XC season

Seb has started his cross country season, with practices on Mondays and Wednesdays, and district meets that started this week on Thursdays. He's running well, and has Wyatt as speedy company, so it's been a good experience so far. They ran a timed mile on Monday and he finished in 6.05, just behind Wyatt at 6 minutes even. As someone who has never been a sprinter, and has never been fast at a mile, I am so impressed. But Seb has been comparatively better at longer distances and so he's been looking forward to the 3k (1.8 mile) race distance for middle school cross country.

This first race is a practice meet, with no official times, and lots of runners from all the middle schools. It's a little crowded, and they're all figuring out their pacing, but it was still so fun to watch. Seb and Wyatt charged out early, with the faster runners, ahead of the main pack. The route was two laps around Fernhill Park, and the boys both looked good and stuck together for their first lap. (We watched them run by, then ran across the middle of the lap loop to watch them again, and back again to the start/finish line.)

And then the second lap was much harder. Wyatt and another boy tripped each other and fell hard, and Wyatt had to step out of the race. Seb got elbowed in the stomach by a kid and it knocked the wind out of him a little, so he had to stop and cough up some dust. But he recovered enough to finish strong, and we were really proud of his effort and grit. On to the next race!