Claire went to register for junior year and was surprised to see herself on a large banner hanging from the ceiling. She texted Kathy who grabbed a camera and took these shots. The principal told Kathy that she had hired a professional photographer to take these shots at regionals and create the banners.

So Claire and others will be inspiring kids in the lunchroom through the year. You have to admit, Claire’s photo fits the title: Focused!

Kathy, Danny, and I went to Claire’s track banquet. There were over 200 girls on the Brookwood girls track team, so with family there, it was one giant banquet. Claire achieved the following awards:

1. Scholar Athlete (2nd semester in a row… she’s working hard on her schoolwork!)
2. Perfect attendance (practice and meets… she is very committed.)
3. “Letter with Recognition” for having best 100 meter and 300 meter times for the season (1 of 2 of the Hurdlers to achieve w/ recognition)
4. Rookie of the Year, in part because she now holds the 7th all time record time for the 300 meter hurdles at Brookwood, was 1st county JV, fastest on Varsity team, and several other things we’re still trying to decipher.

On the way home she asked several times what the word “Rookie” meant.

She ended up with two large special plaques for #3 and #4 w/ photos and records on them. She also got a gold pin for the letter to go on the letter and jacket she already earned in cross-country. A certificate for #3.

She sure went up to the front a lot. Reminds me of one of Kelly’s big years.

There were a couple of tables with lots of printed photos for us to pick up. Claire runs with a very intense look on her face. Looks like she is running from lions!

WOOHOOO CLAIRE!!!!

(This is a great shot… Claire leaping over all of those arch-rival Parkviews.)

Claire’s career running stats:

Kathy did a good job snapping photos of Claire racing the 300 JV hurdles at the county meet at Mill Creek. Claire did an even better job winning it.

After the Saturday prelims that narrowed the field from 32 down to the top 8, Claire knew she would have some stiff competition. For the Monday finals, I was glad to see she was in lane 4, because that meant 4 girls (lanes 4 – 8) would line up staggered ahead of her and 3 would line up behind her. In a 300, there is only one bend, and the girls are staggered about 10 feet apart to allow for the advantage the inner lanes have over the outer. I think it helps Claire to have some competition to catch.

In the prelim race, Claire just shot down the first straight away and passed all of the girls ahead of her before the bend, finishing with a big lead, even though she took the last stretch slower than her start. In the finals, she started strong and finished strong. You can see by the time she came around the bend, which is about 2/3 of the race, she had a good lead.

See the whole sequence here.

Way to go Claire!

Kelly and Claire are both on the Cross Country team this year. They’ve had to deal with some sickness and manage asthma, but they are both doing well.

Kelly was sick for their first meet, so Claire had her debut meet alone (with about 100 other girls) at Berry College. Kathy and I drove out to watch. With the rolling hills, green pastures, and variety of trees, it will probably be the prettiest course they will run this year. Claire came in 7th of the Brookwood JV girls with a respectable 25:18. She sprinted to the finish, which she never thought she would do, surprising herself.

The following Saturday, Kelly and Claire both ran together in a very rainy meet. Claire had just come down with the same illness Kelly and I had, but she wanted to give it a try. She had a pained expression on her face most of the rain, but she pulled through. Kelly was taking it easy, since this was her first meet of the season. It so happened the two of them stayed pretty close together, trading places on leading. In the end, Claire sprinted, trying to pass Kelly, who heard her coming up and sprinted herself. Kelly finished 1 second ahead of Claire. Both were covered with mud.

There are some good photos in the gallery, but this one sums it up:

They had to run through a lot of mud and puddles. Some girls had their shoes pulled off in the puddles. Little did we know all of this rain would result in the floods next Monday and Tuesday.

You’ve heard of handwriting… One morning at track practice, Kelly noticed the field was covered with dew. She walked out and scooted her feet in the grass to write. She then went up in the stands and snapped a photo with her cell phone. Since Verizon wants to charge you 50 cents to e-mail pictures, they do not make it easy to get your photo out of the phone for free. (I dislike Verizon as much as Comcast because of these kinds of fees.) So I took a picture of Kelly’s phone. Her coach saw her do all of this. He thinks she is a nut, but in a good way of course.

(Take that Verizon!)

I had to stay late at work Thursday night and missed Mary Claire’s swim meet. But I got a very excited phone call from her to report she had gotten five blue ribbons. Like her brother, she loves to win, but this was a bigger win than the colors of the ribbons.

Asthma brought a pretty quick end to Claire’s soccer career this spring. It had been coming on for a year, but with the move to larger 13/14 fields, too many games were being interrupted by Claire collapsing on the field after a series of runs. It was a sad thing, because she loved playing soccer and really played well with her teammates.

She resumed athletics with summer swim league. We were hoping asthma could be managed better in a humid environment with rests between races. All of our kids have been strong swimmers, and Claire is no exception. Swimming 50 free and 50 back would have been the best (easiest) thing for her… shorter swims with her strongest strokes. But no, the coach needed her for the less popular events including 100 free and individual medley (fly, back, breast, free.) And he needed her for 50 fly, too.

Unfortunately, the asthma kicked in on some of these events each meet, usually with back-to-back 4-lappers. Claire would have to stop on the third or fourth lap, shaking, get to the side, and I would help her get out and get recovered. In a couple of cases she was able to rest and help her team out with the end-of-the-meet free relay.

She has been working on pushing herself at practice, figuring out the best timing to use her inhaler, and last Thursday she must have figured out the magic formula. She had a tough assignment including 50 fly and I.M. (only one 4-lapper, though). She also swam anchor on the free relay, and brought the team from behind to win. (Danny says that was always the funnest thing to do at the end of a meet.)

We’re all proud of Claire, yes for getting the five blues, but also figuring out how to compete, help her team win another meet, and, at least this past week, telling asthma to “eat my bubbles.”

Just before Kelly’s second “run of her life” she and Nicole posed for two photographs. It was a bright sunny day, so Nicole let Kelly wear her sunglasses for one of the shots.

Yes, it’s a composite. I’m getting good at Photoshop.

Last year Kelly’s final meet finished with the run of her life. She did it again. At some point Kelly is going to run into physics and not be able to keep making such extraordinary improvements, but she isn’t taking physics this year.

Kelly’s coach told her she could break 22 minutes this meet and wanted to see her finish with a 21 minutes and something…. 59 seconds would do it. Kelly did not think she could break into a 21 time, but her coach insisted she could.

Nicole and I took Kelly out for her last race of the season while Kathy took Claire to a soccer match. As we approached the course, I asked Kelly if she thought she could medal again. (She had gotten a 3rd place medal two weeks prior in an “open” race in Gainesville, which was great.) Kelly did not think so because this JV race would include all the local schools.

Now that’s what she said, but I think she had plans to go all out. I’ve never seen her sprint out of the start the way she did. She set up in the front of the pack early and by 1 mile, she was running third. As the rest of the 5K went on, she held the third place behind number 2 Parkview and number 1 Brookwood. In the last 100 yards, Samantha (who is with Parkview and co-illustrated The Bad Y2K with Kelly seven years ago) made a dash from fourth, surprising Kelly as she passed her. Kelly turned it on, and the two sprinted for the finish, Kelly passing Samantha and securing third place for the team. So the top four were Maroon / Orange / Maroon / Orange.

While we do not have a final time in yet, it appeared to me she finished at 21 min 15 seconds. She shaved off another full minute from her best time of the season! It was really another great run, and Kelly again surprised herself, her coaches, and her friends.

The three of us stayed to watch the varsity team and cheer them on. Nicole and I positioned ourselves at the finish line to count how many girls finished with faster times than Kelly’s. Including both JV and Varsity, Kelly finished number 7 for Brookwood girls and number 18 over all.

Kelly is already talking about trying to get to state next year. So goodbye 22 and goodbye to another great season!

Kelly was invited to run with the Varsity team in the Wendy’s Invitational in Charlotte, NC, substituting for one of the runners who was ill.

The course was tough with some steep hills. One down slope was so steep many runners fell. One guy hurt himself so bad he had to go to the hospital and came home in a hospital gown.

Kelly reports she felt great on her run and was doing well. She started out fast (normally she lags on purpose) and passed more than half of the runners on her team. Because there was no display time clock that she could see, she had to guess her time based on what she heard someone calling out. She wasn’t positive but she knew she broke 23 and may have broken 22. Either way, she thought “I’m going to get runner of the week.” She was very excited.

It took several days for us to get the official times from the people running the meet. Kelly *did* do really well. She finished 11th on her team with a time that was very Varsity like. She also destoryed 23 with a final of 22 min 20 sec. Sure enough she got a Runner of the Week t-shirt for having made such a great improvement.

So does she have her sites set to beat 22? Of course… and now she’s even whispering, “I wonder if I can break 20?” Shhhh….