Miss Kat shines...

Usually, when I blog about Miss Kat, it's about her driving me nuts, or something along those lines. After all, it's not easy living with a stubborn, independent, strong-willed female teenager who is 1000 times smarter than her parents. And if you think I'm exaggerating, just ask Miss Kat. She'll tell you how difficult is is to live with the meanest parents in the world who are woefully small minded and not very bright.

But, today, I'm not going to write anything negative about Miss Kat. Because yesterday, I watched her run.

And when she runs, it's poetry in motion.

Kat's been frustrated in track this year. The girls have had a couple of really good relay races in which they either tied school records or meet records. And, they were looking forward to breaking those records. But, the track meet in which they thought they had nailed the record...that track meet ended early due to a thunderstorm that rolled inconveniently in 2 events before the medley relay. The girls lost their chance to get the record.

The next week, their coach decided to shake things up, and broke up his potential record-breaking team. Two of the girls were moved to the hurdles, and another to the 400. Kat remained in the relays, but she became anchor for the team and was placed with slower runners. Instead of winning relays, the new team placed lower--anywhere from 5th up to 2nd.

Yesterday, Kev and I went to the League track meet in Jetmore. We missed the 4 x 100 relay, which placed 2nd overall. We did get to watch Kat run both the 4 x 200 and the Medley relays. In the 4 x 200, (or 800 meter relay as we called it in the dark ages...) Kat was the anchor. When she got the baton, she was in last place. By the time she finished her leg, she had moved up to 4th place. She just ran the pants off the other girls in her leg and just passed girl after girl and if she had a few more yards to run, she'd have passed the girl in 3rd place.

She did the same thing in the Medley. In the medley relay, the runners run 100, 100, 200, and the anchor runs the 400 meters. Kat was supposed to run the 400, but she's strained a thigh muscle, so coach had her run the 200 instead. And, again, she gained so much ground and time, moving the team into 3rd. Unfortunately, the girl who did run the 400 pooped out and dropped them back to 5th place. Hey, she'd just run the open 400 dash 15 minutes earlier, so she was tired!

But, it was wonderful watching Kat stretch out those long legs and flat run. It was amazing to see how smooth her stride is, how relaxed she looks running. She's a beautiful runner and I was so proud of her.

I hope she continues to run, although right now, at the end of track season, she says she's not going out next year. I hope she changes her mind, because I think she's got potential to break some records. Besides, she's beautiful when she's running and I like watching her shine. It makes me think that maybe all the angst of living with a female teenager just might be worth it in the end.