Cross Country Mama

On Tuesday, cross country running '09 offically kicked off for our school with its first meet....which like most was over an hours drive away.

Austin is on the JV team, and thanks to his sister Ashley's attitude, along with others (they even had their own slogan, hand symbol & t-shirts : "JV is the way to be"), he is perfectly content with carrying on the tradition.

Now, mind you, I'm not the kind of parent screaming on the side for him to run faster, because frankly, I would never expect my kids to do anything I wouldn't do, which is why I don't even shout for them to run at all. However, this is one sport that I would kinda, sorta prefer he was on the varsity team for. But I do have a good reason for this....

He would run earlier, and then I wouldn't have to wait until after 8pm for supper!

The order at the meets is: junior high, varsity girls, junior varsity girls, varsity boys, and then junior varsity boys are last...always. At every . single . meet.

With Austin's hypoglycemia, there is no way he can go from lunch to 8pm without eating, so we always bring something along with us for him to eat. Sometimes it's crackers, or home made cookies (which doesn't happen very often), but quite a bit of the time it's a sandwich. He has plenty of time to metabolize it, so there's no worry of it making him sick when he runs.

Austin did learn an important lesson that he tends to forget from season to season, and that is to not leave your inhaler at home on the evening of the first meet. This is the only sport he really needs it for. He's been in cross country for 4 years now, and this is the 4th year he has forgotten it...at least he's consistent. Notice how clenched his fists are in the picture and how tight his arms are? That and the fact that we could see how hard he was breathing were the big clues. But God bless him, he never gives up or quits!

As a good cross country mama, I also forgot for the 4th year in a row to bring along an extra inhaler. I only remembered when I saw him coming closer to the last 800 meters, and noticed how hard he was breathing. But then again, I also forgot my camera that I had sitting in the kitchen charging up (thank goodness for cell phone cameras!).

No worries, I already have the extra inhaler packed in my purse for the next meet, which is tonight. Now to be sure I remember the camera.