Somehow this 11 year old has ventured into middle school and eligible to run cross country.  Just a second ago he was in Kindergarten, I swear!

The kid can RUN!!  Without hesitation, we signed him up and Jake as well.  Jake ended up ditching at the last minute to play football – but that’s an entirely different post!  It’s a short season,  practicing 4 days a week, and most of the season was boiling hot.  Not to mention, Drew is playing on 2 soccer teams and a competitive basketball team right now.  EEK!  Needless to say, from time to time, we let him skip practice and prayed for the season to be over so we didn’t get turned in for over exerting our kiddo.  Our good friend, Stacey, spotted Drew along the road running one afternoon and she almost picked him up, she felt so sorry for him!  LOL!

 

Don’t worry, he’s a beast!  Most days, he said he could keep running, he wasn’t even very tired.  He must get this from his mom!  Actually, I don’t like to use this word, but I HATE running 😉  I love to exercise, but going on a run is terribly boring to me.  So, thankfully, my boys are not taking after me in that area.

In 6th grade, the number of runners is plentiful.  Then it starts to tail off as the kids get older and realize that running is hard.  Look at all these 6th grade boys!And they’re off!!Within 6 minutes and 34 seconds, Drew as crossing the finish line and we were rushing off to the next activity.  It literally takes longer to get in and out of the high school parking lot than it takes to watch the meet.  Look out…that ONW parking lot is treacherous!  It’s a wonder any of those students make it out of there without it being a crash up derby.A fantastic 2nd place finish for our Drew!

The 2nd meet was against Frontier Trail and Oregon Trail and a rain shower came through right at the start.  They finished and another 2nd place finish.  He’s got this figured out!

He clocked in at 5:48 for his mile run.  That’s my boy!

 

The 3rd meet was back at the ONW course and was against Mission Trail and Chisholm Trail.  He improved his time to 6:19 on this course and another 2nd place finish!  We aren’t sure how he managed that because he got tripped and trampled at the start!!  Love the perseverance to overcome that one!

Finally, at the pinnacle of the season, the ALL CITY meet was held at CBAC and it’s an 8am race.  And it was cool for once!!  Unfortunately, Drew never feels great in the morning.  Generally he has a stomach ache and it takes him forever just to get a granola bar down the hatch.   With the combination of nerves and the early hour, he struggled to gear up and decided not to sprint at the start which had been his strategy in the previous races and worked well for him.  He ended up missing a medal by one place and took 11th.  Which I personally think is amazing out of all of those schools!!  That’s a huge accomplishment!  He knew he could do better so he was disappointed.

He sprinted past the finish line and all the talk in the stands with PRT parents was….Drew must be sick if he’s not coming in 1st for Prairie Trail.  Every meet this season he was 1st for his school.

PRT took 2nd place in the city in 6th grade boys, 7th grade girls and boys, and 3rd in 8th grade girls. Out of ten schools, this is an amazing accomplishment!  Way to go Huskies!

It’s been such a great season and no matter where I went, if I ran into people from school, they always commented on what a great runner and athlete Drew is.  SO PROUD of him for trying something new and excelling.  I already can’t wait until next season!  I know this won’t shock most of you, but I pretty much tear up at every meet because I’m so proud of all of those kids out there!