detail oriented people and I'm trying not to let that drive me nuts.  I just don't handle "last minute everything" as well as others!

Yesterday was Robert's second meet.  The first was last Friday.  I'll be honest, I'm still a mom, and I was a mess!  I wanted my child to succeed because I wanted him to feel the great power of success!  As I'm watching child after child cross the finish line and seeing no sign of Robert, I began to tear up and worry...I was afraid he had passed out on the course somewhere (yes, worst case scenario is always my first thought).  Finally, about 2/3 or 3/4 into the finishers, we see this young man in an absolute dead sprint.  We watched Robert zoom by to the finish line, passing no fewer than ten other finishers in the last 200 yards.  We were absolutely amused by his strong finish after watching others who practically had their tongues hanging out.  We asked him about it and he said he wanted to be able to finish strong.  We chuckled and informed him that perhaps he could go a little stronger during the race...maybe he saved a little too much for the end.  His time was 18:50 and of course each week the goal is to improve on the personal time.

Yesterday was a much smaller race.  The weather was awful in terms of humidity.  It's been a long time since I've experienced air that thick and heavy.  This race also had more terrain than the very flat race of the week before.  Robert changed his strategy and flew out at the beginning.  In fact, he was in 6th place at the first viewing spot.  I was very concerned that he was over compensating for the previous week.  While he still finished later in the race, his time this week was 16:40...he had cut over two full minutes off his time!  We are having so much fun watching the races and Robert is truly enjoying himself.  Catherine has already announced that she wants to run next year.  It's all going very well!