Monroe County District Championships

Saturday, the Monroe County District Cross-Country Meet was geld at the Mendon Ponds East course. The "Districts" included quite a few races ranging from Modified Boys to Varsity Girls and everything in between. Once again, both my son and daughter were representing their teams in two different races. The Modified Boys team, of which Jack is a member, ran at 11:15 a.m., while Jordyn's Varsity A team went off at 2:00 p.m.

This could have made for a long day for yours truly, though the excellent Fall weather, as evidenced in the pic below, a backpack full of student papers to be corrected (*sigh*), and exciting races took care of that.


This race would be Jack's last as the Modified racing season "officially" came to close after the completion of the 2 mile run. Jack has enjoyed the camaraderie and competition this season, and today's race was a nice culmination to a successful season. While the weather was good (cool, dry-ish), the photographer (moi) was not so unfortunately I did not get too many pics of his run.

Here is the team lining up at the start in anticipation of the "gun":



Following is the pre-requisite "poorly-shot-photo," today it is of Jack emerging from the wooded section of the race. Late in the morning, threatening (but eventually proved impotent) clouds had rolled in giving this point in the run the appearance of a late-night race:


Jack and the team ha a good race, and he finished in 86th place overall, catching a few runners on the uphill finish into the chute.

Jordyn's Girls Varsity Team ran a few hours later. Only the top 7 runners on the team ran in this event, while the rest of the team ran in the Varsity B race earlier in the day. This was the first time Jordyn had been formally included among the top 7. Here they are at the start meeting and doing a "run-out" prior to the gun going off.




I tried to follow Jordyn's progress throughout the race by jogging to a number of different vantage points. I was surprised (and glad) to see that she started out by staying with some of the runner's from her team who had previously bested her in other runs. If she could hold on, it could be a banner day for her...


and it was! Jordyn came in 24th overall and third on her team in finishing string in what was her best run of the season. By coming in 24th she earned All-District honors and her team placed fourth. She also began to solidify her place as a top runner on her team--she has come quite a long way since her first practice in August!


With all the kids running and performing well this weekend, it turned out to be a wonderful celebration of their combined dedication to the sport.

Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!