Connell Invite-Sept 24

After missing 2 races, Nathan ran in his next meet. The top 12 runners on the team went to Portland for the Nike Invite. If Nathan hadn't caught covid, there was a chance he could have gone as he was running right around 12th on the team. But covid knocked him down pretty good. 

The rest of the team  (including Nathan) went to the Connell Invite. They have changed the course from back when I used to run it 25+ years ago. We used to run up and around the water tower. Now, they run down by the high school. It was a very dusty, hilly course. The older runners said it is the worst one of the season. 

Nathan did his best. He still feels like he can't quite catch his full breath while running and definitely can't run his full speed. He ran varsity today as they put the 7 fastest remaining kids on varsity. 

His time was 21:30. He thinks if he hadn't been sick, he probably would have run about a minute faster than that. Let's just hope he continues to get better and gets back up to his normal speed. 

The varsity of the day warming up. 

Warm ups

More warm ups

Start line! 

Nathan coming around a corner. 

Just about to head up onto the last part which was a big hill. Nathan does well at hills and says he usually passes people. Even sick, he said he passed some people. 

Sprinting down the hill to the finish line. There were a lot of end of the line races here with people just sprinting down this hill. It was very exciting! 

No, this was NOT the only goldendoodle at the race. There were 2 others as well. We just find doods at every meet. Pippa was his new fan at this meet. 

Grandparents came too! 

Aunt Laura and Nathan

 

No Cross Country This Week (Sept 14-Sept 23)

 This was a very bad week for cross country. 

The first 2 days of the week (Sept 13 and 14) we had bad smoke in the air from wildfires. Therefore, the kids were not allowed to go outside and practice. They had to run inside. Since all sports teams were practicing inside, it was tough to find room for them all. Luckily, the schools are big so they ran inside. Nathan's school had lots of room to run. Up and down the hallways and stairs and around the upstairs in the gym. He said they ran 4 miles inside every day! 

Elizabeth's school did the same thing and she tripped on the stairs and sprained her foot/ankle pretty good. I took her to urgent care, and they said it was 100% NOT a break and to stay off it for at least a week. We got her crutches and a brace for her foot. She missed her very first meet due to this. 

THEN, Wednesday afternoon, Nathan came home and  said he had felt just drained during cross country. We thought he was just tired from all the running. Elizabeth also complained she felt super sick with a bad sore throat. I whipped out all the free covid tests I'd ordered over the last year and Elizabeth's popped positive very quickly. She just had covid 3 months ago so I still don't understand how she caught it again so quickly. Nathan never tested positive but since he had the same symptoms, I think it's fair to assume he had it too. Both kids had very heavy cold like symptoms but no fever or bodyaches. They missed school at the end of the week. 

Nathan couldn't run in the meet at Wenatchee on Saturday. We were very sad as it was going to be a very nice run and we would have seen Aunt Maureen. But he was just coughing like crazy. Even the next Wednesday, he was still feeling pretty bad so he was unable to run in the Walla Walla meet as well. Elizabeth missed her second meet due to her foot AND covid. Stupid covid ruining things. 

Nathan finally ran in his first meet again on Sept 24th. He still feels like he can't quite catch his breath like he used to so I hope he heals fine. I'm concerned as usual. He ran slower than usual, but he made it. I'll post about that now. 

Olympia Invite-September 10

This weekend, Nathan ran at the Olympia Invite. In order to qualify for the invite, the coaches decided that you had to run 150 miles over the summer (for freshman) and 200 miles for everyone else. Nathan ended up running around 189 miles for the summer. I think there was a qualification like this so they didn't need to bring everyone because it would cost a lot for rooms and busses.  

The Olympia Invite was a little different format. Instead of running a typical JV and Varsity race, they ran by grade level. 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th. 

Nathan's team sent over four 9th graders who had run their 150 miles over the summer. I think there are around 9 freshman on the team. 

This week, smoke has decided to settle in the area. Luckily, the air was around yellow/orange rating during the run so it wasn't terrible. I'm writing this on Sunday at home and our rating is now red and the air is very bad. I do not want the kids running in this all week if it continues to be this way. We thought we'd gotten through the summer with NO smoke at all. It had been wonderful. But here we go again. Every year now it seems when the first 37 years of my life, we never had an ongoing problem like this.

Here are the pictures.  

The 4 freshman warming up. 

More warm ups

Here's the beginning where they all sprint out fast. 

You can usually find Nathan as he's usually the only one wearing sunglasses. I guess he takes after me like that with very sensitive eyes. You can see he sprinted out to the very front of the pack here. The coach wanted to make sure they got as far in front as they could because at one point, they ran into the woods single file and wouldn't be able to pass. 

Coming around his first mile lap. 

Into the chute for the finish. 

Post race talk with the coach. 

Nathan placed 28th of 111 freshmen. His time for the 2 mile race was 12:42. He beat his time last week by 8 seconds! 

 

His biggest fan Auntie Laura was not there, but you can see he picked up a new fan...

22 Hanford runners went to Olympia. Here are the official results for them. The other 22 boys (who didn't run the 150-200 miles over the summer went to a different meet). 

Nathan had some new fans show up to cheer him on! Leon and kids came (Zynab had to work). Also, Tammy was in town visiting from Richland!! That was a fun coincidence. 

Elizabeth ziplining. 

Leon, Elizabeth, and Aria ziplining. Elizabeth was very nice and played with Aria a lot to keep her busy on the toys. Then, Leon only had to deal with the baby. 

Labor Day Pie Run-Big Cross

 Nathan was required to run on Labor Day for a practice. The coaches said they could either run a 5K fun run race or run hills later that night. Nathan chose to run the 5K. Winners won pies so they called it the pie run. It was put on by the Pasco Cross Country team. Nathan didn't like the course. It was really hard. But he did really well and placed exactly where I thought he would. I didn't catch his official time or take note of it, but he beat who he usually beats and lost to those he usually loses to. 

Start line. Nathan's wearing red and wearing sunglasses. 

Coming in to the finish. 

Hanford Jamboree-Sept 2

Nathan had his first high school cross country race as a freshman. It was so exciting! It was the Hanford Jamboree at Leslie Groves Park so it was a home meet. Since it was a Jamboree, it was only a 2 mile race. He finished in 12:50.  He kept a very steady pace for both miles. It was in the high 90's as well. They had to postpone the race from 5 pm to 7 pm due to the heat. He finished running before the sun set though! There were a lot of teams there. Kamiakin, Southridge, Pasco, Chiawana, Pendleton, Hermiston, Tri Cities Prep, Zillah, Prosser, Moses Lake. Overall, there were 161 boys who ran and Nathan placed 64th.  

Hanford boys doing some warm ups. 

I think it's funny how Nathan is so clear in this picture. It's like my camera knew to focus on him and not the other boys!  This was his first lap around. 

Continuing his first lap around. Hanford was the only team with all white shirts so that is how I knew where to look. 

Second lap around. 

Coming down the home stretch to the finish line! 

Crossing the finish

After the race. Very tired! 

His biggest fan came to watch! 

Jeremy got there JUST in time. He pulled in just as they were starting the race so he didn't miss it. 

Final splits for the Hanford team. 

Final results for Hanford team