Cross Country Season Begins

Parker's cross country season started off with a bang last Saturday morning. He and a couple of his teammates participated in the Tooele County Invitational. Derek and I were a few minutes late and missed the start of Parker's race. It had something to do with the less-than-helpful directions the race organizers gave us. I knew we were in trouble when we were driving to the meet and I read, "about 1/2 mile past the Go-Fer_Food store head east..." I swear that Go-Fer-Food store was hiding the first two times we drove past it. Once we headed up the canyon where the race was taking place, the nice man at the payment booth told us, it was just another quarter mile or so up the road past the cattle guard. Finally we ended up in the right place, managed to park and made it to the finish line just a couple of minutes before Parker came through. He was disappointed in his finish. Not far from the finish, he was just about to pull into 2nd place when he stepped on a rock that punctured the bottom of his running flats. He courageously carried on and ran/hobbled to the finish -- taking third.


Almost to the finish, enduring through the pain.
Crossing the finish line.
With some of the other medalists.

Dad eyes Parker's medal.

Wednesday was the pre-region meet in Salt Lake. What an exciting race. Parker's teammate Cubby came in first with a time of 16:20. On the home stretch, Parker was battling to overtake the second-place runner, and put on a burst of speed and passed the guy and was able to hold onto the lead to the finish. Parker's time was 16:25 - a personal record. He was very excited! Saturday, he and some teammates are racing in the BYU Autumn Classic in Provo. Always love it when we get to spend some time in Cougar Town! :)








Cubby gets a little water in the face...