Thursday, September 3, 2009

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...

17 comments:

nickfowers said...

Great Pics!!! Good Job Parker and Cubby!! Good luck you guys and the rest of the B-Town XC team!! You guys are going to do really well!! I wish I could still be running(stupid graduation)!!haha Keep me posted on how everything goes!! Represent Bountiful well!! -Nick

Esther said...

I love the emotion you captured in some of them!! I loved x-country when I was in H.S. Sorry you missed most of the race...kids are fast these days, if you don't get there early, it's already over!! 3rd is great. He should be proud.

Anonymous said...

Those are exciting photos! So intense. I hope his foot is OK, that sounds painful!

Amy said...

Nice shots! Really show the excitement and intensity!

Nicki said...

Sounds like Parker is off to good start this season. Well captured mom - even if the first one was pushing it for you and painful for him.

Sharon said...

Great captures!

Tracie said...

Great captures Meg, love the emotion. Congratulations to Parker on his new personal record and I hope his foot is feeling ok!

Steph said...

These are great shots! The close of the medal is a neat detail shot.

Diana said...

GO Parker!!!
im sorry you didnt get good directions, but you did get some awesome shots.

Amy said...

What fabulous shots, I love how you captured the intensity! I hope his foot feels better, sounds so painful!

bprincephoto said...

Great pics! I love the group shot.

Charleen said...

nice job! my legs hurt from looking at them.

Julie said...

Great shots!

Reds said...

Awesome action shots!! Looks almost painful!! ;)

Unknown said...

Great action shots! Looks like he is off to a good start!

Suzy said...

Awesome captures Margaret! I love the medal shot and the one of the whole group starting out! Congrats to Parker and team!

Marcy said...

Really neat photos! Congratulations!