I spent the whole week recovering from last week, and the week before that, and the weeks before that. My body felt dully, heavy, and lethargic. My brain wasn't much sharper. The end-of-season slump is a phenomenon that we experience after each sports season, but it hits a little differently each time. This time it hit me harder than it has in the past. My motivation plummeted. My energy was nonexistent. Even though my middle school track season was over, high school track was still in full force! So I couldn't just completely surrender to the fatigue. I managed to get a good amount of recovery in anyways, and by Saturday I had a bit more spring in my step.
Events that happened this week:
Since I had to be at the school collecting track uniforms this week, I told my team that they could come do an optional run after school Monday-Thursday. On Monday, 3 out of 50 kids came. I ended up canceling Tuesday and Wednesday's optional runs due to me feeling rotten on Tuesday and a bad windstorm on Wednesday. Nobody came on Thursday, so that was the end.
Rose's young women's class came to our house for their activity on Wednesday. It was a video game playing activity. They were quieter than expected, but I think they had a good time.
Thursday, I turned in my middle school track keys and officially ended my 4th season as head MS track coach. WHEW.
Friday morning was Special Olympics. Jeff went to school early to set up the timing system. I came late because it was one of my ministering sister's 60-something birthday, and I brought her flowers on my way to the track. When she answered her apartment door, I sang happy birthday to her and gave her the flowers. She was so happy and grateful and sweet about it, my heart was filled with love. She said "You remembered my birthday! All I wanted for my birthday was for people to tell me happy birthday." She invited me in to chat and she told me "this morning I prayed "Lord, thank you for waking me up this morning so I could see the sun shining. And thank you for my Lucy Loo." (Lucy Loo is her little dog.) I was so touched that her morning prayer had two things in it: the sun and her dog. She is a pure hearted sweet lady and I felt so glad I stopped by to say happy birthday.
Special Olympics was shorter than past years, with fewer events and fewer participants. The student volunteers were capable enough to run the meet without my shadowing assistance, so I sat in the timing tent with Jeff and held up the white flag when he was ready for the next race to begin. It was much easier and shorter than we expected it to be. At the end, Jeff and I cleaned up and put away all the timing equipment in record time. I mean, it makes sense that we were pretty good at packing it all up by then, because it was the 6th time we've done it this season alone! But it was nice to feel competent and efficient. It also probably felt easier because we weren't as desperately exhausted as we normally are after other meets that last much longer than the 2 hour Special Olympics.
Friday afternoon was the Inter-City Championship high school track meet in Yakima. My parents flew from Denver to Seattle and from there, drove the 2 hours to Yakima to see their grandchildren compete! At the meet, Rose threw discus and ran the 300m hurdles (her second hurdles race ever). She was very sad that she didn't do as well as she wanted to, and we all comforted her as best we could. Jay ran the 1600m and didn't feel great. He was disappointed in his 5:02 finish, but rallied for the 3200m later. He raced well and was satisfied with it, even though he didn't love his 11:20 time. Emotions always zigzag at the end of a long season! I was proud of my kids for doing their best and being good teammates.
Saturday morning, Jeff went out and started mowing the front lot. He mowed and he mowed. We had mowed more than half of it over the past week or two, but he was determined to finish mowing it in preparation for the high school track awards potluck that we're hosting this coming week. The front lot will be our parking lot. Jeff mowed for over 2 hours! Then he changed the mower blades and Jay went out to mow the backyard for another 2.5 hours. It was windy and Jay's allergies bugged him so much that he came in and put on swim goggles to protect his eyes from the flying grass. I wish I had taken a picture!
While Jeff mowed, I went on a run. It was the first time I felt even remotely alive while running all week long, so I enjoyed myself immensely. It was a brisk 59 degrees with a steady wind, but the sun was shining and the sky was blue with puffy white clouds floating across it. I was planning on taking a turn with the mower when I got back, but Jeff was determined to finish, so I lounged on our saucer rope swing until the wind froze my sweat and I went inside.
Saturday night, Jay went to the stake formal dance. Our young women's president set a bunch of kids up with dates, so Jay went with a girl from a different ward. He left a little after 5pm and got home a little before midnight. Jeff and I were surprised and impressed that Jay willingly went for that long, with someone he didn't know! He said it was good, although his date wasn't very talkative.
Weekly photo album: the pictures somehow loaded in reverse chronological order. Even though I am feeling closer to my normal self, I'm not all the way back yet, so I'm leaving them. Have fun time traveling from Saturday to Monday!
1 comment:
Well done, wind-blown 4-year track coach, mom, runner, lawn mower, library-book-hoister, amazing human!🫶🏻
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