The day began with RAIN! And that can mean trouble for a cross country meet. Mud, mud, and more mud!
About 5:30 Saturday morning, I went to the garage to locate everyone's rain boots. Guess what? I found one boot for each person. One boot! The dogs had carried off one of each person's boots. Sam actually had 2 boots in his size still on the shelf, but although they were two very different boots--one blue, and one camouflage--I still would have let him wear them--but they were both left boots. So he did not have a pair either. At 5:50 I went to Walmart, and bought everyone a pair of boots. I was home by 6:30, just in time to load everyone up and get on the road for Blue Mountain (about 50 minutes away).
It rained all the way there, but by the time the first race began at 9:00, the rain had all but stopped. The race course was still very muddy, but at least it would not continue to get worse!
For this race, 6th graders were allowed to compete in the Jr. Varsity races, so Clay ran!
Clay coming in for the finish
Clay with his JV teammates
Clay, warming up
And they're off!
Clay in action. See the muddy legs?
Clay coming in for the finish
Olivia and Julie both run in the Varsity race. At this particular meet, both Varsity boys and girls ran 3.1 miles. Cross country is scored by the order each team's runners cross the finish line. You get one point for your place (the first runner gets 1 point, the 15th runner gets 15 points, etc.). Your team score is the total of your first 5 runners to finish. Lowest score wins. Our top 5 varsity girls finished 1st, 3rd, 6th, 14th, and 21st. So that gave us a score of 45. We actually scored the lowest, and won the meet! Also, t shirts are awarded to the top 15 or sometimes 20 finishers in each race.
the varsity girls, all lined up and ready to race
Look at them go! Those four girls you see in green were 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 14th place!
Julie
Olivia
Some of the Varsity girls
happy girls after the race
Pop (who came to watch with cousins Will and Grace) with Julie and Danielle
Grace and Leah
Now, after all of the official cross country races were run, the next event was Leah's big event--the 2 mile open race! This race was the same course that the JV had run earlier in the day, and it was open to anyone who wanted to experience a cross country race. I definitely prefer pavement, but I promised Leah that I would run this race with her. The race begins!
The race begins!
This is at the very end of the race. Yes, that is me in the distance. Leah really was that far ahead of me.....I was not just being polite--she is just fast!
Way to go to all the Johnsons and the rest of the Spartans too!
ReplyDeleteWay to go to all the Johnsons and the rest of the Spartans too!
ReplyDeleteYour posts have made me promise myself that I will post about all of the swim meets we attend during short course season. I didn't post about a bunch during long course. I love reading about your cross country races. Your children are doing so well.
ReplyDeleteSamantha