Track Season

I was just sitting here adding in the dates on my online calendar for upcoming track meets for 2 of our kids. Chelsea feels the same way about running that I do "If the house ain't on fire, there's no reason to run".

Austin doesn't like running either, but wants to be active. Since we don't have a junior high golf team, he has decided to do track for now. Ashley also claims to not like running, but she likes hanging out with her friends and loves the fun bus rides. She is our social butterfly. Wherever the action is, that's where you'll find Ashley. I could think of a bazillion other ways to have fun with friends, but ooookkkkk.

Don't get me wrong. I love my children and am their loudest cheerleader no matter what sport they are doing. But if I'm being honest, I have to say that to me there is nothing more boring and torturous than sitting through a high school track meet...unless it's a junior high track meet. At least at the high school track meets, most of the kids have a clue about what is going on. At a junior high track meet, the kids all have that "deer in the headlights" look about them and a lot of them have to be told repeatedly when it's their turn to line up. There are always false starts...a lot of them. Enough of them that I'd like to bring a bag of ping-pong balls and "blink" bop some kids in the forehead each time he/she makes yet another false start.

My children are blessed with talents. Each of them has their own and they are unique and different from their siblings. Even if they have one talent that is the same as another, the way they express it is unique. However, one thing they all share in...they are turtles on the track field. Sorry kids, you are not from fast genes. Jay is athletic. He is good at basketball and golf and can hold his own at pretty much any sport. As far as me...unless you count blogging or finding a really great deal on two-ply toilet paper as sports, I'm not athletic at all. The only thing I am fast at is devouring a piece of chocolate before my brain tells my fingers to PUT IT DOWN AND WALK AWAY! If that were an Olympic sport, I'd have a wall full of gold medals.

Last year we went to many, many, MANY meets. Both junior high and high school. It's hard to get psyched up to go when you know that both of your kids are running in the same 2 events. One is at the beginning of the meet, and the other is at the very end, which means we get to be among the lucky parents who get to stay through the whole track meet. Rain or shine. Whether it's 40 degrees or 70 degrees. For at least 3 long hours. I really do need to thank the coach for that sometime. It's also hard to know that your poor child is not going to win that race. They aren't even going to have a chance at it. They have as much of a chance of winning a race as I have of squeezing my butt into a size 5 pair of jeans. You get the idea. Yes, they try, and yes they do their best, and I love them for that. But the best any of them have ever gotten is maybe 5th place...and that's usually when there is only 6 or 7 kids in the race and they are racing against one kid who has his shoes on the wrong feet. Again, you get the idea.

I have noticed though, that while some of you may think this makes me a bad parent for feeling this way, I am not alone in my feelings. I see many parents slouching, checking their watches, letting out a long sigh, or rubbing that throbbing vein on the side of their head. Yep, there are many of us "bad" parents sitting there in the stands. And while we may be wishing we were anywhere else, when your child is actually the one running in the race, right now, all of a sudden you stand and cheer louder than before. You couldn't be more proud if they were an Olympian and you were in Athens instead of at some rural track field on a rickety set of bleachers! That's my daughter, or That's my son is all that your proud heart can say and you truly believe that. Your love for your child is over-flowing. And knowing that they tried their best is all that you can ask for.

This will be my final track season. The girls will graduate and go off to college. Austin has already stated that next year he'll be on the golf team instead. Never again will I have to sit on ice cold metal bleachers that make my back and my butt ache. Never again will I have to sit outside when it's raining cats and dogs. Never again will I try to stand still as 30 mph winds are blowing me over. Never again will I have to rub my frost-bitten toes to get feeling back in them. Never again will I have to sit next to the over-exhuberant parent who can't believe I don't have my own stopwatch to record the times of my children (I remind them that I'm a bad parent and that usually shuts them up). Never again will I sit there as the field lights come on and the sky grows darker as the sun sets.

And you know what....Someday I'll look back on all these track meets and they will bring a smile to my face. And I'll realize that I miss them.