Shameless

I am going to unapologetically, shamelessly brag about my son today. As I've mentioned before, he's a runner. He's been running track since he was in middle school. Way back then, we had no idea how fast he was and we were a little surprised when he said he wanted to join the track team. Even so, we encouraged him to go for it.

We were nervous for him when we went to his first meet. He told us he was doing well in practice, but we had no idea what to expect. He placed (meaning he came in first, second or third) in each event he ran at that meet and at most of the meets for the remainder of the season.

Last year, when he started high school, he wanted to join the track team again. We were behind his decision, but worried that he might be disappointed running against kids who were older and had more experience. This wasn't middle school anymore, these kids took their training seriously. He was determined to show that he could compete against the best of them and trained just as hard. After the first week of practice, he could run five miles like it was nothing and was the only freshman to make the varsity team.

We invited my parents to come to one of his home meets last year. I was standing next to my mom when one of my son's events started. "Look how fast that kid is," she said, pointing to the runner in the lead. "That's your grandson," I told her. He was ahead of the other runners by more than half a lap, running so fast that she didn't even recognize him. He had an amazing season.

This is from one of last year's meets. That's my son in first place by a stride. Believe it or not, I didn't crop this picture. It's so hard to get a good picture when he's running by that I accidentally cut off his head!

See? He has a head! That's him in first place again.

Yesterday he had his first track meet of the season. It was an invitational against three other schools, nearly 300 kids in total. He did well and placed 3rd in the 100 meter and 4th in the 200 meter, and that was in running shoes (he didn't have his spikes) and with two runners per lane (normally there is only one runner per lane). What I am most impressed by, though, is that he placed 8th in the long jump against more than 50 other jumpers. He's never competed in the long jump before, he's never even tried it in practice. It was a last minute decision by his coach to have him try. I'm so proud of him!!

I'll be back tonight to open the bar!