We went down to the Footlocker West race with 7 kids along with Buchanan High School's team.  One of my runners, Clay Albertson, is inneligable for school teams all year because of our district's transfer rules.  Since I was running a club program at the time, he was able to practice with me.  He was our number one runner last year as a 7th grader.  His goal was to win the Junior High race. 

   When we got there, I knew we were going to be running a rain course because of the dangerous downhills being so muddy.  We got there just in time to warm-up and while my runners were getting ready, I found out they lost all of our race numbers.  They ended up re-registering my runners up until about 10 minutes before the race.  It was quite hectic, because my kids were all worried about getting to the start line.  They made it in plenty of time eventually.

   The race itself became a 1.6 mile road race instead of a 2 mile hilly cross-country race.  There were 150 junior high boys and girls in the race together and it was hard to pick out my runners at first.  Clay immediatly went to the front of the pack and by half way through the race he and two other boys had seperated from the pack.  With 600 left he was in 3rd, about 5 seconds behind first and stayed that way till the finish.  His time was 7:37 for 1.6 miles and he finished 5 seconds behind the winner.  He was upset, because he wanted hills and thought he should have done more to win. 

   As for my girls, they were in the middle of the pack, but I was able to count 2 girls in front of my fastest girl (Hagen Reedy).  She ran a great race, but it is hard to race the other girls when there are so many boys around.  She finished 3rd in a time of 8:49.  She was 20 seconds behind the winner, but she was the first 7th grade girl to finish, so I think she was happy.  My #2 girl, Katherine Holm, was the seventh 7th grade girl to finish as well. 

   It was a great trip and I think the kids had a great time hanging out with the high school team.