Cross Country Meet

Here's a little something new for our family. Cross Country Team. Zach was all about joining the cross country team at his school this year and he has been enjoying it. We figured he'd be great what with his long legs and all. A rain out one week and a snafu with the bus departure time another week meant we hadn't actually made it to a meet until last Saturday.

Nothing says stampede like 180 kids taking off after the start shot was fired....

One of the hills that they had to climb about midway through the course....Zach is hanging in there. Do you see him passing on the right (his left)?

Run Zach...you are almost to the finish line....

Sweet flowing hair Zach.....I had forgotten how much his hair has grown...
This is the look of lung piercing pain just after the course run. He did such a great job and really pushed himself hard...especially up the final ginormous hill at the end of the course.

That's it Zach...walk it off buddy... walk it off...

cause you just came in third place for your school!!!

WAHOO - awesome...so very proud!!!!! Pretty great for your first meet ever!

I guess those pricey tennis shoes were worth the money after all.

I just wanna say that I had tears in my eyes watching these kids run. As I mentioned, there was a huge concrete hill at the end of the course and the kids really had to push themselves and dig deep and it was awesome to see them find that little bit extra at the end. Such a huge life lesson there...when you think you don't have anything else left you just have to dig a little bit deeper...it's there!!!

And one last thought, Zach said that twice during the run he started slowing down and a kid behind him from another school said "c'mon don't stop, don't walk, you can do this"....isn't that awesome? Another child, from another school, encouraging a peer who they were competing against. People are always talking about how bad kids are, but my personal experience is that kids are wonderful!!