At her first track meet (7/1), Anna was thrown into a chaos that was punctuated by gun shots. It was a first track meet for all of us and Marc and I did our best to keep up with all the action and to shepherd our kids from one event to another, and to lead them in cheering for their teammates.
Caleb ran the 200m and threw the shot put. He didn't place in either, but he had also been at music camp all week, missing the practices just before the meet.
Anna ran the 100m threw tears. She was overwhelmed by all the action and noise and directions coming from every direction. She and I talked and I gave her the goal to just run and told her that even if she continued to hate track all summer, we would hate it, and finish it together.
After the 100m, her javelin event was called. All the ages competed at the same time so we watched the youngest to the oldest take their throws, some of them for their first time. Marc, one of her coaches, and I watched with outright amazement at her natural ability and very good form.
Today we found out that she had placed second in her age-group for javelin. From tears to cheers and feeling proud. Guess who is looking forward to her track meet this week?