Desert Twilight

Not a single picture. *sad face*  Last night was the annual Nike Desert Twilight XC race.  Because we are a charter school, we weren't allowed to race with the other public schools.  So our kids raced in the community race.  Kinda stinky, but at least they got to run.  The race is huge!  They had races starting every 15 min from 4 pm to 9 pm.  People come from all over the state and sometimes even neighboring states to run this race.  It's a lot of fun to watch all the competition.

This was Brooklyn's first race.  She started cross country and has improved so much.  She went from running about 20 feet to being able to run 2 1/2 miles without stopping.  She is really slow, like really slow, but I'm just so proud of her for sticking with it.  She's even lost a little weight. She was able to run with all the other junior high teams for some reason and came in last.  BUT, she finished five minutes faster than she had ever run it before.  She was just under 20 min for a mile and a half.

Dalin, who is too young to actually be on the team has been running on the treadmill almost everyday after school.  He ran 3 miles in 28 min one day.  We let him run the community race as well.  He was hilarious waiting at the starting line.  Many people were running out a ways and coming back to warm up.  He began doing that as well. Then we noticed him doing burpees right there on the start line.  He was very serious.  Then he kind of got bumped off the front line so he went clear to the very end just so he could be in front.  Seriously cracking me up.  He had a rude awakening about running on land vs. the treadmill though.  He had a tough time.  Now, he finished in just over 30 min. but he was very disappointed and in tears by the time I got to him at the finish line.  He was experiencing that "i'm gonna puke, I can't breathe, maybe I'll pass out" sort of feeling for the first time.  I just laughed and hugged him.  He took off too fast trying to keep up with Rhett and then was just plain pooped.  He said he even fell down from exhaustion while he was running.  Apparently he got himself up and kept going, but he was freaked out a little.  I assured him everything he was feeling was normal and how great he did.  He's very anxious to get on the team.

Rhett surprised us all.  I had him come watch some of the older boys at the finish line so he could see how hard they were running and how so many get passed when they think they are good and then someone blows by them right at the finish line.  I was a little worried about him because we had been there for so long before he raced and I'm not sure how much candy he ate while we were there.  I never even saw him at the start line.  I feared he was over by the DJ bustin a move and missed his race.  A friend assured me she saw him take off.  Well, about 21 min in, we see Rhett coming up the home stretch.  No way!  He had never finished faster than close to 23:30 this far.  He was over 2 minutes faster.  He finished at 21:26.  This day he looked like a kid who just gave it everything when he crossed the line.  That's not been the case this far.  I just wanted to grab him and hug him.  Well, I actually did.. then I let him catch his breath and walk around a bit.  He was really pumped about his time and vowed to never run a 23 again.  On our way to the car, the very fastest kids were starting their race and he commented that in a couple of years, that was going to be him.  I love it.♥

Glade and I have been running as well.  I am just now getting off the treadmill and outside.  It's tough.  I've been able to get 3 miles but I'm really pooped at that point.  I can't decide if I want to shoot for further or faster at this point.  I'm pretty slow.  Glade is trying to get to 13 miles in the next few weeks to help a friend of ours out in his 100 mile run.  I told Stephen and Nick they are going to start training for the Turkey Trot since they have fall break for the next few weeks.  Maybe this year we can all run with a purpose instead of just showing up.  2 more months!