Bragging

It appears that my boys are really runners.  We realized two years ago that Elijah ran a fast mile in school, and he wanted to join the school's cross country team last year, but due to construction, it wasn't offered last year.  So this fall, I signed him up, and Malachi surprised me by wanting to join, too.  We've only recently been able to guess that Malachi might be pretty quick himself, but we weren't too sure.  They started practice a couple of weeks ago,and here were the complaints after the first day: "We only ran one mile!" (Elijah) and "It was kinda boring." (Malachi)

So I wasn't really sure how this would all pan out.  Now, however, I'm not getting any complaints from them.  Elijah has been in first place by nearly a minute for the last two days, including the official race day.  He got a medal for being first - with a 7minute 30 second mile on a grassy, uneven course!  We already knew he could run, though, so although we were surprised that he was so fast, we weren't surprised that he was at the front of the pack.  Malachi shocked us, though, by running an 8minute 24 second mile!  He was only about 10 seconds slower than second place, and only 4 seconds behind third. (And he tied for second place the day before race day.)    He wants to improve next week so he can get a medal (top 3 get medals).  I'm so amazed at how fast they can run.  And you should see the little bitty kids - the kindergarteners and first graders - running in cross country.  They are so cute and so tiny, running the same course as the big kids!  The coach is really postitive and encouraging to all the kids, and they seem to all be enjoying it.  I would have never guessed that I'd have elementary-school-aged cross country runners, but here we are.

  (And now Elijah thinks he'd like the travel team better than the intramural one.  Maybe if they offer it again in spring...)