XC Meet!

Last Monday was MV's first ever cross country meet!  She is a 5th grader who is really a 4th grader and running on the Middle School team! Poor girl didn't really want to run this year, but wanted to take ballet instead.  Seemed pretty easy to me to see which one would serve her better in life - especially since her Daddy is coaching XC!  Practices have been hard on her, but she finally smiled when she crossed the finish line of her first race and realized that she wasn't last!  Wasn't even close to last! Her race was 1.5 miles and the only thing her Daddy told her was, "Whatever you do, DON'T WALK!" I think he might have told her a few more things about starting slow even when the pack takes off in a sprint, but the "Don't Walk" command was the most important part!  She ended up in 34th place out of 50+ girls, which was so impressive for her age and ability! We sure were proud of her will to finish strong!!

This was it for our team today.  Huddled up for a prayer before running!

Staying in the back of the pack like her Daddy told her!

MV had a huge kick left in her run at the end! 

And Hambone, got to show her stuff as well!! These meets are for the smaller area private schools and most of them have elementary run teams as well.  When we saw that a good number of 3rd and 4th graders were running one mile in that age division we asked Hambone if she wanted to run as well!  She gave a very enthusiastic, "Sure!" and slipped on a jersey over softball uniform, laces up her running shoes and took off with the herd!  Now, she hasn't been running like MV has or training at all.  Plus, the girl had just come from ballet, the same one MV had to miss, and had a double header softball game to get to at 6:00.  Let's just say that her buns and thighs were burning just a little bit when she woke up the next morning!  BUT, she came in 12th place with quick little legs!  We have another meet today, and ballet and softball, but she doesn't want to run again.  We'll see - Mom and Dad want her give it another try since she did so well!!  I think she could probably skip ballet, don't you?!?!  (kinda kidding!)

 I love this with Coach Daddy giving her a pep talk!!

 She is in the zone! Can you see the softball socks and uniform under that jersey!

She was booking it down that hill!!