I had some other things to ramble on about for today, but that will just have to wait because I have the most exciting story to share with you! It’s all about the last Cross Country meet of the season for my daughter. I may have mentioned a million times that my daughter is running her first year in XC, and she has been doing well. At the beginning of the season she got to run “varsity” for the Jr High, which are the top 7 runners for her school.
There are only two meets that use a varsity group. For the other meet, which was their final meet of the season, she did not get selected to run varsity. I have to admit, that broke my heart more than hers!! She seemed OK with it, but I was a bit sad. She was selected as the “alternate” varsity runner, just in case they needed her. When I finally got over it, I assured her that it might be even better because she’d have more of a chance in the Open division because she’d be one of the faster girls out there!
This past weekend we checked out the course. It was being held at an old fort in our area. The fort is along the river, up high, and it has a flat area down below which would be the meat of the course. Down a winding hill, two loops in the flat, up a long steep hill, and then about a half mile to the finish.
“long” uphill #2!
When the girls took off, Sydney was in the mix of them all. They headed off to go down the hill, and we went up to the top of the fort where we had a clear view of the open flat area. Soon the runners came into sight. We were shocked and amazed when we saw Sydney in front of all of the girls!! She was actually in the lead by quite a bit! There was another girl from her school behind her, and then the rest of the pack was behind them. WOW!!! There were 9 schools participating, so there were at least 100 girls in the Open division.
She kept up her lead for the entire flat area that we could see. Then, she headed up the hill. Sure enough, at the top of the hill, which was closed in to a narrow strip by the cheering spectators, was Sydney still in first place!! We cheered her on and made our way to the finish line.
We could see her in the distance approaching the finish chute. Her team mate was still the same distance from her, but as she got closer we saw it… another girl was coming speeding up behind her! That girl was cruising, and came out of nowhere. I had not even seen her on the last half mile to the finish, up until now. What the heck??
We yelled as loud as we could to give my daughter some sort of indication that she had another runner right on her tail, but it went by so fast, she never got to even see us. The girl caught up to her in the last seconds of the race – and from our vantage point – it looked like she stepped on the finish line at the same time as Sydney did!! I’m not sure what it really looked like at the finish, but first place was given to the other girl.
It’s hard to describe the excitement of it all, so here is a very poorly recorded clip of the finish line. Crazy, right?
Despite the shock she had when she crossed the line, it was a great race. I’m so proud of her! She finally got her goal of sub 14:00 for her race (13:58!) and basically crushed this course. And that second place finish could have easily been a first place if she knew that girl was there. As a reward for her great efforts this season, she finally got the brownie bites she has been eyeing up every time we go to the grocery store 🙂 It was the perfect end to her first XC season.
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Q: Is there a favorite treat that you like to reward yourself with after a job well done?
Q: What has been the best part of your week so far?
WAY TO GO SYDNEY!! I got tears in my eyes watching this! I love seeing kids involved an athletics and freaking putting themselves out there like that!
It was a pretty intense amount of emotions in a short period of time, I’ll tell you that much!! She really rocked it.
WOW!!!! OMG!!! What talent!!! I think you might have a future Shalane on your hands right there – she is HOOKED!!! CONGRATS!!!!
I am super happy with how XC turned out for her. She definitely wants to try track, and then do XC again next Fall. Too bad she is faster than me now!! 😉
Sooooo impressive!!!!!
“short uphill #1” is crazy! I actually thought she had climbed a tree and was walking on a branch for a second! We just don’t see hills like that here in South Florida… plus I don’t have my glasses on, haha 😀
LOL! I do find it funny the things they make the XC runners run through. I’d be like – uh no, I might twist my ankle on that.
What an incredibly gifted girl you have! Wow!!! I like beer as a reward but maybe your daughter might be a little young for that. 😛
Beer is an awesome reward!!
That was quite the suspenseful story, I can’t imagine actually watching the race itself! Sydney sounds like quite the runner!! It’s funny I actually had a similar experience when I was about 9 when I was in the lead for a race and at the last second a girl overtook me- very disappointing for me! So awesome that Sydney did so well anyway! Good on her!