Thursday, October 9, 2014

Cross Country

My nephew, Trevor, is 12 1/2 years old and in seventh grade this year. They live in the Joplin, MO, area and he goes to Webb City Jr. High. This year he decided to try out for the cross country team. In jr. high, the cross country running distance is 1.5 miles and in high school it's 3.2 miles. Trevor started training for this sport right when school started. He stayed (and still stays) after school each day to get his running in.

Before the first meet, he had to "try out" for the team in a sense. He had to run the full 1.5 miles without stopping to walk and he did it, so he made the team! When I received his cross country meet schedule I was really excited to see that he had two meets in Nixa, MO, which is just about 10-15 minutes away from my house. All of the other meets are much closer to Joplin and I would not be able to attend to them...they would interrupt nap time. :)

So a few weeks ago, I met up with my mom, sister, and second nephew, Cody, and Lucy and I headed to Nixa one Thursday afternoon to watch Trevor run. It was a warm afternoon and I loaded up my stroller and bag with snacks and toys to keep Lucy occupied during the meet. I thought we might be late due to the traffic we ran into on the way there, but ended up being early instead. We got to watch the seventh and eighth grade girls run the course before watching Trevor. This worked out great for us so we could then see exactly where the course was and could figure out where we should stand to see Trevor run as much as possible. Cross country isn't like track in which you keep running around a track. Instead, it's in a field with a course that's a big loop and unless you are running alongside the runners, you can only really see them in one or two places.

We saw Trevor start the race, then headed across the field to catch him a few more times before heading back to the finish line. It was really fun seeing him and all the others running by. He did a good job and finished right at 13 minutes. I think that's great - that's about an 8.5 minute mile or so...definitely faster than I could run! His last meet is next week in Nixa again, and I plan on going. Good job, Trevor! I'm proud of you!









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