XC Update

Another post on Austin's latest and greatest. I'm trying not to post too much about it on social media because I don't want to bombard everyone with his progress since he gets a PR every race. He has so many friends who run XC, and they're all doing so well. I don't want them to feel like we're boasting. I also don't want to jinx it, but here's the scoop.

Last Thursday evening, he started to develop a sore throat. When he didn't feel well on Friday morning and ended up coming home from school early that day, we got a little worried. The big Jackson invitational was the next day, and it is a huge meet where many of the fastest schools in the area race. It's also a fast course, meaning the way it's laid out (turns, hills, ground cover) is all easier to navigate for a runner, so many of them receive faster times. It's a good indicator of how runners could do at States, if they make it there. 

Since Austin was pretty much sick the entire season last year, I was really hoping he could last a longer time without catching anything. The school nurse said he had a fever and thought he may have strep throat. Jason made an appointment for him, which I took him to later when I returned from work. They did the strep test, which was negative. The doctor said it was probably viral and that he could do whatever he felt good enough to do.

Our plan was to feed him a good dinner, have him rest, and then go to sleep early Friday night. We would see how he was on Saturday morning. He told Coach that if he felt good enough, he would be there.

I made homemade spaghetti sauce with the tomatoes and basil from our garden, to which we added a ton of garlic. We also made fresh garlic bread, with extra garlic as well. I can't remember what veggie we had with it, probably green beans. Jason prepared an electrolyte drink for him for the next morning, in case he went to the meet. It had an electrolyte tablet, a scoop of lemonade, sea salt, and vitamin C powder. He also prepared a nasal rinse for Austin in a neti pot, which was a saline rinse (the two of them have been using a neti pot very often since last year, when they both kept getting sick). Austin gargled with salt water that included apple cider vinegar, and I made him a fresh lemon tea with cinnamon and honey. We gave him ibuprofen, magnesium, and melatonin so he fell asleep easily, and he woke up feeling decent, so off we went to the meet.  

Of course, I wasn't sure if he really was okay or just wanted to go to the meet. I had no idea how his run would be. Last year, he managed many PRs, sometimes when he was feeling the worst, but he has since passed those PRs and is hoping for even faster times. 

Let me tell you something about this Jackson race. As I said, it's a fast race and it is very noticeable as a spectator! It was the first race Austin ran varsity in last year that I attended. It's like a huge stampede of super-fast high school boys all clumped up, especially in the front. You don't dare cut across the course until most of that front group flies by, and even then, you never know who's coming around the corner! It surprised me last year, and I noticed the same thing this year. Other varsity races aren't like it. It's the only one where I fear cutting across the course.

At the start of the race, I could see Austin further back in the first 50 yards than he normally is. All those fast guys fight for their spots! At the first point, when we could see them about a 1/2 mile in, I was recording, expecting Austin any second about where he would be, but I didn't see him! Jack ran by, and then Sam, who are usually right behind him, but I didn't see Austin. I kept recording, thinking he just felt horrible and was at the very back, or worse, that he fell and injured himself, but I got to the last runners and never saw him. Then Jason and I were all confused and worried. We tried another location and still didn't see him. At this point, I checked my recording and saw that he was where we thought he would be, just on the outside, bunched in with some top runners. Then I lost Jason, so I saw Jack's dad sprinting to the next viewpoint, so I followed him. While I was running, up ahead I thought I saw a white runner (our team was in all white with a blue S) streak across the course before I definitely saw Jack in his white and then followed his dad again to the next spot. It was super crowded there (which is the other hard thing about this fast course- all the spectators!), so I was on my tiptoes trying to record the first group come by, but I didn't see him again! (He was in that recording, too, on the outside.)

(See if you can find him in the first video.)

https://youtube.com/shorts/_XEkNhaKbzc?feature=share

After that, I stood there, completely lost because I didn't know where Jason was, and I had no idea where to go for the next viewpoint. After only like a minute, I realized that the race was going to end soon, and I needed to just get to the finish line. I knew where that was! I dared to cut across the course so I could get a better view where there were fewer people. I was determined to see him this time!

I still didn't know exactly who he was running near or if he was even still feeling good enough to keep up with whoever he was with earlier. The first two freaky fast runners came in faster than 15 minutes. Then there were another 2 guys who came in about 15 seconds later, 5 seconds apart from each other, then 5 more came in about another 10 seconds later, more or less, and Austin was in that group! I had no idea what his time was at first, but he came in with determination! 

Here he is at the end, passing two big rivaling runners for him. 

When I found Jason a minute later, he told me of Austin's new PR, 15:40! He came in 9th place, and we were all stunned. That's really fast and another big PR by 34 seconds. His team came in 9th place as well. 

Currently, Salem is ranked 16th in the State, leading up to States, and number 1 in our Region. Right now, Austin has the 23rd fastest season record in the State, and he holds the fastest season record in our Region. He also has the 4th fastest time in Salem history. 

Michigan Cross Country Speed Ratings, a blog that focuses on Michigan XC, featured him this week on their Instagram page. And even the Activity Director from Salem, the one who tried to fire Coach Goodridge, stopped by Austin's math class a couple of days ago, to give him a card congratulating him on his 4th fastest time in Salem history and a t-shirt. We got a laugh out of that when he showed us because we're not too fond of that guy. 

MI Speed Ratings: Austin's sphiel is on the bottom left in blue. 

The shirt from the AD.

The Salem XC weekly email highlighting Austin. 

And Austin's health? Well, when we met up with him after his cool-down, he told us he felt pretty good, but his stomach hurt. I commented that he had just run his guts out (haha), but was glad to hear he felt decent otherwise. He rested the rest of the day and the weekend. By Monday, he seemed pretty good. He started coughing more again yesterday, but it has lessened again today. Luckily, they didn't have a meet today, so he's just been training this week. The next meet is on Tuesday, but it's only a dual meet, so it's a little more lowkey. We're excited to keep supporting him and his team. A couple of his teammates also had PRs last week. When the season is over, we plan on visiting the School Board again, thanking them for reinstating Coach's job and sharing with them all the amazing progress this season. 

Another Bang!

 Erik started the school year off with a bang, also. His cross-country training started on the 2nd day of school, but I had been encouraging him to do some training over the summer with his friends, just so that running wouldn't be so painful that first day. They run on his soccer team, but it's a little different when you get to a meet and are expected to run 2 miles straight!

His first meet was the very next week. His extra training paid off! He came in 6th place at 12:35 (a major PR for him from last year) and 1st place for his school, Discovery. The next week, he came in 3rd place at 12:31 and first for Discovery, again! 

He's behind his coach with the bucket hat, on the left. 

Coming in strong!

He has been learning a lot from Austin and from his own experiences in xc. 

Soccer started well with a 9-1 blowout. This is the first time Erik has been playing Center Defensive Mid (as in midfield). He gets to run around more, which also helps with his running, and he still plays his aggressive defense that he's so good at. This year's team is a "trap" team or a supplementary team. Since a lot of Erik's teammates are Freshmen and had the opportunity to try out for the high school, they combined the teammates from his age group who either didn't make the high school team, didn't try out, or are 8th graders, like Erik. After the HS soccer season, around November, they'll go back to the teams they were divided into in early June. So, for now, Erik's with some guys he's never played with. They lost their second game, 6-1, but hopefully they can learn from that and improve. It's so up and down right now, or maybe it always is. I'm new to this level of soccer. 

He's in the black, flying through the air, after a big kick!

(I took more videos of him playing than pics, but they're not uploading properly. So I'll post more pics another day.)

It's his last year in middle school, and we already know all his teachers. Either Victoria, Austin, or Erik himself had them. In the late spring of this school year, he has the opportunity to go on 2 major field trips. One for the 8th-grade band members to Toronto and one to Washington DC for the 8th graders of the whole school. Both are amazing opportunities, as well as lucrative. So we're getting ready to work hard on those fundraisers and find additional ways for him to make money.

 Goooo Eagles! (Discovery Eagles)

Starting Out With a Bang!

 The school year has barely started, but high school xc has been going strong for a while. Austin actually had a meet 2 weeks into August, called Lamplighter, that was at 11 pm. The very first race had to start under the lights, so that meant that the last race was super late. It was a humid night, not to mention extremely late, but he still did pretty well. I think he was hoping to do better, but for the first meet of the season, 16:52, 22nd place, was pretty good. 

It's called Lamplighter because it's with lights!

Owen and Austin

Isaac just graduated in June, but was there to cheer on the team before going off to BYU I.

They did some more training for the rest of the summer, and he came out with a bang for the first official race of the season at Rambling Rock, an invitational, where our team hosted. He came in 4th place at 16:17, and his team came in 1st! They all did so well and are now #1 in their Region. JV came in 2nd, and the Freshmen came in 1st as well. 

He's leading the pack here.

Coming in for the finish.

Here's an article that we found on a Michigan running blog. On the site, the title is "Solid Like a Rock," and our mascot is a rock. 

http://michigancrosscountryspeedratings.com/

"Just comparing opening sequences, you can see the rise. Two years ago, Mercado debuted his career with a 19:54 here. He began to show his talent later in the fall, then in track, breaking 5:00 in the 1600m as a 9th grader. That translated to cross, where he was on the cusp of breaking 17:00 here a year ago. The cusp then became a consistent mark, as Mercado closed the year with six consecutive sub-17’s. Now a new level, a 16:17 that matches where he was late last season. He’s always kept the rock rolling, so look for more down the road."

The day I read the blog was the next Tuesday, which was the day of the first dual meet. Austin came in 4th again at 16:16. The amazing thing about that race was that it was against Brighton, who is #8 in the State, and Northville,  #1. We lost to Brighton by 1 point at this meet, and the 3 guys ahead of Austin were the top runners at Northville, and he was able to stay with them most of the time. Jack and Sam, his teammates who are just behind Austin, were with them for a good part of the race as well. Again, so proud of our team!!

Jack, Austin, and Sam.

This was part of the last mile. I didn't get a photo near the finish line.

Today, the invitational was the hardest course in the area because of all the turns, rocks, and hills. Austin has a plantar wart on his left front ball, which hurts a bit. Nevertheless, he came in with another PR at 16:14! And 4th place, again! The varsity came in 3rd, and JV came in 4th (Freshmen are all in the JV when they don't have a specific race for them.) Austin got a t-shirt for finishing in the top 10, plus he got to keep the team trophy this time. The team captain, Sahib, got to keep the first one. There's another dual meet this Tuesday. I'm assuming Austin is running in it. Last year, his coach usually had him skip the dual meets and only run the invitationals, where it counts the most, since Austin's talent was just budding, and he kept getting sick. Coach didn't want to overwork him. Now, he's pretty solid, though. Solid like a Rock! 

This is the team trophy from today, Austin's medal from today on the left, and his medal for his jacket from last week's meet on the right. I didn't go today because I was at Erik's game. Jason got a good video of Austin's name being called for his medal today. More about Erik's progress next time!

I keep reminding him, however, that he doesn't have to be the fastest or the best for us to support him and be super impressed. We love seeing him at this level, but things can change quickly in xc, and I don't want him to get discouraged or feel like he's letting us down if he has a bad race. Running as much as they do is no joke. And running a 5k in under 21 minutes is amazing! The fact that he has moved up so quickly just blows my mind! (BTW, he is currently #52 in the State of Michigan.)

I also need to add a little blip for his coach. At the end of the school year, his contract wasn't renewed because the athletic director thought he was "hard to work with". The examples he gave were that he asked for more money for uniforms for all the guys in the no-cut sports of track and xc (meaning lots of guys are on the team), and he told the AD that the mat for high jump and pole vault was unsafe because there was a crack in it. The AD also said that the track team didn't make enough progress. (They had more guys go to States for track last season than ever before!) So the AD didn't renew the contract, but he didn't follow the standards of hiring a new coach 2 weeks later (he hired him the very next day), nor did he alert anyone on the school board of what was going on (also against the standards). Well, when some of us parents got word of this (no complaints by Coach, btw), we fought and we fought hard! Coach was one of the best college coaches in the Midwest for guys and girls (sometimes ranked The Best) for close to 20 years! I could go on and on, but I won't. This is his retirement job, coaching the high schoolers, and as you can see, he's doing a fantastic job!

Go Rocks!

Another School Year

 We started school on Tuesday.  Austin's a junior, and Erik's an 8th grader, so this is Erik's last year in middle school.  Then we'll only have high schoolers and college students-so weird!

Kade started at Schoolcraft College the week before and is taking math, English, astronomy,  and weather/climate.  He's enjoying the flexibility of his classes that don't require him to be at school for 7-8 hours, and he has Fridays off. He's looking to go to OU for a meteorology degree in a couple of years.

Schoolcraft- here we come!

Austin has some good classes, which include AP economics and AP literature, along with chemistry, pre-calculus/trig, computer-integrated manufacturing (with the STEM academy), and orchestra. He loved that in his STEM class, they made origami balloons last week. 

Erik is taking Spanish this year, which will be great, so everyone will have at least some Spanish knowledge, as Victoria's immersed in it in Mexico.  He's also taking English, US history, algebra,  science, and band. His sweet science teacher remembers Victoria and said that she's praying for her on her mission. 

With Austin's new-to-him car (thanks, Grandma Mary Lou and Grandpa Dave), a 2006 Honda Accord, my driving load is lighter. With Jason back at work full-time, rather than working a few days a week from home, I can get Erik to all of his soccer obligations without stressing about getting Austin to where he needs to go as well.

Austin's car is on the left, Kade's car on the right. Tie Fighter and Peppa, as we call them. 

 

Red Bell will be a little different this year. We have smaller numbers at the school because free preschool is being offered in Michigan. I actually have a decent-sized class myself at 25, but the other pre-K class had a few of those. The bosses decided to combine them into mine, and now the Blue Room teacher and I are co-teaching in my class. While we have to adjust and figure out how to work together,  it's going to be pretty good because we still have an assistant,  so our ratio is great.  We'll utilize the Blue Room as our STEM, music, and indoor PE room. This next week is my week to bring down small groups for some fun music, science,  and movement activities. I'm looking forward to it!

Happy school year!

Memories

 I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to mostly hang around the house while Victoria was doing home MTC. I also wanted to make sure my other kids got out and did some fun activities besides play games and watch missionary approved movies, which we didn't do as much as we thought we would. I had my dad and Mary Lou and then my mom here to visit with, so that kept me occupied as well. 

Here's a bit into the non-missionary parts of the second half of our summer.

Kade's been working at Zumiez at the mall, which he does very well at, and is the top sales associate and "folder" (he does the best job at folding the pants, a trait he inherited from Jason, no doubt!) He's had plenty of time for friends and started at Schoolcraft College last week. 

Austin's had the most consistent morning schedule. He has been attending the xc team work-outs/runs every morning, minus Sundays, at 8am. He returns usually no earlier than 10, so he's pretty worn out when he arrives home. By the time he's replenished his calories and had downtime, it's the late afternoon when he usually hangs with friends or does a job for me. 

They had a pre-season meet, called Laamplighter, under the lights late at night. He did pretty good. Can't wait to see him in the season.

Erik's been up and down with his workout regimen in the morning, but he's been spending most of his afternoons with friends. They usually ride their bikes to someone's house to play basketball, soccer, and/or football. Sometimes they get to swim. He's also been attending a summer book club with some friends. 

Erik went to Cedar Point with Victoria and her friends, as I mentioned in a previous post. Austin went a separate time, though he didn't send me pics, and Kade went a separate time. All of them had a blast at that amusement park!

Kade and his friends at Cedar Point.

Here are a couple of other pics with fun memories. 

Lunch with Grandma Mary Lou and Grandpa Dave.

A walk with Victoria.

Downtown Plymouth visit.

A bike ride with my mom.

Last, but not least, we went to the Tree Runner, which is a high ropes course with some ziplines, about 30 minutes away. We were supposed to go to the Kish's lakehouse one more time for part of Labor Day, but between Kade's work and Austin's workouts, in preparation for the big upcoming meet, the timing didn't work out. So, Saturday after the workout, we went and enjoyed the challenging courses together. Jason much prefers something like that to Cedar Point, so I was glad we could all have fun doing something thrilling. 

Of course, it had to end with a "bang" when Austin, trying the hardest course, lost some footing at the hardest point and went face-first into a wooden plank piece where his foot was supposed to be. Kade got to witness that one, not me this time. There was a lot of blood. He has a couple of bandage strips with glue on his face that the doctor thought would heal the best. Luckily, he already got his school pics taken!

I am definitely ready to end this summer and get back to school. Between everything involved with graduation for Kade and prepping Victoria for the mission, and all the emotions involved with both, I'm ready to get back to my little 4-year-olds!