Cross Country

Katie planned on being on her middle school's 7th grade girls basketball team this fall.  She went to a week-long summer camp, we got a basketball hoop (free off the side of the road!) and she shot and she shot and she shot all summer long to improve her game.  After 5 days of tryouts, though, she found out that didn't make the team.  She was devastated, and she cried for a few days.  It was too late to join her old soccer team by then, they were already 2 weeks into the season.  We wanted to find something new for her to try, and we found cross country!  It is an intramural sport at her school, and this was its first year.  The coaches are a husband-wife team who own several local running stores, and who sponsor/train some of the top marathon runners in the US.  They happen to have a 6th grader at Katie's school this year, and were disappointed there wasn't a cross country team, so they organized it from the ground up to make it happen!  We are so grateful, because it was a wonderful experience!

Katie before her first meet...pretty nervous but it was only a 3K.

She survived!!

Some of the girls on her team.

Her next meet was much larger!  And it was a 2 mi long race.

Go Katie go!

I'll find more pics of later races, I'm sure.  Katie had a love-hate relationship with cross country.  She loved practice and being on a team with her friends, but she hated running in races!  She panicked before each race, and cried every time she saw me or her coaches.  BUT she finished every race, and she improved her time quite a bit over the season.  By the last race she broke the 10 minute mile mark!  (which we knew she could do if she could just settle down!)  We are very proud of her for sticking with it and never giving up.