After another successful spring of lunchtime running (both boys completed the 20 miles necessary to collect the water bottle), it was time to head into Lansing for the Michigan Mile. But first….let’s start with the boy that can’t run the Mile anymore
Chieftain Challenge: As I think I’ve mentioned here before, the middle schools have an end-of-year event where the students who qualify with fast mile times run a mile with their friends cheering them on. Kevin easily qualified again this year, and he ran the Challenge on Friday. He’s been running the mile in track all of this spring, and I think his best time was 5:44…he finished here in 5:51.
As with most track/running events, there’s lots of pictures and happily, there are two pretty decent ones of Kevin.
Getting ready to start (this isn’t one of the decent pictures). Guess I should give him another second or two on his time since it’s obvious he started near the back….)
Early in the race. Kevin wasn’t happy with the green/orange theme for the shirts this year (the girls wore orange with green print).
And at the finish
Christopher: Not very happy to be running the Mile…not very happy to be running it without Matthew. But he did really well, finished in 7:29, which isn’t the world’s greatest time but an improvement on last year and about all that we can ask for; he’ll never be that small speedy kid that’s for sure.
We traditionally ask the boys to not wear the race shirts the day of the race; it makes them harder to pick out. Christopher is in red in this picture about five rows back and just doesn’t seem very happy to be there.
Go!
And he’s off!
Matthew: A lot of pre-race hype from this kid on how he’ll finish; first is the goal! Told him, like we told Kevin (and we’ll go into this more in Kevin’s triathlon post) that we’re just happy that he’s doing it. But hey, it’s fun when you’re in front, right?
Matthew started the race about as far back in the pack as Christopher was; navigated by a few accidents as people fell and headed out on the course. You can see them run by on the street outside the stadium from inside the stadium in one point…Matthew is fourth.
I’m videotaping (this video, along with a bunch of others, is coming…) and have the camera trained on the entrance in centerfield. 10 kids come in, no Matthew. 30 kids come in, no Matthew. It’s not that far from where we saw him back to the entrance…what happened?
Matthew finally shows up; he’s holding his side, it’s obvious he cramped up. Might be the only time ever that Christopher finishes a foot race ahead of Matthew…..
Matthew is almost inconsolable afterwards (learned a lesson here, take the picture of the boys together pre-race…). Turns out he fell as well, he said a kid pushed him as they went around a corner. Completely distraught that he didn’t do like he wanted to……
getting ready to go….
and starting….
Video coming soon.
