Track Meet

Before I get started, I want to announce a change I am making. I am tired of referring to people in my life with code names, so unless there is a real reason to protect identities I am dropping them. The one exception is that I will probably continue to refer to Tina as The Queen.

Meg had her second track meet this past Friday night. On Thursday night she asked me how she could get faster. I told her that she has done everything she could possibly do at that point because she has been practicing. I told her that the only thing left was to keep telling herself that she was not tired. That she could run faster. That she could pass the girl in front of her. She said that she would try that.

On Friday night, Meg was her typical self. She was full of energy and could not sit still. When they announced her even, the 800M, her and a friend told the coach that they needed to go to the restroom. I don't even think she heard her event announced. By the time they got back the announcer had already given the second call for the runners. I rushed down to her and her friend and told the coach that I would take them to the even. We hurried down to the infield.

The school track coach was just letting the runners do whatever they wanted to do while they waited for the even to start. Meg and her friends were stretching some, doing jumping jacks, doing jump kicks and doing shoulder rolls. Not at all what I would consider the proper warm-up activities. I was just hoping that she was not going to wear herself out before her event.

She had quite a long wait for her event, but the announcer finally called the runners to the starting line. Meg lined up about five runners in from the outside of the track. She got a decent start and made her way to the inside of the track. I thought she was running a great race. She held her pace pretty steady for the entire length. When she was coming around the last turn, she caught up to one of the other runners from her school. They spoke to each other briefly and then that girl picked up her pace and pulled away from Meg.

Meg finished the race in sixth place. I think she was probably the first third grader to finish the race, unfortunately the race is for both third and fourth graders. I am curious to see if she improved her time from the first track meet. It really appeared to me that she ran better this time, even though she finished two places later than her first race. She did a great job.