Cross Country

On Tuesday the team had a rare midweek race. It was out in the country. I wanted to go so bad but Andy was in NYC and the meet was an hour away at dinner time.

I am so thankful that other people always grab shots of my kiddo

He got third place and once again beat his personal best. He is trying very hard to get below 16 minutes for 3 miles.

Warm up run

From what Austin tells me, this race was held at a farm that is owned by the Ohio Attorney General, one of his coaches family members. So after the race they got to go over to the big house for homemade lasagna made by the Attorney Generals wife. How cool is that?

The coach just sent out this letter that quoted one of the coaches from one of the teams that ran against them

As for the meet itself….I had a chance to review the course quickly in the
cart before the start of the race, and it was in great shape.
To me, this course is “cross country”. While we all like running in parks, golf courses,
etc. for those flat/fast courses that give us those fast times, this course
represents the original intention of what cross country running is about.
Running in the country, through fields (with corn all around),
woods/trees, up/down hills, slopes, ditches, with nothing that repeats itself
(except the last 1/3 of a mile)….and that’s essentially what this course was
today.
Yet with all that, it has a nearly perfectly manicured grass running
surface with no potholes (or other ankle turners),wide passing lanes
(outside the immediate start area), and well identified markers every half
mile.
I imagine when cross country first started back a century or so ago,
this was the vision they had for racing. And it was fun to go out there
tonight in a very small low-keyed atmosphere and compete on a course like
this.

I LOVE that Austin is getting to experience things like this. Cross Country has been such a good sport that was never on our radar before and the kids and families are so down-to earth and nice.

It makes this mama very happy and proud 🙂