Junior Olympics National Championship XC Meet

On the same day that I left for Huntsville for my marathon, Jimmy and Julie left bright and early for the Memphis airport.  They flew to Charleston, South Carolina, and then drove a rental car on to Myrtle Beach so Julie could compete in the Junior Olympics National Cross Country Meet on Saturday. The opportunity for Julie to run in this meet came about after Jimmy and I had signed up for the Rocket City Marathon, and both events were on the same day.  We decided to split up.  Jimmy took Julie to her meet, and I took the rest of the children with me to Huntsville.

Julie had an amazing weekend with her daddy!  They enjoyed some quality time together, and Julie ran a fabulous race.  She set her personal record in the 5K distance with a finishing time of 19:34!  We are all so proud of her!  She has worked so hard this cross country season (really the work began early in the summer), and all of that hard work paid off in her last XC meet of her high school career.
She finished 18th out of 83 girls (in the ages 17-18 female group) from across the country.  She was awarded a medal and a hat, and Jimmy also bought her a cool shirt with all of the participants' names (from her age group) listed on the back.

They were able to make a trip to the beach and do a little bit of sightseeing before returning home on Sunday.  I was so happy to have our entire family together Sunday afternoon.  And we will all be together until Olivia leaves to go back to college the first week of January.

Would you like to know the logistics of that running weekend?  It took some planning and figuring, but with the help of some special friends, we got it all worked out.

1.  Jimmy and Julie left at 5:00 AM for the Memphis airport.
2.  Clay, Leah, Sam, and I left about noon to pick up Leanna and make the three hour drive to Huntsville.
3.  We dropped Leanna off at her hotel, and then the children and I walked to the race expo to pick up my race number and do a little bit of shopping.
4.  At 4:00 PM, our special friends, Ben and Stacy, picked up Olivia from the Birmingham airport.  She was flying home for Christmas break.
5.  We drove about 40 minutes to Hartselle to meet Ben, Stacy, and Olivia! at their home.  We were so happy to see Olivia!
6. We spent the night at the Walkers' home, and enjoyed a delicious supper with them and their friends, David and Maggie.
7.  At 5:45 AM Saturday morning, David drove me to the race.  Thank you David!
8.  Later that morning Ben drove my car with my four children to the race to see me finish.
9.  At 1:00 PM our time, Julie ran her fantastic race!
10. We said goodbye to Ben, Stacy, and David, and after eating and a visit to Target, the children and I drove back home.  I think we got home around 7:00 PM
11.  Jimmy and Julie attended the awards ceremony for the meet Saturday night.

Thanks to cell phones, we were able to keep up with each other all weekend.  We talked, texted, and shared pictures, and Jimmy and Julie were able to track me during my marathon.

It was not the best set-up…..our family being divided during the weekend, but it all worked out!
Julie had a wonderful race, and I was happy with my race too.