Fall Tradition

 Every fall, my dad and Mary Lou have come to visit. They didn't disappoint this year! Usually, they don't come over General Conference weekend, but they did this time. And usually, there's a XC meet on General Conference Saturday, but there wasn't this time. While we really wanted them to have a chance to see Austin run, they only got to see Erik run at the dual meet on Tuesday. Austin doens't usually run in the dual meets because Coach wants to save him for the invitationals on Saturdays where he gets the biggest bang for his buck. 

At the dual meet Erik had a great race to showcase for Grandma and Grandpa. The race was a combination of Varsity and JV runners. Erik came in 6th for our team at 18:28 and 18th overall. After Grandma and Grandpa left, I attended the Portage meet with Austin, 2 hours away and the bigeest meet in the state of Michigan, even bigger tha States since that one requires qualifying for it, where our top 7 guys ran with the fastest runners in the state, including the fastest guy in the nation, who's not in Austin's division, but faster than every single highschool runner in the US. It was a hot, tough course and unkown to our guys. Austin didn't run his best, though 15:46 is still crazy fast. He placed 13th and won a medal. Meanwhile, Erik and Jason were at the Wayne County Chamionships, which our team hosts. The rest of our Varsity and our JV went there. Jason was the mc. Erik had a great race, winning 2nd place of the JV with a 18:06 time and a PR for him. 

Tuesday's dual meet.

Big fans!

Saturday's meet

Lots of fast runners here.

Erik's Saturday medal.

Aside from XC, we had fun with Grandma and Grandpa attending the cider mill, shopping at Kohl's (only I am privileged with that trip!), walking around Downtown Plymouth, enjoying General Conference, playing games, seeing Austin off for HOCO, and going to lunch (for Jason and me) and breakfast (for Kade on the way to the airport with them). The weather was about as nice as it can be, though I think they wanted some rain. We got no rain, but had beautiful, sunny fall weather in the 70s, mostly.

We're so happy they could still come and see us, even as they are aging!

We ate dinner outside a few times because it was so nice!

Plymouth Apple Orchard for cider and donuts!

HOCO!

The guys

Erik went to a different HOCO a week earlier and he didn't want much fanfare.

General Conference. We also watch Ellie, our neighbor's dog, during part of their stay here. 

Ellie is good at begging!

At the Downtown Plymouth pumkin/scarecrow display.  I loved the tributes to Dolly.

And this was a new, fun display.

Lunch with Dad and Mary Lou. 

Outside the restaurant.

All Good Things

 I found Austin's interview from last week's meet and it was pretty easy to insert here, so I did! 

Not only that, but we're pretty excited about his race yesterday. I went to the Jackson Invitational with a good feeling, after watching how he raced last week at Holly. He's got all the tools he needs and he can keep up with the best of them. So when he shaved 33 seconds off his PR to get him a 15:06 finishing time, plus a 20 second crushing of the all-time Salem record, I wasn't surprised. As I've said in the past, the Jackson meet is always a fast one, so we thought he would probably PR, though I didn't think he would crush the record just yet. It all makes sense, though. Last year he ran Jackson super sick, and that was his last PR. He kept getting sick all season, so he never had a chance to really show up. Now, thanks to all the viatmins he's taking (thanks for helping, Dr. Uncle Thomas!) and the gargling, neti pot, and extra healthy diet, he's making leaps and bounds! His teammates all had some incredible PRs as well and we're so happy for all of them!

Here, you can see Austin in white on the right. He's right up in front with the fastest guys!

He came in 5th with this final push at the end!

Many happy guys with their PRs! Their team came in 4th. 

And so happy that Jack is BACK! He was struggling all of last year with some health issues.

Erik ran on Tuesday at the dual meet and continues to surprise us. He not only majorly bumped up his miles and work-out efforts in practice over the past couple of months, but he wakes up every morning at 5:20 to make it to seminary on time with Austin. They're gone almost 12 hours each day, finishing their day with their xc work-out or run. His heel was hurting a week ago, but he has managed that through icing and his gell inserts that he had during soccer when he was running in middle school and practicing for soccer at the same time. So, the gell inserts help when his mileage is high. The varsity didn't run at the dual meet on Tuesday, so Erik was our first Salem runner to finish, taking first for our JV, as a freshman, yet again. He was 9 seconds off his PR, to which he felt discouraged and kept saying he went out too fast. We assured him that he can't, and won't, PR every time and that he did so very well with the fast runners he was up against.

That's Erik with some of the varsity runners from some of the fastest teams!

A good, solid finish!

 

Brighton, one of the schools we ran against on Tuesday, is considerded one of the fastest in the state. Northville, the other team, is the defending state champ, but our team is ranked ahead of them now. Our varsity will run against them in an invitational coming up soon. Coach wanted them to be fresh for Jackson on Saturday. Our JV were supposed to run again in the JV meet for Jackson on Friday, but too many guys were sick and a bunch didn't show up on Tueday (a lot without telling Coach). It seems many of our JV aren't quite as serious as Coach would like them to be, so he pulled them out of Jackson's meet Friday. Erik was a great support and manager to the varsity and we're happy he got this time to rest and prepare fot the next meet, which is like 10 days away! 

We enjoyed the nice temperatures and sunshine at the meet yesterday. We went out to brunch afterwards with Austin's teammate and good friend, Sam and his family. Meanwhile, Kade had a fun day at the Renaissance Festival with his friends. He got good food, saw lively entertainment, and was in excellent company with his friends. He only got me one pic, though. His artisitc abilities with never cease to amaze me, even with face paint. 

My big head is blocking Jason a bit. We wore our blue proud at Bob Evans!

Kade was a jester at the Ren Fair.

Kade also has been holding down the fort while we're off at all these meets. He's mowing the lawn and caring for the kitties, among his other house jobs. Kade is also Luke's favorite person!

Victoria went to the pumpkin patch out in Idaho with her friends, and Cole. She has informed us of her success back in the dance world. She tried out and made 2 hip hop numbers, one modern, and one jazz (which happens to be the one Cole is choreographing, but he didn't choose his dancers). She said she found muscles thst she forgot she had! She's been sick this week and ended up in the ER last night where they pumped her with fluids because she was really dehydrated, among other things. Last I knew when I woke up this morning, she was home and feeling much better. When she wakes, I'll get another update. We're hoping for a better week healthwise for her, but other than that, these have all been good things for my kids. 

Holly

 The Holly Invitational is known for being one of the toughest courses around here. Many runners and former runners (often coaches now) despise the course. It not only has many inclines and declines, but they are all at a slant. The few times the spectators see the runners are when the course is flat, otherwise, their ankles and feet are at odd angles. The course is rated at a more difficult level because of this.

The past 2 years that Austin ran at Holly (looks like he didn't run it his freshman year), he had really good races, despite the fact that it was incredibly hot those two races. I remember because I was at Erik's soccer games both times and melting, worrying about Austin in those racing condidtions, and the soccer players as well. Even still, he got his first sub 17 his sophmore year and then a PR his junior year. This year, the tough course had to throw a different ball at the runners and Mother Nature decided to be a comfortable running temperature, but bring on constant rain. No matter for Austin. He somehow manages to pull it through at Holly. While it may be everyone else's least favorite course, I think it might secretly be his favorite. He not only came in first for the division one varsity boys, but he beat the 2nd place runner by 22 seconds! His time was 15:47. One of the guys he beat had a preseason rank of #12 in the state and the other #25. Austin was ranked 35. With the fastest time of Division 1 and 2, he also won Runner of the Meet. Someone interviewed him right after his win, so maybe I'll post it when I see it. 

He wasn't the only one in our household with an amazing race yesterday. Erik also defied the mud and small streams, downslopes, and rough terrain. He ran a PR at 18:20, finishing 2nd for our team of the JV. He earned his varsity letter and a medal for finishing in the top 35. He said, while running down the first hill, (halfway sliding through the mud), that a teammate slipped and fell down, and continued down the hill sliding on his butt. That runner slipped and fell 8 times during the course!

If you copy and paste the link below into your browser, you'll see Austin's post from Instgram of someone's video of the runners yesterday right after they passed the opening crowds and narrowed down for the course, while running downhill, turning for the curve at the same time. I have a hard time finding Austin without him showing me, but you can see a runner that falls, and gets back up, after Austin accidantly bumped his arm. Austin even apologizes for that in his interview! (We'll see if thay keep that part in.)

https://www.instagram.com/stories/austinmer_xc/3989877578268727037?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&stkn=eGpnaXhiOXFhN2Ni

A spectator part that doesn't look too bad during Erik's run.

Almost the exact same place for Austin, a few races later, after hundres more ran. The course was defientely worse by the time he ran.

Austin's run through some mud after the above photo was taken. The little stream he went over wasn't there when Erik ran through there.

His interview at the end.

Erik's bestie twins that he's been running against for all of middle school, still run against him, but still best of friends.

Here's the awards ceremony.

Below is when they honored Austin for being Runner of the Meet. There was a female, too.

Salem Varsity also came in 3rd place out of 23 teams.

Our top 3!

Coach JG!

Some are muddier than others...

Off to a Great Start!

 Coach JG really thinks our varsity xc team can be number 1 in the State. He's excited that he finally has a group of athletes who believe they can do it too. Since he has waaay more expertise in this than I do, I believe he is correct, but I also don't know exactly how the progression works in a runner's body with training and timing. I do know, and have seen among many people, injuries, falling out, and pure exhaustion. While I have faith and hope in these boys, I have to admit that I have a lot of fear too. Fear that now that we have so much potential, can we live up to it? How much assurity can I put behind it when one small, or large, injury can make all the difference and then all hopse are dashed to pieces? That's the case, for me, with our team and with Austin, he being the number 1 runner on our team. 

This is in the school hallway. As we said before, Austin's PR is the 4th best in our school history!

The funny thing is, I don't think he feels the pressure like I think he might, but I feel it! Jason said it perfectly when he said that Austin is like a duck with water off it's back. He's just really calm and relaxed about it. Nothing gets to his head. 

With this power team year, Coach started things off differently. He held his first xc camp a few weeks ago, at the end of summer break. He had openings for 10 athletes. Most of the fastest were able to attend, but there were a couple of openings that weren't filled by other varisty athletes, so Erik got to attend, which worked out nicely since Jason helped plan and carry it out. He was also a chaperone. 

They got to ride on a ferry to Beaver Island, where the camp was held.

They stayed here.

The weekend of the camp was the weekend of the first meet in the area, so our boys didn't run that, nor did they run any other meet in the couple weeks after. The first meet our varsity runners competed in was on Friday, the 11th, at the Spartan Invitational, at Michigan State. It's a pretty big meet with multiple races, inlcuding college level, which also means more college coaches attend it. There were even runners from Tennessee! Since our varsity boys are pretty fast this year, they qualified to enter into the elite race. The meet was at noon on Friday. Since I had the excuse of work and was sure my nerves wouldn't allow me to relax, I decided to use work as an excuse and stay back from the meet. (It's almost 2 hours away, so it wasn't like I could even drive over real quick if I changed my mind). With Austin being injured most of track season and this being his first race of this season, I just didn't know what to expect.  

Turns out that Austin ran really well! He came in 8th with a 16:01. The course they ran on was a tough one. Apparently, the courses have rankings on toughness, so if he ran what he did on a different course, it would have been a faster time. His team came in 3rd, earning themselves a trophy! They could have come in first, if one of their runners didn't get a foot cramp and drop out, but we're happy it was only a cramp and not an injury! Austin was approached by the coach of Wayne State University. He was impressed with Austin's performance and gave him his card.

Sam and Austin got individual medals and hats. 

Austin's making a funny face here for our friends who are very big Spartan fans and do not like U of M. Our family is more of a U of M family because Jason got his masters there, but we're fine with Michigan State. We're just teasing them because of all the Spartan awards here!

The next day was the rest of the team's first meet of the season at our annual Rambling Rock at which our team hosts. So it meant a lot of work for us, but it's fine. Jason helped man the sound system with the generator that we brought. He also helped with t-shirt sales. I was on flag duty, as I have been for the past handful of meets at Willow Metropark, so I just watch the runners go by and move the flags over for the final chute for them to cross the finish line. I probably said this before, but I really like this job because I get to see everyone go by, cheer them on, and still see my own runners. I always bring my bike so I can hop on and ride over to the hill to cheer on at a tough spot and still get back to my post in time. 

This was Erik's first highschool meet. I wasn't nervous for him because he doesn't carry the pressure of the fastest yet, but he did prove himself in the freshman race coming in 2nd with a 19.01, a PR for him. He was more than a full minute ahead of the guy behind him. Coach was happy with Erik's debut run!

He was neck and neck with a number 1 most of the race. 

Number 1 changed, though.

On his own for the end!

So, looks like we're off to a great start this season. I will try to keep my nerves in check for Austin's races and keep making lots of food for my boys to consume all the good calories they need.