It's no secret that I love my son. I suspect many parents feel that way about their kids. I'm not exactly a Mama Blogger but I am a Mama and this is my blog and so I do write about my boy with some regularity.
I try not to proclaim him awesome all the time because that is tiresome. But I am about to indulge myself in a spot of bragging and those of you who don't enjoy this sort of thing are hereby advised to stop reading.
Why are you still here?
JT's Middle School has a cross country team and last year he ran for the team. To his surprise, he enjoyed the running far more than he expected. In preparation for this fall's team, over the summer he made some half-assed efforts to prepare. He especially likes to run short-distance sprints and although cross country is not at all about sprinting, that preparation is what he enjoyed. He also rode his bike all over the place, often sprinting on the bike. Knowing that one way or another, he'd have to make it through a two-mile run, I let him do what he wanted to do. We're not exactly training for the Olympics here; the goal is to have fun.
The first race was last week and he lined up for the contest and last-minute instructions from the sainted Coach L with a somewhat nervous demeanor. Before the race, he told me he would consider it a victory if he didn't hurl when the race was complete. That is the sort of goal-oriented thinking that can be adapted to many a life experience.
The run was about 2 miles and there were more than 50 kids making the journey. At the halfway point, JT was toward the front of the pack, looking like he would finish in the top 20. As to the question of hurling…….the jury was still out on that matter. The final 100 yards of the race feature an uphill run, which I would characterize as adding insult to injury. JT approached that hill at full tilt. He's the third kid back in this photo.
He passed both of the boys in front of him coming up that hill. Cross country fans are the best kind of fans; they cheer for all the runners (even for the kid who walked the whole way.). My boy was impressive coming up that hill and the crowd of fans knew it. He placed 10th overall and was the third finisher on his team. I was clapping and yelling so loudly that there was no time for a picture as he came up the hill and crossed the line, but here he is with his friends in a post-race confab, as they cheered on other finishers.
The best part of the race is that JT was so proud of himself and excited by his finish. As for me, I just wanted to shout to the world, "that's MY boy!"
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