Marsh Meet

Iver may have caught the running bug! He's been participating in "running club" at school and competed in the duathlon a couple of weeks back. However, this week, he participated in his first county cross-country meet, held at the Arcata Marsh.

It was a lovely sunny day, and, although the parking was horrendous, I made it on time to meet Iver and his teammates at the starting line (his coach gave him a ride from school in her minivan) to watch the race.

  Warming up

The kinder-second graders went first in a 0.7-mile loop, and it was really fun to cheer on the kiddos!  Iver stayed with the pack and sped up at the end, like he did in his previous race (he told me later, "There was a girl running faster than me but crying. No way was I going to finish behind a crying girl!").

The start (after one false start)

Good running form in the home stretch!

Iver finished in a time of 5:44, which was in seventh place overall (three boys and three girls crossed the line in front of him out of seventy one runners), and very respectable for his first running season!  The results are posted here, and if you scroll down, there's another picture of Iver and his teammates, who all finished strong, cheered for one another, and got stickers and popsicles after their races.

 

Iver is interested in doing more races (even competing with the third-fifth graders in their longer events!) and we'll probably participate in at least a couple of meets this fall, juggling the soccer practices and games to which he has also committed.  He seems motivated for progress, not perfection, which is what I am happy to see!  Lace 'em up!