Lia's First District Track Meet

Although Lia has been participating in team sports since the second grade, her greatest athletic strength that we have noticed so far is running.  Although we have suspected that she is a strong runner, we really had no evidence of this until 4th grade when she started P.E. class at school.  As a result, Lia was able to easily see that she was the fastest girl runner in her class and was also faster than most of the boys.  However, since her school only allows 5th and 6th grade runners to compete in the Spring track season, Lia still had one more school year to wait to really put her running skills to the test.  After months of anticipation, Lia excitedly came home with the track info sheet in March.  I quickly filled out the form and sent it back to school with her.  When school started back up after Spring Break, track practices began once a week for the first two weeks and then two times a week until the district track meet in June.  Several of Lia's friends and classmates signed up to participate and Lia was so excited for the first practice! 
However, everything came crashing down when I picked her up from her second practice during the second week of the season and learned that she had injured her ankle trying out the long jump for the first time.  Being a busy, overwhelmed mom with a daughter that can have a tendency to be a bit dramatic when it comes to bumps and bruises, I brushed it off and told her that she would be okay.  Fast forward a week to the next Thursday when, just by coincidence, Lia had to skip track practice to go to her annual physical that I had scheduled weeks earlier.  While we were sitting in the waiting room, Lia casually mentioned that her ankle still hurt and asked if the doctor could look at it.  I was totally surprised to hear her say this as she hadn't mentioned her ankle hurting at all over the past week.  Once we got into the exam room and she took off her shoes, I noticed that Lia's ankle was swollen and bruised.  Needless to say, I felt so bad at that moment!  When the doctor looked at her ankle a few minutes later, she announced that Lia's ankle was indeed sprained.  Ugh.  She then said that Lia needed to take the next two weeks off from track which meant missing four practices.  If it no longer hurt once she started running on it, Lia could resume the track season, but if it continued to hurt, Lia needed to take another week off and go from there.  Lia and I were so disappointed to hear this news.  We couldn't believe that after waiting years to participate in track, Lia sprained her ankle during her second practice of the season! 
After two weeks of elevating and icing her ankle once or twice a day, Lia returned to track practice on May 13th and said that it felt okay.  She continued to attend her practices twice a week and was doing fine until the week before the track meet when it really started hurting again.  I was so worried that she would not be able to compete in the meet.  After having her sit out of P.E. class and skip her school's annual walk-a-thon that week (which was a major disappointment to her), Lia headed off to her track meet today with a hopeful heart.  Luckily, Ron was able to slip away from work to be there with me which was a huge help since I had Ella and the baby with me.  In addition, we were blessed with beautiful, Spring weather that was perfect for a track meet--sunny, but not too hot.  Lia was able to travel to the district stadium on a bus with the rest of her teammates where we met her 45 minutes after the track meet began at 1 p.m.  I was surprised at what a huge deal this meet is as it involves every elementary school in the district.  The stadium was packed and excited students were everywhere--sitting in the stands with their teammates or competing on the track in their events.  It was fun to watch Lia demonstrate school spirit and pride and to participate in a school sport for the first time.  Unfortunately, Lia's two events (the 4x100 relay and the 800 meter) were the last two events of the track meet and 5th grade girls were the last group to compete in these two events.  So, needless to say, it was a very long afternoon, but luckily both Ella and Emmett hung in there with little complaining and having Ron there to help with them made such a difference!  We were able to sit in the stands right where Lia received the baton for her relay and ran her 100 yards.  It was so exciting to watch her run and to cheer her on.  Out of all of the teams that competed in this event, Lia's team came in fourth place which meant she got a ribbon as the top 10 teams in each event got ribbons.  Lia also ran her heart out in the 800 meters, but unfortunately, she said that her ankle was really bothering her by this point.  Out of exactly 50 girls who raced in her heat, she came in 22nd.  Although she was really disappointed in performance, I was impressed that she beat over 50% of the girls running in this race.  Overall, Lia's first track meet was a really positive experience.  She really seemed to enjoy competing in the events and being with her teammates and I was just grateful that she was even able to run in the meet in the first place.  Here's to hoping that her ankle will heal quickly and allow her to give future track seasons her all!

Lia waiting in the stands for her events to begin with two of her friends, Allison and Sienna.

Lia getting ready to receive the baton in the 4x100 relay.

Allison running around the bend to Lia.

Lia starting to run,

grabbing the baton,

and taking off!

Lia looking right at me as she ran her first lap around the track in the 800 meter race.

Lia running in the pack.

Another shot of Lia as she passed me.

Continuing down the straight away.

Lia running her second lap around the track with the group of runners who had definitely thinned out from the first lap of the race.

Lia running hard!

Lia showing off her 4th place ribbon at the end of the meet.  Good job, Lia!  We're so proud of you for pushing through the pain and giving it your all!