Back on September 21, Noah had his fifth Cross Country meet, this time nearby, south of town, at Hart Ranch where Rapid City Christian is located. This is where I or Mary had to drive every day for practice. You can see it was a very large meet.
Unless we wanted to run the course, there was really only one place to see the competitors, by crossing a field of tall grass. Here Noah was almost done with his race.
Striding out just in front of the finish line.
Going by us. Terry actually missed the finish because, while we were running back across the field, Ezra had fallen down and was crying his heart out.
Walking toward us after his cool down.
My parents were able to come to this meet!
Evie was not pleased with the weather. It was very cold.
For this meet they had to restart the race! You can hear him shoot the gun off for the second time while the kids are busy running towards us. They do that if someone falls before a certain distance, which is what happened in this instance.
A week later we were at Hart Ranch again for the sixth meet, but this one was significantly smaller due to another school drawing more runners for their own race. Here are Noah and his teammates after warming up.
This is Andrew, the boy who lives in our neighborhood who brought Noah home from practice most of the time. What a God-send that was.
After the youngest kids, Noah and his tiny group of junior varsity runners began.
The course looped back to the beginning two or three times before finishing so we just hung out in this area waiting for him to run by again. Beautiful, but very chilly.
It is a lovely place to live out there, though very very expensive since it's on the golf course.
Noah and David were partners for the first half of the race for most of the season.
Coming back again after their first loop.
That's the starting and finish line behind him.
The littles occupied themselves by wrestling.
Lots and lots of wrestling.
But they are rather cute.
Here comes Noah for the finish line.
He did very well for this race.
I can't quite remember but I think this was a 5K (3.1 miles) so his time of 22:45 something was pretty good.
The seventh meet was held in Phillip the following weekend on October 6th. We didn't attend with him so I was thankful for the pictures another parent posted.
Starting out.
David and Noah again.
He looks to be finishing up his race.
They all look so happy!
Much to Noah's surprise and lasting satisfaction, he received a medal!
Look at how proud and happy he is. 💙
The entire team.
Noah's eighth and final meet was Regionals in Hot Springs. It was awesome that Noah was able to go since some of the younger kids didn't get to. It pays to have a smaller team for stuff like this. The meet took place at on Thursday October 11 and Terry took the afternoon off so we could go cheer him on.
In the back.
Right away they had to go up a hill.
Once they turned around that right corner they came up the hill where we were cheering from.
This course was insane. It was so incredibly hilly, way worse than Custer. This photo was after they ran up, around, and down the hugest hill in the place.
Coming back up from the starting line since they had to do two loops.
Downhill!
Going by me at the finish line.
And the photo finish! This was another 5k and due to the hills his time was not surprisingly slower. But I think everyone's times were!
Cooling down.
Checking out his time. The team did well enough to go to State, or varsity did. Noah didn't.
Great job team! I'm so glad we finally committed to Cross Country for Noah this year. He grew a lot, and not just in his endurance, but socially and academically too. It was a stretch for Noah to not have as much time in his day, to have to manage his school responsibilities and his piano practice, and to have less down time. He didn't enjoy the stretching at the time, but it was good for him to grow up a little. He is 13! Noah also grew to really enjoy running. He says he doesn't want to lose all that he gained so he's continued running three times a week, with or without his dad. 🙌👏 We shall see about Track in the spring...
