Andrew traveled to Sioux Falls, South Dakota this weekend for Nike Cross Regionals, a national Cros Country championship series, although there are no nationals this year because of Covid. Andrew attended this race his freshman and sophomore years and it was canceled last year.
Andrew and his friend Cody qualified for the Senior All-Star Meet. It was a beautiful day and fun to cheer for all of the seniors who worked so hard these past 4 years.
After the meet we enjoyed some pastries in Pella, stopped by Yellow Banks Park to hike and play by the river, and then picked up some ice cream at Over The Top. That’s a good day.
Andrew ran in the State Qualifying Meet today. It was his first race in a few weeks and it could have gone better. Andrew and I have had a discussion a few times about whether you should collapse at the end of a race. We generally agree that you should collapse because you should be giving it every last ounce of energy.
After today’s race, Andrew collapsed. He was exhausted and his lungs hurt from the effects of his cold. Not his greatest finish, but one of his greatest races because he really gave it his all. This was the last official race of Andrew’s cross country career at Valley. It was emotional then and even writing this now I can feel it. One of the things I love about being a cross country parent for all 3 kids is that you know they all work so hard and it is great to cheer for all the kids. There is little glory in cross country, and a lot of effort.
Elliot was our only runner at the conference cross country meet this afternoon. It has been a rough season for all our kids because we have had several colds and Mari has been dealing with an abdominal strain, or something of that sort. We all had a cold in September that I know took me a while to recover from. Elliot had the cold and Andrew is still coughing and unable to run. Hopefully everyone can get healthy and have a strong finish to the season.
We had a fun, eventful soccer weekend this weekend. All 5 kids had games, with Andrew and Elliot having tournaments. On Saturday Andrew scored for his team, which is a rarity because they don’t score a lot and he only plays about half the game because he misses so much practice because of cross country. He dribbled the ball up the side and as he passed the edge of the box he didn’t have many options, so he pulled it back toward the middle. Still lacking options he said he just had to shoot the ball, so he hit it over the goalies head from about 25 yards out.
On Sunday, Elliot’s team was in the tournament finals, against a team they had played previously in the tournament. The beat them the first time 2-1 and in the finals they were once again in a close game. With about 2 minutes to go Elliot intercepted the other team’s goal kick and shot it from about 20 yards out. It sailed over the goalie’s head and into the goal. His team mobbed him, celebrated a lot, and then held on for the final two minutes to win the game and the tournament.
I have been woefully behind on the blog. I decided that to catch up I would just do a few posts that cover entire months. Here comes May. . .
Rose is playing soccer for the first time this year, on a U6 team. She is having a lot of fun on and off the field.
Mari is playing soccer for Valley this year. Here is a picture from her first game, at Waukee Stadium
