Jay anguished all week over whether he'd be able to run at the final meet of his season or not. He fell and injured his foot during last weekend's race, and had to rest his hurt foot all week. No running. Mentally, that is hard. Then the night before the last race, Jay's foot cramped up painfully and he didn't think he'd be able to run the next day. He was so sad! But his foot felt a little better in the morning, so he warmed up and started the race with caution. The excitement of the race atmosphere pulled him along, suppressing his pain, and he started running faster and faster! He finished the 1.5 mile race with a time of 13:12, 34th out of 59 overall, 7th on his team, with a killer uphill sprint finish against his teammate.
The course started down by the stage in the amphitheater, then funneled out a side gate and up, up, up the side of the amphitheater hill for close to 3/4 a mile. Starting a race uphill is not easy because the legs get heavy after that steady climbing and then feel dead once the terrain flattens out. In addition to the epic uphill start, this course also had hay bales to jump over: a set of two hay bales, and then a set of three a little while later. Needless to say, the first mile was a major grind. The final two obstacles on the course were the sharp 120 degree downhill turn toward the finish, and then the final 80 meter steep grass hill up to the finish line. It was not a fast course, but it was a technical, fun, gritty challenge!
I felt weepy off an on throughout Jay's entire race. Distance races are emotionally charged events, especially for those who have been there along the entire training journey together--the teammates, family, and coaches. We see all of the hard work, the ups and downs, the aches and pains, the hopes and goals. All of that culminates in an emotionally charged final race of the season. At least for this mom-coach! I rode waves of maternal pride and emotion all day long during the entire meet, when Jay and Rose ran, and also when all of our other kids ran.
Thankfully Jay's foot doesn't seem to be too much worse for wear after this race. Now Jay has as long as he needs to rest and recover his normal foot function. Icing on the cake was Jay's team won the meet! And since Jay finished in the top 7 on his team, he was part of making that happen.
Rose ran the middle school race too! They had the middle school boys and girls run together, so Rose was in the same race as Jay, which is always risky with sibling rivalry being what it is. (Rose has run faster than Jay before-- just once this season). Rose ran unattached, which at this meet meant they didn't give her a race number or record her time. Rose ended up finishing in 14:54, 27th out of 43 runners (and incidentally, she was the 4th girl from Sunnyside to finish, even though she's not officially on the middle school team yet). Rose joined in on the middle school team picture and then enjoyed the apple fritter from Pepe's Bakery that I packed for her.
Meanwhile, Amber did her usual wandering, running, and playing. She eventually dug out the old cell phone we bring for bus rides, and played games with the younger sister of one of our high schoolers until I took away the electronic device the next time I passed through our team's tent area. Amber has been such a trooper at these long cross country meets. She got very good at finding ways to play and entertain herself, with minimal supervision or nurturing from her busy coaching parents.
Once all of the high school races were over, we made sure to get a high school team picture on the big Gorge Amphitheater stage, because apparently it's a big deal to get your picture on the stage. The Columbia River was in the background, and it was pretty cool up there. The acoustics were pretty good, and our team cheer echoed far and wide. Once the team picture had been taken (I didn't get a team picture because I was in the picture and the person taking our picture was over ten feet below down on the ground), I pulled Jeff over to the back of the stage to take a selfie on the famed stage, with the river and gorge in the background. As our team was exiting the stage, they looked back and saw us in selfie mode. The whole team "awwwwed" at our apparent cuteness, so I decided to ham it up a bit and kissed Jeff on the cheek. The team "awwed" louder. Then Jeff gave me a big ole kiss on the lips and the whole team burst into the loudest cheers, whoops, and whistles. It was pretty funny, because to Jeff and me, a kiss is not a Life Event anymore. Yeah, we kiss often, but it's not a big deal when we do. We don't really ever kiss in front of our team though, so it was kind of fun to shock them on the big stage.
Right after that fun stage smooch, it was time to run!
After running up and down hills yelling ourselves practically hoarse during the four races at the meet, Jeff and I toed the line for the final race of the day: the community race. Less than 20 people joined us on the starting line. The starter fired the gun and we quickly learned what our runners had experienced, with that uphill first mile, with the hay bale barriers, and with the steep uphill finish. The challenge we didn't fully appreciate until we ran it ourselves was the many hairpin turns out in second half of the race. The turns were so sharp that I had to slow down to make every one in order to save my ankles. It wasn't worth the joint strain for me to take the sharp curves at speed! Jeff ran all alone out front and won the race easily in 18:59 for the 5k (which, for reference, was about 23rd in the boys varsity race).
During the race, I did battle with a recent high school graduate who ran about 20 feet in front of me for the whole time. On every straight section, I would slowly start to gain on her, and then we'd reach a sharp turn, where I'd slow down to ease my ankles through while her springy more-youthful joints accelerated through and she pulled ahead again. It was a total yo-yo run for the entire last 2 miles, but I never caught her. Still, it was so nice to have someone to chase, and I was pleased that I managed to focus and run a mentally strong race. I finished 4th overall, 2nd place woman, with a 5k time of 22:46 (which fit in at 13th place in the varsity girls race). When Jeff and I don't have tons of people to race against, we compare our times to the varsity race finishers for a little virtual race satisfaction, haha.
Saturday was a moderate 8.5 hour day, but we were all still super tired when we got home at 4pm. The middle school cross country season is over, and the high school has two more meets/two more weeks. Whew!
Sunrise on Saturday, as we left home for the meet.
We followed the winding Columbia River for a good portion of the drive, which was swathed in a long stream of early morning mist. (phone photo taken from the bus window)
Eventually the river-mist cleared and we could see pretty fall colors on the other side. (another phone photo taken from the surprisingly clean bus window)
We set up camp on one of the terraced grassy seating areas in the amphitheater. The view was wide.
Jay, finishing the last hay bale jump and moving up.
Not a great picture, but Jay is in the shade rounding the bend. This course was on gravel, grass, and also at least half a mile of pavement.
Jay, attacking that killer 80 meter uphill finish, with his teammate Ben closing in. Their times read as the same, but Ben finished half a step in front of Jay so he was 6th on the team and Jay was 7th. The gorge and amphitheater made a sweeping backdrop for the finish photos!
Rose, clawing her way up the grassy hill to finish! Rock concerts aren't really my scene, but I may have to attend at least one concert here at some point because it's probably pretty amazing.
View from the stage. See the path to the steep uphill finish in the grass way up there? The starting line is in front down below the stage. (That's the JV boys' race lined up to start).
Jay's middle school team! This is a great group of kids. I loved learning all of their names and cheering them on--part of our plan to build the program from the ground up and retain as many middle school runners into high school as we can!
Rose put her arm around Jay at first, but he shrugged her off. Poor guy did not want me to take a picture at all because his foot was killing him and he just wanted to go SIT DOWN already. Sorry, son, I'll be taking this picture every single year till you turn 18, and possibly beyond.
Jay finally got to rest his foot.
Rose finally got her apple fritter.
Amber traded phones with her friend Penny, so they could try each other's favorite games. These two are adorable, and have had lots of fun playing together at lots of the meets (not just on phones).
Port-a-potty alley. I thought this was equally creepy and cozy. And oddly pretty? When I tried to actually use one of the Honey Buckets, though, I discovered that they were all padlocked shut and I had to go back to stand in the long line by the sun-warmed fast-filling three port-a-potties sanctioned by the meet.
Sunnyside girls team at the starting line, on the far left.
Another view of the starting line, with the massive stage in the background. This place was so huge, pictures didn't do it justice.
The start of the girls race! With a guy in the way.
Varsity boys' race start!
Coaches on the stage, ready to kiss and run!
Bus ride home through the scenic byways. The sage brush was blooming yellow and the cliffs were nice and rugged.
Zoomed in bus-windshield view of the blooming sagebrush, cliffs, and Columbia River.
Jeff, massaging Jay's tight arches back home on Saturday night. Yay for Jay, completing his first-ever official cross country season!
No comments:
Post a Comment