Race Cats

I am pretty proud of this boy. He worked hard and is such a good runner! He had fun at the practices but sometimes didn't want to go. It made for long days for him. And he said he missed me :) I hope he keeps wanting to run! He definitely has some potential. These are just a few pictures that I don't think got posted elsewhere from practice that his coach sent out.

First race was October 8 at Nicholl's park. I had high hopes for this and knew he'd be able to do really good. He was a second behind on the gun cause it was a weird sound and I don't think he recognized it as the starting sound. So he SPRINTED right at the first to get caught up to kids and try to pass them. When they turned far away at the fence I could see people start passing him and my heart sank. I knew he wasn't doing or feeling well and I felt so bad for him and stupidly sad for me. 

As he came around this turn he was hurting. Bad side ache and almost crying. I felt so so sad. He was close to the end though and he PUSHED it and was really close to another kid and that motivated him to push strong through the end. 

We got a few good professional pics at this race. 

Not his best time. He was so disappointed that he didn't get top ten because that's how you got a ribbon. He said he didn't want to be a runner anymore. I tried to talk to him about lots of things and not always doing your best but not quitting and that he probably started too fast and we could work on it etc etc. I had to rush off to work after. It was a tough experience for both of us. 

We worked on some sprints and some running a bit longer in between that and the second race. Not as much as we could have but he was a little more psyched for it. This one was October 21. Tanner was able to come. Our focus was not starting out to fast and speeding up towards the end. He did AWESOME. He felt so much better, his time was much better and he had a good sprint at the end to leave a kid that was gaining on him in the dust. It was so fun to watch. He was much happier :)

Tanner took them to eat after and sent this to me at work. 

Championship was down in American Fork on Halloween morning. I had to work and was soooo sad I had to miss it. My parents are awesome and went down for it. It sounds like he was a bit nervous for the whole thing. LOTS more kids. I think he did start out a little too fast again but he ran hard and did awesome. He finished 22/134 and his time was just under 5 minutes. He wasn't too far off from a top ten as far as time went. But he did awesome and pushed hard. Amazing first season! Love this boy so much!