Logan goes to District Championships

Logan is the family runner. The child that enjoys running. The one who doesn't even break a sweat when he finishes a race. Well... this boy has done well in his cross country season. He won all but 2 of his races (he placed 2nd and 3rd in those). Because of all that running success he was given the opportunity to run in the District Championship race - against all the other winners from 30 elementary schools in our area. And today was the big race.

Logan did not sleep much the night before. He woke very early this morning with race nerves already kicking in. He had himself quite worked up over this event. So much pressure to run against 120 kids that are just as good as you!

Here are our photos from this afternoon:

The line-up. YES, there really were 120 4th grade boys out there!

Here's a close-up of Logan just before the guy said, "Take your marks" and then shot off the gun.

It was a very quick race. We'll get his time tomorrow, but for now we'll just say it was quick. Start to finish in about 5 minutes. We got to see the start and then ran over to the finish line to cheer him on. Here comes Logan down the final chute to the finish line. See the look of agony on his face if you can zoom in. He was working harder than we've ever seen!

He came out of the runners area gasping for breath and sweating - finally sweating! He was exhausted and physically fatigued, but he had placed in the top 10. Logan had his heart set on placing in the top 7 so he could receive a medal. He finished 9th and got a ribbon and a free t-shirt instead. They handed it to him almost immediately after crossing the finish line.

He was disappointed at first because he didn't get that medal he had his eye on, but in the end we finally convinced him that really did better than most of the kids out there. Only 15 people got to take home an award - and he was one of them! He also felt better after a treat from the gas station - a 2 liter ice cold bottle of water and a new cap gun. Remember, the gas station always makes everything better. :)

Logan has done some amazing things this season and we cannot be more proud. He always tries his best in whatever task is at hand. All that hard work paid off. Big time. He's the only kid I've ever heard say, "I like cross country!" and actually mean it. He really enjoyed his time out there!

For now, we will put away our token cross country cheer, "Run, Logan, RUN!" now that the season is over. And look forward to the next sport season. . . . Wrestling!