Happy Birthday, Rose Bud!

Rose Bud turned 15 today.  It was a warm day for running--80 degrees by 10 am.

I was so busy watching her run that I never got an actual picture of her running, but here she is warming up.

It was a true cross country course on a farm out in the country.  It was hilly, but a beautiful course with woods and a meadow and a creek to run along (and swim in afterwards!)

Rose Bud ran well.  Her time was longer: 17:49, but she placed higher, percentage-wise, than she usually does.  They ran one varsity race, but then they split the results into large schools and small school.  So in the overall varsity race, she was 57 out of 162 which put her in the 35th percentile -ish.  She usually runs just into the bottom half of the field.

In the large school standings, which were the ones that counted, she ended up 40th out of 95 runners and was 5th on the team (surprise).

We (including Rose Bud) were all a little concerned after the girls' JV race as they came into the finish looking really whipped and exhausted.  Rose Bud was worried she'd be really tired running, but she felt ok after the race.

It was also homecoming this weekend and Rose Bud went to the dance with her girlfriends.  15 years ago I was resting in my hospital bed looking with awe at my newborn and wondering what I had done taking on this incredible responsibility of being a parent.

This night, I dropped that same firstborn off at the high school for her first high school dance.

She has made this parenting thing a walk in the park.  She has always been a delightful companion, fun to talk to, witty with a dry sense of humor, observant and interested in the world around her.  She was and still is a family-girl and loves to be a part of whatever we are doing (because we are an awesome family, obviously!).  She works hard at whatever she does and sets high goals for herself.  She's kind and compassionate and thoughtful (and way more patient than me!).

It's a pleasure and a privilege to be your parent, Rose Bud.  Te amo!

Winding Down

Only a few meets to go before conference.  Today was a beautiful day, albeit chilly!

She passed these two runners on the left just before the finish

Rose Bud ran her customary 5th on the team.  She is nothing if not consistent!  Her time was an excellent 17:15 and she was 61 out of 101 runners.  The team was 6th.

The coach is unhappy, however, with the 5th place spot.  He is justified, in the sense that because RB is coming in quite a bit behind the 4th place runner, an improvement would help the team in a big way.  He wants someone to step up and improve their 5th place performance.

RB feels awful because she really feels like she is doing her best.  She IS only a freshman.  She also has run very consistently all season.  She runs consistently in that 5th spot AND she runs consistently in about the 50th-62nd percentile of the field.  She's not all over the place, running very well one week and terribly the next.

Part of it IS probably a head game.  There is so much in running that is dependent on your mental state.  If you believe you can, often you can.  But there are the physical factors as well, and to just shave 30 seconds off your time is a HUGE change to make.  As her time has improved this season, so have the times of ALL the runners and so she remains in that same percentile, just below 50.

So each week, she tries out some strategies the coach gives her to see whether they work for her.  Some have, some haven't.

In any case, as her parents, we are incredibly proud of all she's accomplished this season!

umm...yeah!  This is art!  What a cool photo!  Actually, I swung around as she passed me and I was trying to take the picture and see her time on my ipod at the same time!

Home Meet

Stats for the home meet:

Rose Bud again ran 5th on the team.  Varsity took 2nd place, as did JV.

RB placed 27th out of 76, which was her best place, and an improvement on her percentage.  She's been finishing abouth 50% of the way through the pack, and this was about the top 3rd of the field.  She's continuing to close in on the #4 runner, and the coach said this week that the team has narrowed their time between runner #1 and runner #5 to around two minutes.  Still a ways to go, but she's just a freshman.  Her time was 18:39--this was a slow course.

The bigger news was that the JV team finished an actual 1, 3 & 4 in their race.  Rose Bud was still faster than the #1 JV runner, but only by about 20 seconds.

Here's how the times shook out:
V #1
V #2
V #3
V #4
Rose Bud
JV #1
JV #2
JV #3
V #6
V #7

The top seven run varsity next week.

That means there will be 4 freshman and 3 seniors running varsity this week!  That's pretty exciting!

RB's goal is to keep ahead of the #6 runner (who did beat her in several races last year) and to keep up with the #4 runner.

Will keep you posted!

Banana Boy: On Sports

Banana Boy:  I LOVE Track!  I love the long jump and those soccer goals.

Me:  Soccer goals?

BB:  You know--like soccer goals but they don't have nets.

Me:  ????

BB:  They run and they jump over them!

Me:  HURDLES!

BB:  Yes!  Hurdles.  I love those.

pause for reflection and dishwasher loading.

BB:  Do they do anything else for cross country?

Me:  What do you mean, anything else?

BB:  Extra stuff.  Like... handstands.

You all go off and picture that now.

Recent Two Meets

Rose Bud continues to run varsity.  At Saturday's meet, her goal was to keep the team's #4 runner in sight.  In actuality, she almost BEAT her!  They were neck in neck at the finish and #4 saw her coming and put on a little burst of speed to edge Rose Bud out by .6 of a second.  RB's time was 17:34 -- a whole minute faster than last week!

Rose Bud is the red runner on the left

At the mid-week meet, it was set up for a Freshman/Sophomore race and a Jr./Sr. race rather than varsity and JV.  She still ended up as the 5th team-runner, time-wise with a time of 17:42.

Flying

53rd out of 112. This race was a true 4K (last meet was only a 3200m, or 2 mi.) and her time was 18:31 (last meet was 15:31).

She placed 5th on the team and looked great at the finish. She maybe has a little more in her!

And She's Off!

A new cross country season has begun.  Time trials were Saturday and Rose Bud made varsity for the first meet.  Whether you are on the varsity or JV team changes meet-to-meet, based on your performance at the previous meet.  So you can move up or down throughout the season.

Top seven runners (both boys and girls) make varsity.  Rose Bud finished 5th, so she easily qualified, although 3 girls with potential to make varsity were not at the time trials.

In any case, she qualified for the season's first meet.

And the results:
Both varsity girls and JV girls finished 4th in team competition.

Rose Bud moved up throughout the race from 58th near the start to 46th about 3/4 of the way to finish 39th out of 75-80 runners.  She doesn't have her official time yet, but I clocked her at about 15:30. 

Varsity/JV placing is based on times. There were 3 varsity runners on her team who finished ahead of her and one of our JV runners (one who missed the time trials--a senior) WON the JV race with a better time than Rose Bud.

So time-wise, it LOOKS like she finished 5th within her team, which would put her on varsity again for Saturday.  We'll find out tomorrow.

In any case, she ran great, felt great afterward and was very happy with her race.  And she had fun.

All this after I dropped a dresser on her foot this morning.

We're moving bedrooms since Mr. GT and I are moving up to our now-finished attic.  Daisy & Pepper are moving into our old room.  Sunshine is moving into their room (from a shared room with Banana Boy).  Rose Bud is staying put, but got a new dresser the girls no longer needed.

All week we've been hauling and packing and shuffling and moving.  Today I was taking a dresser downstairs and it got stuck in the stairwell.  I had RB helping me juggle it around and it squashed her foot on the stairs.  Oops.

In her quest for ice for her foot, she jiggled something in the freezer so that it no longer closed properly.  I started poking around in there to fix whatever was blocking the door when a popsicle fell out onto the floor.  I bent down to pick it up and when I stood up--BAM!! I slammed my head into the corner of the freezer door.  I felt the pain on the opposite temple, actually.  Brain-jostling. 

While I was hopping around screaming "OW," RB said, "Mom, look at me."  I turned toward her and she said, calmly, "There's blood running down your head."

Payback, definitely, for smashing her foot.  She stayed far away from the furniture-moving for the rest of the day.