Running, Stiches, Rest and Winning

Tobin's cross country season has been a time of learning. In the last cross country post I shared how he had exercise induced asthma. He had to learn how to work with that and he was successful in doing so. He ran a race the next week and won. Later he ran in an invitationals race held at Franklin Park in Boston. He ran in this invitationals last year. as a freshman he did well and finished 12th in the freshman race, I believe. This year he was placed in the varsity category. He placed 39th out of over 200 and his time was 17:28. This is amazing. In the words of his coach "Tobin has his legs back and has shown he can run with the big dogs!"

On Thurs. Sept 24th Tobin encountered another lesson: don't jump over guard rails. He was running with the team for practice. They exited the woods in a spot that didn't have a safe exit route. The guys decided to jump the guard rail. Well, Tobin didn't make it over correctly. He missed and tore open his left shin. He had attempted to jump over the rail from the sharp side and where the woods were at a steep angle. We took him to the ER and he got 9 stitches in his shin. He was told he couldn't run for 5-7 days.

If you ask him what happened, he'll tell you that he was attacked by a bear. It seems more manly than misjudging the guard rail. We also joke that he has a celestial theme for his scars. He has a zig-zag scar on his forehead from when he was two. He looks like Harry Potter. His shin scar is in the shape of a crescent moon. Hopefully, he doesn't get a star somewhere in 13 years!

The ban on running meant that he couldn't race against one of the team's toughest and most important opponents, Wachusett. He received a number of negative comments from teammates about not being able to run. It also added vinegar to the wound when the team lost the meet. Some say they lost because Tobin didn't run. Tobin is learning that when teammates are injured everyone should step up and try harder, not look for someone to blame. I am hoping that these experiences will aid him in being a good leader for the team.

Now, for some good news. He got his stitches out on October 6th. The wound is healing well.

He also ran a race on October 6th.

Here he is in the lead after the first mile, running under 5 minutes!

His lead gets larger around the 2+ mile point. Coach was yelling "low 18's, low 18's". He was motivating Tobin to keep the pace up and he'd finish with a time in the low 18:00.

He won! He also got his PR (personal record) of 18:10 on this home course.

We have a very hard 5K course. Last year his best time on our course was 19:24. He's shaved off over a minute from last year's PR! Wow! Again, his legs are back. He's looking to race with the top guys in the state on October 17th and place right with the fastest on our team!