Ultimook 2023

Ultimook, our first cross country meet of the season, was preceded by a busy week of grinding our gears getting back into the school routine, while simultaneously preparing for the overnight camping trip at the meet. 

We had a super moon on Wednesday night. Cell phone pictures of the night sky are rarely any good, but I had to try.

Journal clips to tell about the week because my brain is mush after this intense week:

Monday, August 28th: It was 100 degrees this afternoon. I sweated so much today, from my run and physical therapy appointment to cross country practice. XC practice was so incredibly hot and dry. We had to use heat protocol, where we only ran 10 minutes at a time, super easy, with lots of water breaks. Then we did some drills and strength work inside in the wonderfully air conditioned wrestling room at the high school. 48 kids came to practice today! Plus the 19 middle schoolers (we meet together, HS and MS, at the beginning of practice and run to the park together about once a week). It was a LARGE group of kids.

Leftovers for dinner. Rose and Amber had their first piano lessons of the school year tonight at 5:30pm. We had just enough time to dash home for 10 minutes after XC practice so they could grab food to eat in the car on the way to piano lessons.

Family scripture was a train wreck tonight. We had 4 verses in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, comparing living righteously to running a race. It seemed perfect for our family of runners! But Amber was in a little sister MOOD where she relentlessly teased and bugged Rose. Rose took the bait every time so they were fighting the entire time we tried to have a gospel centered moment. Ugh, it was so annoying. I assigned Rose to be in charge of our family scripture tomorrow night so she can take some responsibility for family scripture time instead of fighting Amber. Sigh. The Bible is hard enough going without fighting arguing kids bogging it down even more! It was a frustrating defeating evening for family scripture.

Tuesday, August 29th: This morning Amber practiced piano for the first time in almost 3 months. She basically forgot how to read music--like, it was a struggle for her to find middle C. Right when my toast popped up, she said "Mom, I need help." And she needed help on every single one of her songs. I was hungry and irked that my toast got cold. Sigh. It was maddening! I thought we already went through this back in February when I worked so hard with Amber doing music note flashcards and everything! That was supposed to be a one time agony! 

At least family scripture was without contention tonight. Rose was in charge--she picked what scripture we read and kept it short. I did have to tell Amber not to read other books during scripture time, but we made it through.

Wednesday, August 30th: TIRED. This morning after the kids left for school, I ran 3 miles then did an hour long core, shoulders and leg workout at my PT appointment. It was intense! I showered and rested when I got home. It felt lovely to have TIME at home. I even took a 30 minute nap! 

After practice tonight, I had a Relief Society presidency meeting during Amber's girls primary activity. I was already so physically drained after my day that I felt extra droopy at the meeting. Presidency meetings always wear me out either emotionally or physically, sometimes both. Tonight it was more of a physical drain, even though I did feel rather grumpy when I got home to find that a few kitchen items were not rinsed out and/or put away. Sigh. 

Thursday, August 31th: Today was mostly spent prepping for Ultimook. It was a rainy day so I did my errands (picking up and cashing school per diem food checks and getting team PBJ supplies) all in the rain. It mostly stopped raining by 3pm for practice, thankfully. We are all packed up and ready to go on the overnight camping trip with 30 high schoolers! It's more than twice as many kids as we took last year. 14 kids came to Ultimook last year and it felt like a huge group. Whew. We have such a long tiring two days ahead of us! I'm kind of tired just thinking about it, haha. 

Saturday, September 2th: Whew, another Ultimook cross country meet is done! I have that bone deep exhaustion, like I do every year after this meet. It's the sleep deprivation from camping that really does me in more than anything. Last night while we laid on slanted ground in our tent, listening to loud kids talking all around us, I asked Jeff "why does so much of our life involve sleeping in fields with hundreds of teenagers?" Hah. We left the school at 8:30am yesterday and got back to the school at 8:45pm tonight. 36 very intense hours. 

On the bus ride home, I did an Instagram post summarizing our weekend:

First XC meet of the season! Ultimook 2023 was a blast: beach run, Tillamook Creamery, camping, mud run, and Five Guys Burgers! And 12+ hours roundtrip on the school bus. It was Jay's first official meet of high school. Rose lost a shoe in the mud and carried it for the rest of the race. Amber gave free massages to the HS boys team. Jeff and I herded 30 high schoolers for 36 hours. Exhausting, fun memories. [end post]

Other details:

Rose ran the middle school 3k and her shoe fell off in the mud pit. She couldn't get the shoe back quickly enough for her liking during the race, so she carried it and ran in one sock, one shoe for the remaining 1.5 miles of her race. She still ran a few seconds faster than she did last year! She finished the 3k in 14:04, 35th out of 86 girls.

Jay ran his first ever high school race (JV, 3 miles) and finished in 61st place out of 177, with a time of 22:46. He said he didn't feel great, but his coaches think it was a very strong start, especially considering the obstacles in this course (suction-y mud pit and two river crossings). He beat my time by 80 seconds. I think we're to that point where Jay will always be faster than me from now on. As it should be! 

I ran the community race first thing in the morning and got beat in a final kick, to finish as the second of 28 women, with a time of 24:04 (20th place out of 69 runners overall). That was 50 seconds slower than I ran this course last year. In fact, I got a better place this year but a slower time. It was also more fun this year running neck and neck with a worthy opponent. I was happy to have a woman to race! She was the coach of another team, and she was super nice. We learned each other's names from hearing people cheer for us, and we encouraged each other during the last half mile. 

We enjoyed Five Guys hamburgers on the way home, and arrived back at the school at 8:45pm, back to our house by 9:30pm. Then 4 of us took turns showering before FINALLY calling it a day.

Sunday, September 3rd: I slept so incredibly well last night. All five of us slept like rocks. It felt amazing. We are all still tired and therefore grumpy, but that sleep was divine. 

Indoor core work with the combined high school and middle school teams on the 100 degree Monday.

It cooled off enough for outdoor running the rest of the week.

Teaching this child to read music might destroy me.

I was nervous to go through this door to talk to the school district fiscal office people because I have made so many mistakes in the past with their department (due to me receiving zero training) and I dreaded being sanctioned again. This time I was armed with specific questions and got specific answers and everyone was nice and happy.

Our school bus was bursting with camping gear, and we had to load a bunch of it into the benches on the bus. It was a snug fit with all that gear, plus 30 high schoolers, 2 coaches, and Rose and Amber.

This year we left rain at home and drove west into sunshine. It was a strange role reversal, going from rainy and brown to sunny and green.

Amber sat next to our cooler and played games on an old cell phone for the whole drive. Our compromise on our blanket cell phone ban for Amber was that she could use it only during long bus rides to meets.

First stop: Cape Meares Beach!

The team went on a 20 minute barefoot run in the sand, then frolicked in the freezing Pacific for 45 minutes or so before we headed out.

Jeff was too worn out from all the meet prep to run, so I got to run with the team on the beach for the first time! Usually I stay back with Amber while Jeff runs with the team. 

(That's me in the middle with red shorts.)

Frolicking in the waves! Not everyone chose to go all the way in and underwater, but everyone found a way to enjoy the ocean and sand.

Amber is always in her element at the beach.

The whole group.

Girls picture!

Seniors picture! Jeff took a better one, but I kept this shadowed one because neither Jay, Rose, or Amber are seniors, and it seems less ok to post pictures of other kids without any of my kids in the mix (although that is Amber dancing in the background, haha).

Freshman picture! We have such a large crop of freshmen on the team this year--this is only the ones who made it to the meet.

Tillamook Creamery! I took two lactase pills to enjoy my white chocolate raspberry ice cream.

Leaving the creamery: these kids make me smile.

We discovered that some tents are easier to set up than others, haha.

The pavilion looked pretty with lights and a movie playing on the side.

A field of tents: instead of sopping wet dew, fog, and a drizzle like usual, we enjoyed tent-flapping WINDS all night.

Jeff in the early morning, beginning the gear transfer. The camping area was about a quarter mile from the pavilion and race start area, so we had to LUG heavy canopy shade tents and a few other essentials (water) thataway, then lug it back after the races. The sheer amount of gear lugging over distances is the number two reason this meet wears us out so effectively.

The pristine mud pit in the early morning.

The beginning of the community race--that's me in the striped knee socks and pink shirt in the middle of the picture.

Exiting the mud pit. I did not fall--thank goodness.

Jill outkicked me at the end! It was so much fun racing her!

Rose, exiting the mud pit (on the far left in the white hat). At this point she had her toes into the shoe that fell off, but the laces were tied too tight for her to slide her foot all the way in! Somehow the laces were too tight to get the shoe back on, but too loose to keep it on in the suctiony mud.

Carrying her shoe, heading for the finish.

Rose, crossing the finish line!

Walking through the finish chute. Rose managed to wash off her shoes and legs quite well during the river crossings.

Amber gave one of our seniors, Alex, a shoulder massage and that quickly turned into an armpit massage, haha. She generously shared her pink air chair with the team, although she was kind of concerned about it at times.

The girls before their race! I never got an after picture of this group. Race day chaos is real.

Alex laid down on the deflated air chair and Rose and Amber decorated the rest of his back and legs with body crayons.

Jay asked Rose to put his hair in a ponytail for the race.

One of the fun things about being a coach of my own kids is I get to watch their races start from up close if I want to. This is the starting line of the boys JV race.

The first 150 meters of Jay's race--Jay is about 5 heads from the left in this picture.

Jay, exiting the mud pit. It got super slippery on the grass next to the mud pit.

Jay at the finish!

JV boys, coated in MUD.

Rose and I scored a spot on the rope to watch one of the mud pit crossings during a race.

The only time I sat down all day, I took a five minute rest in Amber's air chair during a break between races. It was much needed.

Varsity boys, coated in MUD!

Rose and her friend played endless hand clapping games on the bus... "Cinderella dressed in yellow..."

After enjoying my Five Guys hamburger, I followed my own personal tradition and walked across the parking lot to Trader Joe's and bought dark chocolate peanut butter cups for Jeff and pecan pralines for me. Then we endured another 3.5 hours on the bus to get from Portland to Sunnyside.