Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Hitting Their Stride

Catching up on the backlog of photos and happenings...
The girls competed in the annual Interhouse Cross Country Match last month. This was their third attempt and they all did really well. Syd joined the cross country club and had been practicing diligantly. Her goal was to finish higher than she'd finished the previous year. Sarah really didn't have any goal except to run. Katie's goal was to finish the race.

The Junior School raced in the morning. I wore my Shackelton green with pride as we were defending champs. The girls set off first. My eyes caught Sydney first as she came over the bridge towards the finish line. She was in the top ten. As I looked behind her and couldn't find Sarah I became a bit worried. Suddenly, I saw a green shirt near the front of the pack. Sarah was in fourth and sprinting ahead of another girl as they neared the end. I'd been so focused on Syd, thinking all of her training would have put her out front. However, watching Sarah's easy gait as she strode across the finish line, I realized some are just naturally inclined to run. They both finished in the Top 10, with Sarah at 3rd and Syd at 7th.
Senior School raced in the afternoon. The other mums and I reminisced about last year's race and Katie's heroic efforts in finishing with the help of one mum running with her. A good friend actually went home between the races and came back with sneakers on so she could run with Katie. The race was longer and she was really worried she wouldn't finish, but I told her to just keep going slow and steady. And, that's what she did.
Once again, the theme from 'Chariots of Fire' blared over the speakers as she crossed the finish line. She was last, but she'd improved her time by several minutes over the course of the term and was quite pleased with herself. I was quite pleased with all three of them.













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