Run for your life!

Not really.  But I bet I sucked you in with my super-exciting title...  It was more like, "run, jump and throw for fun!"  A lot of our friends' kids are in a run club.  Ours aren't.  The twins aren't old enough, you might remember how much Brooke loves (HATES!!!) running, and Sam is always just along for the ride.  But our county has a series of track meets all summer, and kids three and up can participate.   So we gave it a go one afternoon....

 Alix doing the long jump.  She loved the races best, but my battery died before she ran.  She took fifth in the 100 and 200.

 Erin turned out to be a natural long jumper.  She jumped 7 feet 9 inches.  That's almost double her height.  And she'd never done it before.  It was good enough for fourth place in the 7-8 yr. olds.

And my little Sam... She got to do the ball throw and the 50 and 100m dash.  It was really hot out and she was having a little trouble in the heat, but she really wanted to run and so she did.  You can see how much in last place she was, but she loved it.  Her running stride is a little funny because of her low muscle tone, but she raced.  I had tears in my eyes watching her run.  This is the girl we weren't sure could do anything, and she was running in a race.  We got her out of the sun, with a lot of Gatorade and she did a little better waiting for the bigger girls to finish.

 Brooke long jumping

 One way to cool off in the sun...

 And Brooke running in her race.  She took fifth in the ball throw and that made her feel good.  Running is not her talent, but she was willing to try a couple of races any way.  I was proud of her for being willing to do something hard for her.  She didn't have the best time, but placing in the ball throw gave her enough confidence to run one more race.  I don't think she'll go back next summer, but I'm glad she tried it and did her best.