States

 My friend who lives here, but is originally from Idaho, recently noticed that in Michigan we call state championship competitions "States", but in many states out west they are reffered to as "State". Just an interesting observation.

Our varsity xc team competed at States yesterday. A bunch of JV runners went along to support, including Erik, which was nice, since he had never been to watch Austin at States before as he always had a soccer game conflict. Ours boys traveled on the team bus, Jason travevled with another parent in our truck and all the gear which included the big tent, tarps, chairs, a table, and food for the athletes and parents to eat after the race and before awards. I traveled with the spouse who went with Jason so we could swap passengers when it was time to return home. 

It was a cold day, finally, which may have affected everyone more negatively than usual since it has been so hot recently. I know Austin prefers running in colder temps to warmer, so I think he was ok. In fact, the division 1 race was incredibly fast this year, so I guess they were all ok! The guy who came in first this year, also the one who came in first last year, ran the second fastest time in Michigan State meet history!

Austin was with the front guys for about half the race and slowed down a bit. His legs felt super tired, he says, but regardless, he ran so well! He came in 23rd with a 15:34. And some of his team members did better than they have been recently, so we were happy about that as well. The team placed 16th. Not the 3rd that they were hoping at the beginning of the season, but they all finished! (Something that hasn't been happening in some of the races). 

He's in the middle of the 2 guys with light blue and white on for the finish. It's such a hard meet to get good pics of because there are so many fast runners!

They all felt happy about their race, I think Austin was the least happy at first, though he was also the only one who won a medal, so he got over it. They took a nice close up picture of him receiving it which we'll hopefully receive soon. The medals were so cheap for a State medal and for not a great course, but whatever. 

Our varsity States team!

With Coach JG

The Senior runners there.

His journey has been incredible! Jason and I were reminiscing the other day about how Austin has always had such incredible athletic talent. He started riding his two wheeler at age 3, as well as was ice skating at age 4 so well that I decdied to put him in ice hockey. He has excellent body awareness, doing front flips and back flips on the trampoline, from a young age. I remember telling Jason that I thought he would make a fantastic gymnast when he got older because of how good his body control was. He tried every sport, including a dance class and a hip hop class. He ended up playing soccer the longest, and was good, but he didn't put his heart into it, like I felt Erik was doing (soccer was the only sport Erik played), so when he was in middle school and joined the xc team in 7th grade, I suggested he just finish out that year of soccer and just run in 8th and highschool because I was not going to pay for anymore soccer since he wasn't putting forth any extra effort outside of formal practices. (He didn't run in 6th grade because that was the virtual covid year and practices were on their own, which Austin wanted no part of). In xc in 7th grade he came in 106th in the district meet for middle school. All the friends on his team now came in at least the top 20. In 8th grade, he came in 17th, a huge improvement, while most of he friends came in top 10, at least. Freshman year's first meet he ran a 19:54, about a minute slower than what Erik ran his first freshman race. 

No one cold have predicted his huge successes his senior year. Each year, getting better and better. I remember when he came in 1st, by a landslide, at the first official meet his sophmore year, and that moved him right up to varsity. And yet still, I kept thinking each success was a fluke and it wouldn't continue on. I also was afraid. I was afraid of his success getting to his head, or letting him down harder when he couldn't keep it up. Like yesterday, I felt a little discouraged for him when he didn't get the PR or the placement he was hoping for. But then I was reminded that he is:

All Conference, Regional Champ, All State, and #1 on the Salem leader board! 

What a journey! And it's not over. He will run this Saturday in the Meet of Champions as an individual, Erik will too, and then he runs Thanksgiving Saturday in Wisonsin at the Brooks Midwest invitational that he was invited to. In the meantime, I need to keep up my training so I can sprint around the races to get the best views of him!