Lia's XC League & District Meets

I have been so impressed with Lia as she has made it through the busiest two months of her life as she has had to juggle early-morning seminary, school, XC practice 5 or 6 days a week, and play practice 3 to 4 days a week on top of completing her homework every day.  Although she has been able to keep up with this grueling schedule and also has been able to maintain straight As, it has definitely started to take its toll on her.  Lia is absolutely exhausted and, although she can sleep in on the weekends and has even started taking a Saturday or Sunday afternoon nap, her running is starting to be impacted which isn't the best timing as the post-season began on October 22nd with the League meet and continued on October 29th with the District meet.  Both of these meets were very large and exciting to run at, but unfortunately, Lia wasn't able to perform like she had hoped.  Since she has been able to PR at every single meet this season, Lia had hoped to be able to continue this pattern at both of these meets.  Although the rain held off until after her race, she ran her 5K in the exact same time (down to the second) at the League XC meet at Ft. Steilacoom Park in Lakewood on the 22nd.  Although her time was not worse than her PR, she was pretty disappointed with her performance and asked us to immediately take her to play practice 20 minutes early since she didn't feel like doing her cool-down run with the rest of her teammates.

After another hard week of training with her team this past week, Lia headed off today to the big District meet at the beautiful Chambers Bay park right on the Puget Sound with high hopes for getting a new PR.  However, all of these weeks of burning the candle at both ends finally caught up with her as she suddenly and unexplainably started crying after starting her race.  So the poor girl had to run the majority of her 5K with tears streaming down her face.  As a result, this total emotional release slowed her pace down by 40 seconds which was slower than Lia's first 5k time back in September and was totally devastating to her.  She disappointed herself, her teammates, and her coach.  So, needless to say, Lia's first experience running at Districts was not the positive one she hoped for.

So after some long pep talks this week from us, we are hoping that Lia can turn it around and finish strong this coming weekend at the State Championship Meet in Pasco.  Although we are leaving the three younger kids behind with my brother's family, Ron and I are driving the 3.5 hours each way to cheer her on.  I hope and pray that Lia can run well this weekend and be proud of her performance so that she can finish the season on a positive note and give herself the confidence that she needs to start off her track season in a few months.  Time will only tell...  

October 22nd:

League Meet at Ft. Steilacoom Park

Lia and the rest of the girls at the start of the race.

Lia running by us right after beginning her run.

Lia running after her teammate, Kiley, at the one place where we were able to see her run between the start and finish point of the race.

Another shot of Lia as she ran by us half way through the 5K.

Lia running towards the finish line.

Lia approaching the finish line.

October 29th:

Districts Meet at Chambers Bay in University Place

Lia's coach leading the girls' Varsity team in a cheer minutes before the race started.

The girls waiting at the starting point for the race to begin.

Lia running by us at one of three points we were able to see her between the start and the end of the race.

Lia running by us another time.

Lia running towards the finish line.

Lia approaching the end of the race.

The girls team with their four XC coaches after learning that they qualified for state.

A pretty sad Lia posing with Emmett at the end of her race.