I know that I was keeping a pretty consistent running log earlier this year.  But I didn’t know it would lead to this! Both Joshua and Kristie have joined the Summit Academy Cross Country team.  They had their first official meat last night!

1st Official Event

Josh ran a few events with Couch School last year before our fire, but this was Kristie’s first competitive school event of any kind.  This was obviously Joshua’s first event here in Utah.

The meet was held at Providence Hall, a charter school in nearby Herriman, Utah.  Turns out it is actually closer and easier to get to than Summit Academy, which is on the other side of Bluffdale.  Since this was so easy to get to we decided to take the entire family as a cheering section.

Teams were there competing from Providence Hall, Summit Academy (one team from the Independence campus, and one team from the Draper campus), Ascent Academy from Lehi, and a team wearing an Eagles jersey but whose school I didn’t ever catch the name of.   5 teams total.

The Race

These meets are a race around a 2 mile track.  The track at Providence was in the rolling hills of the Oquirrh Mountains and inside a small ravine next to the school.  The only flat section was the 100 yards where they started and ended.  The rest of the course was either uphill or downhill along the windy dirt track.  One section of the track was downhill enough that a few kids fell on their way down the hill.  A few bumps and bruises, no injuries.

Joshua

They raced the boys first.  Joshua had to wear his knee brace.  Since starting to run again his Osgood-Schlatter pains resurfaced.  He wore the brace and took some Advil and was ready to go.

Josh can do 2 miles on a flat track in just under 13 minutes, but with the hills I wasn’t sure what to expect.  He turned in a finish of about 13:30 (unofficial) which given his knee pain and track was pretty good in my mind.  It was good enough for him to finish 28th out of 100+ runners.

I’m not sure what they do with those Providence Hall kids,  because I think they had 5 boys finish before the first Summit Academy runner came across.   First boy finished in about 11:30 minutes.

Kristie

When all of the boys finished it was the girls turn.

I’ve only ever seen her run compared to her siblings, so I wasn’t sure what to expect of this small 6th grader running with 6th, 7th, and 8th graders.  She can do 2 miles on a flat track in about 14 minutes.

She finished her turn on those windy hills in just under 17 minutes.  I think her short legs had a harder time with the elevation changes than Josh did.  That time was good enough to finish 16th out of about 50 girls.  First girl across was about 14 minutes I think (I forgot to look).

Accomplishment

They both were totally spent when they were finished running.  Kristie looked ready to collapse.  I only took Joshua a minute of rest and some fluids to look ready to run again though.   I’m not sure he put out as much effort because of the knee.  Kristie gave it everything she had and it showed.

I think they both did quite well.

I know Josh is our best runner, but I know he’s never been blazing fast either.  He finished about where I expected him to finish.  I’ve always thought of Kristie as being quite fast, and given her size and age compared to the field I think it she did really well.   They both have room for improvement for sure (mostly just from physical growth), but I think they should both feel a sense of accomplishment.

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Side note: Kristie actually tried out for the Volleyball team too.  But given the fact we’ve never played volleyball before, she was woefully unprepared for it.  Volleyball is even more of a tall person sport than basketball is, and given her short stature it was going to be an uphill battle.  She didn’t make it, but was just as happy to be running!

Joshua is eagerly anticipating basketball tryouts later this month!