Track & Field

What could keep me from updating my blog?

Track & Field!

My seven year old son has somehow stretched what I thought would be a six week track and field season to well over twelve weeks (and counting).

The good thing is that he is having a blast.  My wife and I (and my mother and father in law) are having fun too, but mostly we are just in it for the ride :)

Apparently, he is freaky good at throwing a javelin.

So far he has placed first at an open meet, second at the USATF SC State meet, and sixth at the USATF Outdoor Nationals.  This weekend we will be in Georgia for the USATF Junior Olympic Regionals.  That's more exhausting than a 50k...

Last year I signed my son up for track, but when we showed up for the first day he got really nervous upon seeing so many kids and did not even want to go on the track.  He said there were too many "big kids" and just did not want to do it.  I was worried about pushing him into something I wanted him to do and not necessarily what he wanted to do, so we decided to skip it for a year.

This year he asked me about it and really wanted to be on the track team (it helped that he met some of the runners while we were at Starbucks one day and they really wanted him on the team).

Its amazing how much fun he has had and how amazing the coaches are with the kids.  This was the seventh year in a row that the team won the state championship!

Anyway, its been fun to "crew" for him during his meets (its usually everyone crewing for me at my races).

We have had a blast this season and USATF is an incredible organization.  This past weekend at Nationals, my son competed against kids from all over the country.  He got a chance to talk to the other kids and even played tag (the top eight received medals and had to wait for the ceremony, so they played).

My son competed in the 1500, long jump and the javelin.  He has logged about six miles per week and is in amazing shape.  He has learned a lot about fitness, setting goals, team work, winning and losing.

More importantly, he continues to see how much fun running and exercise can be and that there is an adventure waiting for all of us.