This weekend we went to Tillamook, Oregon for the much-anticipated Ultimook cross country meet. But first we lived through a whole week of school and all that entails. Thursday was my busiest day, due to back-to-back appointments and obligations: After dropping Amber off at school in the morning, I drove to the tri cities, where I went to the temple (initiatory work). From there, I then ran three errands on my way to my final strength workout with my physical therapist Daniel Hernandez at his clinic. I changed from my dress into my workout clothes in the clinic bathroom, and then got to work. After that very hard good workout, I snacked on the 45 minute drive back to Sunnyside, grabbed a few things at home, and then left 10 minutes later to do my assistant coach duties in preparation for the upcoming overnight trip with the cross country team.
First I went to the school district fiscal office and picked up checks for food and camping fees. Then I went to the bank to cash those checks. The bank teller gave me a wad of unorganized cash and 30 envelopes for me to sort it into. So I met Jeff in his classroom (school had just gotten out) and we cleared off some desks to sort the money. Each student was allotted $44.25 for food on this trip, according to school district per diem amounts. As it turned out, the bank teller hadn't given me the proper bills that could be divided 30 ways, so I had to take a stack of fives back to the bank and ask for them to be exchanged into one dollar bills. Counting out thirty sets of $44.25 was great fun, trust me. We got it done and went to cross country practice.
There was a heat advisory on Thursday, so we shortened our run at practice, but it was SO HOT and I hadn't gotten a proper lunch or second lunch at the right times, so I totally bonked hard during the run. By the time we got home from practice after 5:30pm, I was beyond the weak-with-hunger stage and well into the stomach-eating-backbone nauseous phase. I choked down some dinner and sat in a stupor while it slowly took effect. Eventually it gave me enough energy to shower. Every now and then when Fast Sunday rolls around, I wonder if my body could handle fasting. Sometimes I consider trying out a fast again. But then something like this happens to remind me why fasting from food is not compatible with my system: I get overly hungry, my body shuts down, I get nauseous and headachy, and it takes a few days to fully recover. I work really hard balancing my food intake so this doesn't happen, but Thursday was so busy that I did not manage my meals well.
Thursday's starvation mode was not an ideal prelude to an overnight trip with 30 teenagers, but when we're in a coaching season, the show must go on. So on we went. I packed lots of snacks and managed to fuel myself just fine throughout our trip, even though I think I was still a tad behind after Thursday's bonk.
Friday morning Jeff left home at 6:30am to get gear and papers ready for the meet. I drove our three kids to the high school at 7:30am. The team school bus left a little after 8:30am. We had 30 high schoolers come to the meet--our biggest group ever eligible for this early season meet! The athletic director capped us at 30 athletes for an overnight trip, and we used every single spot. Once everyone and their gear was loaded onto the bus, we could breathe a sigh of relief and relax for a while, as much as relaxation is possible on a bumpy cramped yellow school bus with an incredibly chatty bus driver. The drive to Tillamook is about 6 hours from Sunnyside, but we stopped for lunch (packed by the school cafeteria) and a road was closed near the beach so we had to take a somewhat lengthy detour.
Eventually we arrived at Cape Meares Beach and unloaded the bus, around 3:20pm. The team went for a 20 minute shake-out run barefoot on the beach, then played in the ocean for a short while. It was chilly and windy and the waves were alarmingly large, so Jeff limited everyone to thigh-high in the water. That cut the outing a bit short since it was too cold to stay that exposed in the wind. It was still so fun to be at the beach--we've lived in Washington for over 15 years now, and it still surprises me that we can drive to the beach in half a day or less.
Once everyone was kind of dried off, we loaded ourselves, along with lots of sand, into the school bus and drove 20+ minutes back around the closed road to the Tillamook Creamery, which has a store, an ice cream counter, and a restaurant counter, all serving various forms of dairy delights. It is a form of torture to my lactose-intolerant belly, but I swallowed two lactase pills and was able to enjoy one scoop of marionberry swirl on a waffle cone. Even though I wish I could indulge more often in creamy goodness, I do have to admit that ice cream is extra heavenly when I only eat it a few times per year.
As usual, after the Tillamook Creamery, we headed 10 minutes down the road to Hydrangea Ranch. Jeff volunteered to be in charge of setting up the movie projector and wiping tables after dinner, and the meet director gave our team a small barn so we didn't have to bring tents and camp outside. We got to sleep in the barn two years ago, and being warm and dry makes such a difference in quality of rest. Even though we didn't get a ton of sleep on the hard floor in a barn full of teenagers, we did get better sleep than we do in tents. Plus, it was way less work--we didn't have to carry all of the tents into the field and we didn't have to set any tents up or help kids set their tents up. We love the barn!
After dinner (spaghetti catered on location) while Jeff spearheaded the movie viewing, I ended up staying mostly at the barn because there were lots of kids from our team and other teams talking and exploring and I protected the barn loft from intruding boys (girls only on the loft!). Amber snuggled up and somehow fell asleep amidst the echo-y racket of teenage chatter. I laid in my sleeping bag and dozed, answering questions and shooing boys off the stairs as needed. Eventually things quieted down and I got almost 6 hours of sleep before it was time to wake up and run.
This was my sixth time running the Ultimook cross country course, and while my time was nothing special, I was pleased with how I handled the mud pit and river crossings. I was a bit bummed that there were no other runners near me during the race, so I basically ran alone the whole time. There were a few women that ran times within my reach, but I didn't have the oomph to get into position near them at the start of the race so they got away from me. The results show a 1-2 minute cushion between me and the runners in front of me and behind me. So I really was alone, and at age 37.75 I did not have enough desire to push harder and batter my body on a brutal course all alone--I generally reserve body battering for actual racing these days. I was also still feeling kind of weak from my hunger bonk on Thursday and a week of not-great sleep, so those factors contributed to my mental and physical state during the run. Jeff said he didn't have much spring in his step during the race either, but since he's Jeff he still finished second overall, in 18:48. I was the 7th woman finisher, in a time of 24:25. (The course was billed as a 5k, but my watch barely hit 3 miles by the finish line.)
The real fun began with the kids' races! Rose and Amber were first. They both ran the middle school girls 3k. Rose kept both of her shoes through the whole mud pit this year, and finished much faster than last year, in 14:27, which put her at 29th place out of 123 runners. Amber started slower and steadily passed people the whole race, finishing in 17:52 and 76th place. Go girls!
Jay ran the 1A-4A JV race, but was feeling a cold coming on and struggled to push himself. He still ran over 90 seconds faster than he did on this course last year, finishing in 21:13, which put him at 22nd place out of 190 runners. The times are always slower on this course, but the point of this race isn't to get a fast time; it's all about team building and having a memorable experience together.
Our team is the most positive group we've had so far, and team culture is aglow in that happy supportive work-hard-and-have-fun zone where we want it. The long slog getting home from this meet is too fresh for me to write in detail about. It took eight hours to get home, from the time we loaded the bus (after lugging the gear across fields and up a steep hill), to the time we pulled into the high school parking lot. That includes two stops: once for dinner, once for a bathroom break. Usually on this long bus ride home, the team eventually has a sing-along phase where a few kids sing along with music for 20 or 30 minutes. On this year's bus ride, at least a dozen of the kids had a sing-along for the entire last HOUR of the bus ride. It was cute and funny and they all had hoarse voices by the end from singing along to Bruno Mars (and other artists) at the tops of their lungs for so long.
We pulled into the high school parking lot at 10:30pm, and our family got home to our house around 11pm. Poor Amber was so tired, she somehow stumbled into her bed. Getting up for church the next morning was not easy!
CAPE MEARES BEACH:
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