Bellevue Invite

The top 12 runners on the cross country boy's team went to the Bellevue Invite. The girls team got the weekend off.  The meet was less than 48 hours after the Walla Walla meet. The team got home at 10 pm on Thursday from Walla Walla and then had to get up for school Friday and then leave on the bus for Bellevue at 1:30 on Friday.  That was too tight of a turnaround to get all Nathan's food in order so Jeremy and I drove him to the meet Saturday morning. Jeremy took the day off to do so. 

It wasn't Nathan's fastest race. He said his legs were still dead from his amazing Walla Walla race less than 48 hours before. Plus, as you can see below, the start of the race and the middle part, you had to run across a sandy beach. He didn't know how to run fast on sand and said it was really challenging. 

The race was divided into interesting categories. The #1 and #2 runners of both genders ran together in a race. Then, the #3 and #4 runners and then so on through the top 8 runners. The JV races were bigger as they weren't split precisely. Nathan had been slotted to run the JV race with 4 of his teammates. But then, one of the varsity runners got injured so Nathan ran in the #3 and #4 varsity race so it was a challenge. 

The facilities were amazing! The parking was great. They had real bathrooms that didn't have huge lines too!  It was held at Lake Sammamish State Park on a free parking day so we didn't need a Discover Pass to park. It was a long day over and back but the weather was gorgeous and the course was fun to run around watching the athletes run! 

The state of Nathan's race! 

He's in the middle trying to figure out how to run across the sand. 

That morning had been the Prosser hot air balloon festival. We had seen balloons floating in the sky on our way to Bellevue early that morning. I looked online and it said they had a "night glow" so on our way home, we decided to swing through. Unfortunately, it was 8:00 and it was just ending so we didn't see much except the few balloons left standing and we got stuck in a bunch of traffic trying to get out.