Runners and Races

Ammon ran his 4th year of XC this fall. He wasn't sure he was going to run, but was glad that he decided to when his friends Cole and Sylas joined the team again. Micah joined the team, too, but for the first time. Ammon ran on the high school team, and Micah ran on the middle school boys team (and there was a LOT of boys on that team--an astounding 15!). The teams practiced together every day, and they went to the same meets, but they competed in different races. The high school always runs a 5K (3.1 miles), and the middle school's races range between 1.5 and 2 miles, depending on the meet. There were only 6 competitive meets that our team participated in before Districts and State, but usually there's 8. Two of the meets were overnighters because of their distance from Salmon, so that prevented us from doing more meets because of the added expense of travel costs. Josh drove the team bus for every single meet except one, so all the meets that I was unable to go to, thankfully he was there.

The first meet was the Cardinal Classic in Soda Springs on Saturday September 5. I was in Boise for Josh's niece Coral's wedding, so I missed it, but Josh drove the bus to the meet (which was the first meet of the season, and the first overnighter, and Micah's first race ever).

Micah got a ribbon in his first race!

Ammon hated running behind people with mullets and watching their hair bounce.
It was an added incentive to make him run faster and pass them!!

The second meet of the season was the big Tiger-Grizz event in Idaho Falls the following week on September 11. It was a super hot day, and they ran late in the afternoon and the early evening, so the sun was blistering hot by that time.

Because the meet was so large, and there were so many teams competing, they
had each team line up in columns of two by two. Ammon was one of the front
two runners because he was the 2nd fastest runner on our team at the time. 

Micah ran side-by-side with teammate Garrett almost the entire race

Micah is an excellent finisher, and passed several people right before the finish line

The next meet, the Mile High Classic in Challis, is one of our favorites. We usually go camping there during the XC meet, but the meet was several weeks earlier this year than usual (it was on September 19 and it's usually in October). It was also the same weekend as Homecoming and niece Coral's reception in Pocatello, so it didn't work out for us to go camping there this year. It was a beautiful day for a race, and both Ammon and Micah had a great run!

The start of the middle school boys race.

Erik, Garrett, and Micah ran as a solid pack the whole race

Micah finished strong right ahead of them.

There were 7 teams in the high school boys race

Ammon had a great start, getting ahead of the pack

Remember how I said he hates to run behind
guys with long hair?! Yeah...he passed him ;)

They battled it out at the finish line

Ammon got a medal for being the 4th place finisher in the district!

A week later, the team traveled to their second overnighter of the season in Meridian for the Bob Firman Invitational at Eagle Island State Park. This was the largest event they participated in this year.

Ammon finished strong with a time of 19:03, just 4 seconds short of his goal. 

Micah was the 7th runner who made it to the finish line from our middle
school boys team. His team got 1st place at the event, out of 63 teams!

Because a XC team consists of 7 runners, and he was the 7th
runner at this meet, he earned a medal. He was so excited!

The following week was a bye week without a meet, and it was during this time that Ammon got injured. The coaches had 6-day-a-week practices, and the kids were running about 8-9 miles a day. His body was starting to suffer, and one day, they ran hills over and over, and he woke up the next morning and could barely walk. I took him to the doctor, who said he had tendonitis in his knee and inflamed IT Band and hip flexors. The doctor told him to take a week break from practice. The following week (October 9) was the Salmon Invitational at the Golf Course, and he was still unable to run. It was sad to see him miss our home meet. It was a gorgeous day at the golf course, though, and we were glad to at least see Micah run a good race.

The large middle school boys team taking a break during their warm-ups.

There were just 5 teams in this race. It was nice to finally be in a smaller race!

The coach likes to add this obstacle of strawbale jumping in the race

Erik had a better finish than Micah, and beat him in this race. They ran
together all season long, and it was fun to see them tag team the finishes!

Micah's last meet of the season was the Firth Meet on October 15. The middle school teams don't participate in the District or State races, and this was the last regular event of the season. Ammon was still injured and unable to participate in this race. I took the other two boys with me and we drove down to watch the race. The race starts and ends on the high school football field, and runs through fields surrounding the area the rest of the race.

This was another HUGE race with a lot of teams participating!

Micah started really fast. He wanted to give it his all for the last race of the year

He had a strong finish, too. He beat this guy ahead of him.

One week later was the District Meet at Firth (again). Ammon had been doing light practices all week, and decided to run in the District race. He still was not feeling 100%, but he thought he would be able to run. He had a goal of beating just one runner on his team, so that he could finish as the 7th runner (there's just 8 runners on their high school boys team) in order to qualify to run on the team at the state meet. He started off running in a pack with the 6th and 7th place runners for our team, but he was in a lot of pain, and he was having difficulty breathing as well. We are so proud of him for finishing the race, and we know that he gave it everything he had. I was unable to go to the race, but Josh said that watching Ammon run amidst so much pain made his own heart hurt and he felt so much empathy for Ammon. Unfortunately, Ammon ended up finishing 13 seconds behind the 7th runner for our team. Our team qualified for state, but he went as the alternate, and could not run in the final race of the year. He wouldn't have been able to, anyway; running so hard at the district race increased his body's ailments and healing time. It was several weeks before he could walk normal again.

Even with running only 5 races this year, Ammon is still listed as the 13th fastest runner in our district because of his time at the Bob Firman meet that was held a week before his injury. And Micah is listed as the 20th fastest runner in the middle school boys division in our district, which is exceptional for his first year running! We are so proud of our boys for working hard and having a great XC season this year.