5k Progress and the Connell Meet

This post has two parts, and both are about running: 1. my own 5k progress, and 2. the Connell cross country meet.

I. 5k Progress

On Friday, September 23rd, I woke up sore and tired from the rigors of hosting the home cross country meet the day before. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go on a run by myself before running at cross country practice later, but when I looked at the calendar, I realized that this was my last chance for over a week to get in my own 5k time trial. So once the kids were at school, I pulled on my running clothes and jogged up Scoon Road. Scoon Road is a long straight road that is a very gentle 1%-1.8% grade going north uphill. It's so gradual that the incline is barely noticeable going up, but going down feels speedy and amazing.

The Sunnyside League Meet

Thursday was a big deal for the Sunnyside High School cross country program. We hosted our first ever league meet in school history, with seven schools and close to 300 runners attending! It was a LOT of work. I'll start with Wednesday night to set the stage:

Wednesday, September 21st journal excerpt: I had an RS presidency meeting tonight and that was a lot (responsibilities, emotion, struggling sisters, etc.). When I got home, my period started. (No surprises; it was right on schedule--just a few hours early--but still annoyingly persistent.) Then Jeff and I laid out our plans for tomorrow, which is our first time ever hosting a league cross country meet. It's going to be a long day. I knew I'd probably be on my period for this meet, but I was hoping the flow would start tomorrow night instead. No luck. Sigh. I know I can do hard things while I'm "flowing," but that doesn't mean I want to! I do it all anyways, but everything is just harder (and grosser).

Fort Steilacoom

We tried our best not to, but we ended up scheduling a 4am school bus departure for the Fort Steilacoom Cross Country Invitational in Lakewood, WA on Saturday. In the past, (pre-covid), we have done the Lakewood meet with that dread early wake up and it was such an exhausting day, we tried to find a workaround this year. Our original workaround plan for this year was to only send the varsity boys to the speedy super-competitive meet in Lakewood (4 hours away), and send the rest of the high school team and the middle school team to the closer, less intensely competitive Wenatchee Invitational (2.5 hours away). The varsity boys' race in Lakewood wasn't till the afternoon, so they wouldn't have to get up before dawn for it like they would if we brought the JV and middle school runners, whose races were much earlier in the day. Nobody would have to get up before 5am.

Smoke and Spray

Smoke: Wildfire smoke rolled in thick and hung in the air for Monday and Tuesday this week, forcing us indoors for cross country practice and cloaking our skies in gray gloom. Gloomy days make me somewhat existential, apparently: When I was done cooking on Monday, I sat down and thought about the ridiculous amount of time that I spend planning, purchasing, and prepping food. At least a third, if not more, of my existence revolves around this menial but necessary task. And my active teenage and preteen kids have begun eating SO MUCH! Some days it feels like all I do is plan and prepare for the next meal/feeding frenzy.

July & August Books

This summer I read less than usual, so I decided to combine my July and August reading lists. July was mostly romantic vacation re-reads, so I didn't write plot summaries or opinions. I need familiar easy fluff in summertime! In August I finally finished reading my nonfiction book (The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal) and read an actual new book too. Progress! 

School and cross country

Journal excerpts from this week of school and cross country:

Tuesday, September 5th: Whew, I have been thirsty all day. Coaching cross country practice in the heat is extremely dehydrating. I have been drinking so much and I am still thirsty! 

Today I felt so organized: I started the Roomba as Amber was leaving for school (she caught the school bus at 8am). Then I did some yoga and ran 5 miles in the gorgeous cool morning weather. I got half of my ministering interviews done today and even made dinner before cross country practice. I used the saute mode on the instant pot to cook the sausage and white beans and then turned it on slow cook mode to keep it hot until dinnertime after practice. It was a hearty filling meal. Jay had two bowls of it plus two pieces of cornbread. The bottomless pit teenage boy stomach begins. 

Ultimook 2022

This was our fourth year attending the overnight Ultimook cross country meet at Hydrangea Ranch in Tillamook, Oregon. Last year we locked in the ideal schedule for this team trip, which took a lot of guesswork out and made it easier to relax and enjoy the journey this time around. We took an enthusiastic, fun-loving group of 14 high schoolers plus our own three kids to this beloved meet. It was gratifying and satisfying to watch the returning runners relish the traditions of this trip and see the new runners have a blast with the fun experience. 

We spent a little over ten hours on the school bus round trip, slept in sleeping bags in a barn loft, bathed in a river, lived off of granola bars and PBJ between dinners, and got soaked to the skin with rain on Saturday morning. This trip is always pretty grueling for us coaches, but we will keep coming back for more every year because it is such a FUN, positive, worthwhile experience for the kids. It's refreshing to take a step back from the intensity and monotony of training for distance running and just play on the beach, stay up late camping, and race through some mud and rivers the next morning. Even though this trip was tiring, Jeff and I had fun with it too--I think I say this every year, but it felt like we were on a family vacation with 14 extra kids in our family. Here's the timeline breakdown:

School Begins

The first day of school was on the late date of Thursday, September 1st. Of course, teachers including Jeff, always go back to work a week before school starts. And high school sports still needed ten practices before the first competition, so official cross country practice started almost two whole weeks before school. A few days before fall sports began, there was a parent meeting. So even though we had a so-called extended summer with our late school start date, we were not free to wander or go on adventures for the last 2.5 weeks of summer break. 

Jay is in 8th grade, Rose is in 6th grade and her first year of middle school, and Amber is in 2nd grade.

August misc.

August has ended! Here are a few miscellaneous journal clips to go along with some miscellaneous August pictures: 

Monday, August 8th: Jeff went grocery shopping with me for the second week in a row, and I am feeling so spoiled with our simple happy summer routines! I want more time before the intensity of school and cross country schedules begin again. I mean, we have a few weeks, but still. It's slipping  away so fast! And thanks to that deer destroying our van, we might not make it to the beach this summer for the second summer in a row! Boo! I made two batches of apricot freezer jam today because the apricots were turning to mush and I couldn't wait any longer, even though I was tired and not in the mood for jamming. 

We read Psalm 23 for CFM tonight and then sang hymn #108, The Lord is My Shepherd, while I played it badly on the piano. We sang all three verses and it was not great music. In fact, it was hilarious and I kept laughing while doggedly playing whatever notes I could manage. I couldn't even sing past the first line because I was struggling to play the notes, so Jeff had to carry the tune. Each verse, Jeff switched parts from bass to tenor to melody, which confused the kids greatly. For family game night we played two loud intense rounds of Uno. Jeff won both games.

Van Hunt

 We have a van again! Even though we lasted 13 whole years as a one-car family, the 18 days that we waited between the deer debacle and subsequent van replacement felt lengthy. Once our Kia van was officially declared a total loss, Jeff and I had to sign several notarized documents releasing the vehicle to the insurance company. Then we had to wait for the paperwork to be processed and then (after more paperwork) wait for the insurance company to deposit the settlement into our bank account. Meanwhile, the days of Jeff's summer break were slipping away. Once the insurance settlement appeared in our account, we had three days to find a replacement van before Jeff's first day of teacher in-service. 

A weekend in the country

Mel and Braxton drove over from Seattle to visit us this weekend! They brought their 9 week old puppy Pancha to meet us, and we all enjoyed a slice of fluffy bouncy puppy heaven. Mel and Braxton stayed overnight at our house on Friday and left Saturday afternoon. The whole time they were here, I kept marveling at the novelty, ease, and FUN of having members of my family visit me in my own house! Sunnyside is far enough off the beaten path that Mel and Braxton were only the third overnight guests we've ever had at our current house in five years. I am not used to being a hostess, and I kept having to think carefully about what they may need, like towels and blankets and a free pass to the fridge. 

Kachess Lake

When I hit that deer and destroyed our van at the beginning of August, I felt my remaining summer plans slipping away. We still needed to go camping and visit the beach and go to the lake with the cousins! We had been waiting until August for these activities because in August the mountains are less snowy and the Pacific Northwest beaches tend to be warmer. Suddenly our van was gone and we were tethered to the 70 mile range of Jeff's little electric car. That car is amazing for in-town use, but its range is too small for any mountain or beach trips, which require 100 miles or more of driving each way. 

While we were gathered for Grampa Dan's pancakes, Steph and I hatched a strategy to have our family lake day anyways. There were enough cars in the family for us all to get to the lake together, so we borrowed a car from Jeff's parents and went to Kachess Lake! We discovered Kachess Lake two years ago and it is one of our favorite places to go with the cousins, kayaks, and paddle boards because it's beautiful, peaceful (meaning no road sounds and not overly crowded), and it's an easy 2 hour drive on the highway from our house. Highway driving is key because our motion-sickness-prone daughters don't tend to get pukey on the interstate like they do on curvy narrow mountain roads. The only thing that would make Kachess Lake better would be if the lakefront beach area wasn't so painfully rocky. But this is a mountain lake after all, so we can't be too picky. We do own sandals after all.