The first home meet was on September 27th, a cool, dizzily day. The team shirts are usually cotton with blue letters that say Oak Middle Cross Country on the front and "Pain is Temporary Pride is Forever" on the back. Shirts had not come in for the new runners by the time this race was running. Carmen and any new runner for Oak used old Shrewsbury track shirts as their uniform shirt.
When Tobin runs, the parents stay clear of the runners. Oak has a tighter course and the parents all line the course. During this race several umbrellas were in the way of runners. As a veteran runner mom, I can tell who has older children and who doesn't. Those who have never been to a meet at Oak are in the path of the races.
You can see in this picture how close the parents are to the runners.
Despite these obstacles, the runners did well. Carmen finished 13th overall for girls and 12th for Shrewsbury. Her time was 10:49 for a 1 1/2 mile race. She had fun in the race and is motivated to beat certain runners ahead of her.
Her next race is Wed October 6th.
On wed, Sept 29th, Tobin had a race against Wachusett. Wachusett has been a main competitor for years with Shrewsbury. Wachusett's top runners are brothers, we call the Bennie brothers. Bennie is their last name. Last year Tobin was 50 seconds behind the slowest Bennie. This year he finished 2 seconds behind the slowest and 7 seconds behind the fastest. Tobin has significantly closed the gap!
This view is around mile 2. It's a steep down hill. Which means they have to run back up that distance at the end to finish!
Rachel and Sarai joined me to see Tobin's race.
Here's Tobin and CJ moving at the end of the race. Tobin finished with a time of 17:02. Each race he beats his previous week's time. Nice job.
As I write this blog Tobin has run another race. His time at today's race was 16:20! As I said he keeps taking time off. Each course that they run is different. It is hard to compare times between courses. Today's race conditions were 20 degrees cooler than last weeks. This helps decrease time as well.
I enjoy going to as many of my children's athletic events as possible. I don't make them all though. I did not get to Tobin's away meet today. Our children are involved in at least one sport plus musically inclined and add my own interests creates a busy household! I wouldn't trade it for anything though!
No comments:
Post a Comment