Once again, our week was dominated by cross country season, with a few new extras sprinkled in. Jeff had a bout of what we assumed is long-covid relapse, since his symptoms of nausea and elevated heart rate were the same as what he experienced last spring. This caused him to miss one day of cross country practice as well as our cross country meet on Saturday, which meant his assistant coach (hi!) took charge.
It is always daunting for me to face 30 teenagers with my not-loud voice, so I used our starter's microphone and portable speaker to amplify my voice at practice. It worked wonders, and my voice actually echoed off of a nearby building at the park during practice! I felt so powerful, and practice went relatively well even without Jeff's presence.
This little headset and around-the-neck speaker were powerful!
Saturday morning, I was the sole high school coach going to the meet. Thankfully, 3 things eased this nerve-racking situation:
- The meet was only a one hour bus ride from Sunnyside, so it was only an 8 hour day for me.
- The very capable helpful middle school coach, Dan Winger, came with us.
- We didn't stop for food on the way home.
I could attempt to list all of my fear-factors from playing head high school coach for a day, but that would take forever and probably send me into a tailspin of belated anxiety. Suffice it to say that dozens and dozens of things could've gone wrong, but they didn't. Coaching takes a whole lot of faith! Faith in the bus driver, faith in the athletes' behavior, faith that nobody will get horrifically injured, faith that Amber wouldn't wander off, faith in myself. There was no time for me to shrink or even wring my hands too much over this sudden responsibility; I just had to buckle on my courage, jump in, and get to work. So I did.
Everyone made it to their respective race's starting lines on time (due mostly to the responsibility of our team captains and general awesomeness of our team). Only one person needed a bandaid. I couldn't find the first aid kit and ended up just giving the poor guy some pre-wrap for his wounded foot, but we all survived. Coach Winger's presence definitely gave me some peace of mind.
Amber ran the first race of the day! The meet held a 1 mile elementary kids race at 9:15am, and we entered Amber. She raced against about 50 other kids, running up hills and through the dust of the course to finish 6th place with a one mile time of 8:58! It was adorable and Amber's competitive side shined as she powered past a girl as they crossed the finish line.
Right after Amber's race was the 2 mile community race. I almost didn't run it, because a 2 mile cross country race didn't really interest me, and I have a sore gluteus muscle, but Rose was running the same race, so I jumped in and went for it. My time was 13:56, and Rose finished the 2 miles in a new personal best of 15:55. The course was very hilly and the footing was loose bark and powdery dust. I stumbled and wobbled my way through the race without any kind of warmup, and felt perfectly satisfied with my time. Rose had hoped to run faster, but she was still very happy to get a PR on a course that was much harder than we expected.
Next up was Jay's middle school race, also 2 miles. Jay clung to his teammate Jordan for the whole race, never letting Jordan run away from him. At150 meters before the finish, Jay was falling back. But then he gathered his energy and sprinted his way back to Jordan, crossing the line in 10th place, half a second behind Jordan. It was the kind of racing that showed Jay's hard work in training, and I was proud of my son.
We had runners in four high school races: 2 boys JV races, and the boys' and girls' varsity races. One of the things I was proud of myself for making happen was I got most of our team to the starting line of every race to shout our team cheer extra loud with their teammates who were about to race. I've noticed that all of our runners tend to look a bit nervous, intimidated, and forlorn when they're standing at the start line, so I did my best to get their team to give them a good sendoff. It was heartwarming and happy. every time.
Somehow before the boys varsity race (the last race of the day), I ended up promising one of our top runners that I would give him my patterned knee high compression socks if he ran well in the race. He ended up having his best race of the season, and he arrived back at my side all sweaty and smiley with his 5th place ribbon, asking for my socks. I managed to negotiate to give him some even cooler-looking socks on Monday instead of the socks I was wearing at the meet, and he was appeased, haha. Our boys varsity team came in second place!
And of course watching our girls run their very best made me tear up with pride at their huge efforts. We had all 8 of our girls finish the 5k in under 40 minutes for the first time all season! Is there anything better than a sweaty exhausted runner joyfully saying "Coach! I got a PR!" No, there is not. That joy is the same no matter the finishing place or how fast or slow the time is, and that right there is why running is the best sport.
I managed to tune in and listen to one General Conference talk on the bus ride back from the meet. Once Jay, Rose, Amber, and I got home, we watched the Saturday evening session of conference with Jeff. My courage held up, but I am praying for Jeff's speedy recovery.
It's my favorite time of year for sunset and sunrise skies.
I got new glasses this week.
7:15am. Jay and Rose, heading to Jeff's car to go to school. I'm not used to the late sunrise yet.
Amber, ready at the starting line. This girl is all-in, full-power.
Amber was extra excited that her best friend from school, Camilla, was also running the race with two of her sisters.
Amber, racing to the finish line! She caught up to that girl in red right at the line.
6th place ribbon!
Before their races began, our high school team got into the chocolate milk that one of the kids brought for after the races. After. I told them all to stop drinking it before their races and I had to dump out so many cups of milk! I'm not sure if there is a worse pre-race beverage than milk. Thankfully nobody puked as far as I know.
Post-race mother-daughter picture. Rose wore her Wonder Woman knee socks that have awesome capes on the back, and I wore my striped socks. People kept telling Rose "cool socks!" Also of note: Rose skipped a shoe size this week. Her size 9 Sauconys were pinching, so we got out the backup size 9.5's that we had purchased on sale over the summer. They were snug enough to be pointless for her to wear, because her toes were already right at the ends! So I got out MY backup pair of Sauconys in a size 10, and she fit those.
The start of Jay's middle school race! My phone was accidentally in portrait mode so it tried to blur everything but faces.
Jay and Jordy
Heading to the finish--Jay clawed his way back up to Jordan! The course was in the middle of a dusty dry crispy sagebrush field, and the combination of shadeless sun and rolling hills was merciless.
I love it when the sagebrush blooms.
General Conference tradition: do Mom's hair.
I replaced my Samsung Flip phone because the battery life was insufficient, and of course I had to test out the selfie mode on my new Pixel 6 phone.
Sunday morning was pristine: cool, sunny, and clear. I woke up worried about Jeff and self medicated with a long walk in the country while on a phone call with my sister.
Rose and Amber shared their traditional conference box seat this time.
Can I just say, General Conference goes so much more smoothly when these girls get along. It was smooth sailing this time and I was 100% ok with it.
We kept our other family general conference tradition of each sharing three things that stood out to us from each session.
Amber, racking her brains to remember her three things. She did!
Rose did a fancy triple braid in my hair.
Playing with my hair has two benefits: entertaining my daughters and keeping me awake.
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