Although Emmett is not running with his running club this fall due to playing soccer, he had the opportunity to run in the Fort Steilacoom Invitational today when Logan's club opened up this meet to siblings of members. Since Emmett's soccer game wasn't until a few hours later, he agreed enthusiastically to run the 1-mile, youth race which was for runners in grades Kindergarten through 5th grade. Since Emmett has never trained with the running club this fall, he has never even had the chance to practice running one mile on a cross country course which is full of hills, grass, and uneven terrain. But being true to Emmett's form, he just went for it. Since he only ran a 1-mile course instead of a 2-mile course (like Logan), I only saw him take off from the starting line and run past me at the finish line. You can imagine my surprise when I saw him rounding the corner to head for the finish line after just a few runners had passed me. Since Emmett is so young and a completely inexperienced, long-distance runner, I was blown away when I saw him cross the finish line with the timer showing 7:24! Afterwards, I learned that he came in 13th place out of 54 runners, the majority of which are older than him. He also beat several runners on his team who have been training three days a week for several weeks. When I made it over to the finish line, I found a very upset and crying Emmett being comforted by Logan who had luckily found him before I had gotten there. He immediately said to me, "Every part of my body hurts right now!" As sad as this was to hear, I almost wanted to burst out laughing as I realized that this poor boy had no idea what it felt like to race in a long-distance meet as running short distances at track meets last spring had been his only experience with running. He just gave it his all and did such an amazing job, especially considering how young he is. It's just a shame that Emmett plays soccer in the fall as I think this boy has the potential to be a powerhouse, long-distance runner!
Emmett running down the straight away towards the finish line.
Battling it out against another runner.
Emmet sprinting past me. Look at that running form!
Approaching the finish line with 7:17 on the clock.
A not-so-happy Emmett posing with his proud, older brother after his race was over. Logan also did a great job and ran his 2-mile race in 14:24 and came in 18th place out of 135 runners.
Logan's age group (Middle School Boys) came in 2nd place for their all-around, team score. They were awarded a trophy at the little awards ceremony afterwards and Emmett was able to go up with the older boys and stand on the stage with them. By this time, Emmett had perked up and was very happy with his performance, especially after learning what a great job he had done. As we were leaving the meet, he said to me in the car, "Sometimes when I was running, I would just zone out and forget what I was doing. I felt like I was running on clouds before I remembered that I was running in a race." Now if that really was the case, long-distance running sounds really dreamy...but I know better.
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