Cross Country 2017

Justice decided he wanted to give Cross Country a try this year.  Bur first, it's been so long since I posted I wanted to say that Justice is just about through the woeful "puberty era" and has safely emerged on the other side.  He is almost 5'11", and we are shocked he ended up on the tall side.  He's been so short for so long that we just assumed he was going to be short, or average at best.  He towers over me now, and I'm happy for him.  I have spent the better part of his life teasing him about his short stature, so now he gets the last laugh every time he digs his bony chin into the top of my head.  He resembles my grandfather more than any other family member though, and he was very tall and thin with long legs just like Justice, so it honestly shouldn't surprise me he ended up to be tallish.

With that out of the way, let's talk about Cross Country.  Justice is lucky, he joined a team of great runners.  Cross Country is both an individual and team sport.  So, as each individual finishes a race,  they get points for the time they finish the race.  The individual points get added after the race and whatever team gets the least amount of points wins.  At the beginning of the season, he was so happy to be in the top ten runners on his team, because the top ten runners are considered varsity runners and get to run at every meet.  He started the season running about a 22:30 minute race.  Races are 5k distance (3.2 miles).

He worked, and he worked hard.  He was exhausted.  He routinely fell asleep on the way home from practice.  

His time bounced all over the place, anywhere between his initial 22:30 time, down to 21:00 once, then he had a rough 26 minute race.  That last race really upset him, and he buckled down the next week and really started to push himself.    

And then, he got a little boost of confidence.  He told me once that he was doing really well running hills.  He said he could always pass almost everybody on his team if the course had hills.  Turns out he meant it, because the very next meet was on a course notorious for a huge hill at the end of the race.  He said he hit the hill and started to "walk them down, one by one".  Once he realized he was making great progress on the hill, it gave him a burst of adrenaline and he did so well he medaled in his first race.  

And in case you thought he was kidding about the hill, he's got a shirt to prove it.

That race he turned the corner.  He realized he could push himself harder and his time started to decrease quickly.  In a matter of three weeks, he broke into the 19 minute mark.  Turns out he liked being on the podium getting a medal.  They give medals for either top 20, top 15, or top 10 depending on the size of the meet.  There are roughly around 200 runners per meet.

Something else happened also.   He got faster, so his team started to do better at meets.  He was now the 4th fastest runner on the team.  

And I started to go to the meets.  He didn't want me to go at all at first because he was nervous and well, I'm a yeller folks.  Apparently that wasn't going to help, so he asked me to stay home.  I did.  But then he said I could go, and then I finally got to yell for him.  

This was his 19 minute race.  I just happened to get a picture of him crossing the finish line.  19 minutes is a great race time, I was REALLY proud of him.  This was the race that got his coach a call from a local college scout.  

He started to place and medal in almost every race, and the team was placing in top three.  That was really important, because their district ranking started to go up.  And right about the last three weeks of the season, Justice became the second best runner on the team.  

They ended up in third place in the district, which meant they got to go on to Regionals.  They worked harder than I've ever seen them work going into that race.  Justice was mentally ready, too.  All of them were, and they ran HARD, and the team earned second place at Regionals!  

Our top four runners medaled at regionals, and our team had four runners place in the top 20.  Justice came in 11th overall.  He ran his best race of the season at 18:28.  All of our top four runners ran personal best times in that race.  

Being in the top three at Regionals meant they earned a spot at State!  Justice was so excited.  I was really proud of him, earning a spot to State his first year running is something to be proud of.  

State was a great experience for him.  They didn't do as well as they had hoped, and they were all disappointed.  But, not me.  I'm as proud of a mama as you can be.  I love this kid to pieces.  

Tired, and disappointed after state.  I reminded him how many other kids don't ever get to go to state and he should count his blessings and be thankful.  

Right after the race at State... they were laying around in shock, haha!  The winner ran it in 15 minutes.  Definitely a humbling experience for them, but also an incentive to work harder for next season.  

Look at all these runners!  Each school has a lane, and they were stacked up seven runners deep in each lane.  There were a lot of people.  It was an intimidating experience.  After the start, the race path gets narrow quickly, and it's only wide enough for two to three people.  All those runners had to jockey for position to get around each other.  That was the hardest part, he said.  It was tough to get ahead.  

I'm glad the season is over, mostly because I get to throw these shoes out.  He thought they were good luck and didn't want to switch them out at all during the season.  They are a dirty, raggedy mess.  There is a hole in one of the toes, as well.  I kept telling him people were going to feel sorry for him, out there running with those shoes, thinking he was penniless.  They might have very well been a good luck charm, considering how much he improved over the season.  I'm not one to argue with his reasoning, Shandi used to do the same with soccer socks.  She was worse, if they won the first game of the season she never washed her socks for the rest of the season.  Yeah, you read that right.  She wore the same dirty soccer socks for months without washing them.  She's lucky she has feet left.  After that, these shoes are nothing.  Ha!

 I look forward to the next season.  I'm glad he decided to start running, he loves it and it's good for him.