Excellent Debut

Earlier this year, Cheeseball informed The Queen and I that she joined the school track team. She is in third grade this year and it is the first year they let third graders join the team. Several of her friends joined with her.

This was a big surprise to me since after our Thanksgiving 5K run she told me she didn't want to run again. I was happy she decided to give running another chance because she is pretty good at it. She tried several distances until she ultimately decided to run the eight hundred meter, which is two laps around the track.

They have practice twice a week and were scheduled to have three track meets this year, the last of which was supposed to me a type of championship meet. Her first track meet was rained out last month. She was both excited and nervous for that meet. When we go there she started to relax after hanging out with her friends. She was really disappointed when they announced that the track meet was cancelled. I was a little relieved since I signed up to help with the timing of some of the events.

Her second meet was this past Friday. It was a month after the first meet was rained out. She did not seem either nervous or excited for this meet so I did not know what to expect from her. Before we left her with her friends, I gave her some quick advice. I told her to keep the girls in the lead within reach. Do not try to keep up with them, but keep them close. I told her to sprint to the finish. That was all.

I watched with a nervous excitement as her group was waiting to be called to the starting line. She actually had to stand their waiting for a few 100 meter races. It was finally her turn. They called her group to the starting line and got them set. The race started and she did just what I told her to do, although she was a little farther back in the pack. She kept a great pace for the first half to three-quarters of the first lap. Then she got caught behind some slow runners and she slowed down a bit.

She was finally able to move around them and then picked up her pace again. I was excited for her because she was running a good race. She continued her pace for most of the second lap. She was in front of the pack at this point and was using another girl to pace herself. That girls started slowing down, so Cheeseball slowed down with her instead of passing her. She didn't sprint to the finish, but kept pace with the girl in front of her. I really thought she could have passed her, but I was happy with her race.

She made her way back to the stands where we were and actually ran with one of her friends. She was not as tired as I thought she would be. We waited to hear the results of her race. It was hard to hear, but she ended up finishing in fourth place. If she would have known that the girl she was using for pacing at the end was in third maybe she would have passed her instead. I was really happy for her though. She did great for her first race and she ended up with the best finish from her school in that race.

I think the race was very confusing for all of the runners. The race included third and fourth grade boys and girls. There was a big crowd at the start of the race with a lot of runners.