The first race!

Runner Girl ran in her very first race today! Our school was hosting, and they decided today would be a trial for who gets to run next week. If the kids came in under 20 minutes, no matter how old the kids were, they'd get to race next week, but everyone is encouraged to continue training, and the coach will do timed trials every Friday for anyone who asks. Makes sense to me.

We got there around 4:00 and the boys were getting all warmed up to run. Their race started at 4:30. In the very first lap around the park, the leaders were established: Two from our school and one from another. They stayed close together the entire race, and finally at the end, the youngest one from our school won! He's in 3rd grade. The boy who placed second was from a different school, but the one who took third was from ours! Good start to the day.

After everyone came in, the girls geared up to go. The leaders once again established an early lead and kept on trucking. First and second were from our school.

The way they judge the races depends on a point system that I don't fully understand. The boys from our school won their race overall, but the girls came in second overall.

The thing I found the most interesting is that there were slower runners from some of the other schools, BUT our school had both the fastest and the slowest runners in both boys and girls.

Runner Girl came in very last. After all the other girls came in, I walked over to the assistant coach and we encouraged her from where we stood, about 1/4 of the way from the finish line, through her last lap. During her last two laps, she never stopped, just kept pacing herself. When she got to the assistant coach and me, I turned the jogging stroller and ran along side her for a bit. Until my pants threatened to fall off. I was *not* dressed for running and my jeans are a tad too big! haha. When I stopped running, one of the girls from our school ran over and finished the race with her.

She finished the 2 mile race well over the 20 minutes, but I could not be more proud of my girl. She didn't quit. She didn't cry. She didn't stop. She didn't give up, even when she was lapped (twice) by the girl who took first. She didn't even walk during most of the race! She just kept going and she finished her race. Even if she can't race with the team next week, she will keep training, and I will keep being proud of my Runner Girl.