There was in interesting turn of events this weekend. The cross country team was supposed to go run in Wenatchee like they do every year. However, the wildfire smoke was acting up again. Friday afternoon, Wenatchee cancelled the invite as the air was in the red on the aqi.
Our amazing coaches scrambled and found an invite in Selah at the Appleridge Cross Country course. It's the official cross country course of Central Washington University. Apparently the land was donated by a former member of the team so it's now a cross country venue.
It was sad because when I checked the AQI this morning, Wenatchee was back in the yellow category just like Yakima. So there was no need to actually cancel but they didn't know that.
The kids had to be at the bus at 7:15 but Jeremy and I left later. We could smell the smoke in Yakima when we stopped to pick up water for the team.
However, the air did seem to get a little better as the day went on and my throat and eyes do not itch or scratch like they do on worse quality air days.
The invite was also unique in that they had THREE separate courses! They ran boys and girls together during these three separate races. I had never seen races where they ran boys and girls together. 3 races for the day was it. It didn't matter varsity or JV. Each course was different. One was flat and in an 8 shape. The next was the official course of CWU. The last was a more challenging run through the orchards. The coaches strategically placed their runners in the races they thought they would do best on to try to earn more points that way.
Both the Wakeman kids ran in race # 2. It will probably be the first and last time they will ever be in a race at the same time. I thought it would make it easy but it was actually challenging to run back and forth to try to cheer them on in different spots as Nathan ended up running the race about 8 minutes faster than Elizabeth.
Elizabeth's team cheering on the girls of Hanford that were in Race #1.
Hanford Race #2 girls warming up.
Start of the race! Both kids are out there.
Nathan coming up the first huge hill.
Elizabeth followed behind him by several minutes but here she goes!
The flat part and then up another hill.
The course was groomed so the path was mostly cut grass through the orchards and sagebrush.
This was an actual intersection on the course! I'm sure it doesn't matter in collegiate races as everyone is fast enough they are within minutes of one another. However as you can see here. Nathan and the boy in yellow are crossing paths with the boy in green. It was CRAZY at times watching the runners try to avoid each other. We were really hoping Nathan and Elizabeth would somehow cross at the same time so I could get an epic pictures. However, he was several minutes ahead of her at this point.
After Nathan went through the intersection, Elizabeth came through a few minutes later.
And she headed up the hill.
Nathan coming into the finish. It was a tough course and very hot today. He did so well and even after spraining his ankle last week, he pushed through. He said it didn't really hurt at all. It was a 3 mile course and he did 18:09.
I was stuck behind the finish line but managed to get a picture of Elizabeth through the sagebrush before she headed into her last big loop which was about a mile.
These 3 Hanford girls all ran close together the whole race. It was fun to watch! Elizabeth ran 26:33.
Fans of the week! Papa Ray, Kim, Brian and their cousins came to watch! The kids have seen all their little cousins at their meets the last few weeks!
Hanford girls team got 2nd overall
Girls team pictures up at the little runner sculpture area.
No comments:
Post a Comment