Spa Day, Race Day

Another week has come and gone. As coaches, Jeff and I have entered the "hang in there" phase of the high school cross country season, where we are physically and mentally drained--still happy with coaching and excited for our runners to improve, but also very tired from the rigorous schedule we've been keeping for the past almost two months. The season will be over in less than three weeks! (Four weeks if someone qualifies for state.) We can do this! We love our team.

One of the things that gets progressively harder as cross country season progresses is spending quality family time. Jeff and I get so worn out (and our kids do too), that when we're all home together in evenings after practice or on Sundays, all we want to do is veg. Lounge. Relax. Not think or interact or exert ourselves. Thankfully cross country season is only ten weeks of this intensity, but I still feel a little bad that most of our at-home time is spent draped around the house like a bunch of blobs. So I was proud of myself for exerting myself a little on Friday when my kids and I had some free time at home together.

I. Spa Day

On Friday, there was no school for the kids. It was our first non-Sunday day off since Labor Day (school every weekday plus cross country meets every Saturday). Rose and Amber requested a foot spa day and a trip to Pepe's Bakery for donuts, so instead of spending the day collapsed on the couch watching movies with my kids, I pampered my daughters' feet. We gathered supplies: plastic boxes, hot water, old towels, lotion, and nail polish, and set up our spa in the family room. I also picked out two library books to read while we were soaking and drying. We invited Jay to join us be he declined, although he did hover on the fringes for a little while, observing.

First, the girls soaked their feet in hot water. While their feet soaked, Rose read aloud one of the books I chose: Bubble Trouble by Polly Dunbar and we enjoyed the clever rhymes and wording. Then I dried the girls' feet off and massaged them with lotion. 

"We should listen to peaceful music while we do this," Rose said. So I turned on some piano music.

Next came the nail polish.

"Can you guys do that outside?" Jay asked as I began painting Amber's toenails. Nail polish must have at least a 400 square foot scent radius because it filled our entire main floor with the nose-singeing chemical fumes. I opened all of the windows and finished painting the girls' toenails as quickly as possible. Then we had to wait until their toes dried. While we waited, I read aloud one of my favorite autumnal stories: Mr. Putter and Tabby Pick the Pears.

Once the girls' toenail polish had dried, it was my turn! I filled up a container of hot water and soaked my feet while we continued listening to peaceful piano music. Then Rose and Amber each took charge of one of my feet to dry, lotion, and paint into perfection. When they were finished, I did my best to wipe away the pooling nail polish and smudges on my skin. At last it was done. We were all pampered and pretty. 

After a quick lunch, we headed out to Pepe's for donuts. Jay happily joined in on this particular no school day activity. Unfortunately, Pepe's did not have any donuts ready when we arrived, so we settled for some interesting turnovers with various mysterious fillings. Then we dropped Jay off at his friend's house for the afternoon and went home, where Rose and Amber played the afternoon away outside with their neighbor buddy. I went to cross country practice, met up with Jeff, and we had family movie night that evening. It was a cozy Friday of quality time with my kids. 

II. Race Day

Saturday was another cross country meet--our sixth of seven consecutive Saturday meets. This one was the 53rd Annual Max Jensen Invitational in Richland, WA, so only a 45 minute bus ride (my skeleton was relieved, if still somewhat battered, by the shorter length of time spent on the school bus). We watched and coached 7 races in 5 hours, and it was a LOT. Coach fatigue is a special kind of fatigue.

First up was Jay, running the middle school boys' 3k race at 9:30am. Jay had a total breakthrough run and finished the 1.85 mile course in 11:57, soundly beating his usual racing buddy teammate by almost a minute! It was so exciting to watch Jay power through and average a 6:25 mile pace on a grassy course with a big hill. I must confess to tearing up as he sprinted toward the finish line, a scant 8 seconds behind the #3 guy on his team. Jay finished 20th out of 75, with a personal record time. 

Rose ran the middle school girls' race unattached as usual, and all of her training showed beautifully. She ran the 3k race in a new personal record time of 14:07 (a 7:34 mile pace) and finished 16th out of 39 girls, most of whom were 1-2 years older than her. My maternal heart about burst with joy at her solid effort. My children are getting fit and strong and they can feel it! 

After several of the high school races (the largest of which had 269 runners--a formidable field charging around the course), Amber ran the kids' half mile with about 40 other kids. As usual, it was the cutest race of the day. Amber chatted and jogged and laughed with her three friends at the beginning of the race, then dug in and ran hard for a while, before slowing to a walk near the homestretch. Whereupon her parents strongly encouraged her to look up, see the finish line, and keep on running all the way. Amber ran the half mile in 3:47. 

Incidentally, Amber ran her half mile at the same exact average mile pace as Rose ran her 1.85 mile race, which was a faster pace than all of our high school girls ran their 3.1 mile race that day. And Jay ran at a faster pace than all but one of our high school JV boys. The future is bright!

Sunrise gear retrieval from the shed at the high school.

Amber took this picture. I wore the knee high compression socks to showcase the awesomeness of fun sock patterns to our team. We promised the top boy and girl finisher on the team as well as the boy and girl with the biggest personal record each a pair of cool socks like this. I do like a good pair of compression socks for a long day on my feet.

Jay, coming down the hill, before he poured it on and cruised ahead of Jordan. 

Rose, looking strong on the downhill. She liked wearing her caped Wonder Woman knee socks so much last week, she wore them again this time. I love that this picture caught the sock-capes flying.

Go Rose!

I had to take this generic picture of the 9th and 10th grade boys JV race. 269 runners. It was a little bit scary to watch them sprint out of the congested starting line and battle for a good position.

Our high school girls--three of them were together on the downhill and it made my coach heart so proud and happy.

Amber, with her three friends at the staring line. These girls were adorable.

Amber, racing it in. She is one strong seven year old.

My babies are big and buff!