Yesterday was Miss Kat's first ever track meet. She ran in three events, the 800 relay, the open 200 and she ran the starting leg in the 800 medley relay. She was eager for us to get there to watch her, but we weren't sure we'd make it. (One of the drawbacks of working out of town is that we might get off work at 5, but we still have a 30 minute drive ahead of us. I realize that many commuters in cities have that amount of time to drive in the same town they live in, but it's a new experience for us.)
Anyway, we hurried as much as we could and got home right before she ran in her first event, the 800 relay. We first saw Miss Kat as she was in her lane, getting ready to run. I told Kev that it was her over there on the other side of the track, but he didn't think I was right...I was.
We stopped and watched her run. she came around the corner, running hard. Kev hollered "Go Kat." She heard him and turned to look. I then yelled "Go Kat, don't look at me." But she did. (After the meet, we had to explain that turning your head affects your time. She thinks were wrong about that, so I'll just leave it to her smarter-than-parents-coach to explain the dynamics of running and turning your head.)
She didn't do bad competing against 7th and 8th graders. But her legs are considerably shorter than most of the other girls we watched run. To stay competitive, she's either going to have to grow, or she's going to have to move those short legs really fast!
A nice surprise for me was seeing friends and people from home at the meet. There was a "Big E" corner with Faye and Frosty, Wes and Rhonda, Gayla and her Kevin, and Chuck and Gloria. And, I immediately felt bad, because I should have called my folks to come to the meet to watch. I'm just not used to being close to family who might be willing and able to watch my kids compete! So, Kev and I stood with the Big E group and visited and watched our little girl.
The funnest part was that everyone in the Big E group asked which house south of town was ours. We both turned to the south, pointed and said "That brown house right over there." Everyone replied, "Oh. Well, that's real convenient, isn't it!" Kev and I had to laugh. We knew their reaction, we've had it ourselves as we drove by the school heading south out of own. You can't see our house when driving from the south, but you can see it looking south from town. Of course, all these folks don't live IN Big E...they all live 15 to 20 miles out, so to be able to see our house from town and from the track meet was a novelty for us all. Hey, when you live or grew up in the boonies, little things like that mean something!
Ok, back to Miss Kat. Her 800 relay team took 2nd place. She didn't place in the open 200, as they combined all ages, 6th grade, 7th grade, and 8th grade. I can't even tell you her time, she didn't stick around to find out. Her medley relay team took 4th place. Not bad. The relay teams have only worked on hand offs once. They need to work on that, it was obvious as they had bad hand offs every race. And, Miss Kat needs to learn how to use starting blocks, and she needs to learn NOT to look at those who are cheering her on. But still, it was her first ever track meet. She learned a lot and she had fun. That's the most important thing; having fun.
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