XC 2019

September 5 was the first race of the season for all 3 of my boys (Kanyon actually had a meet the previous week, but he had a terrible cough and was too sick to go to it). The meet was at West Jefferson High School, and I was glad I just had to walk to the nearby grounds as soon as school was over in order to see it. In the high school 5k race, Micah took 6th place with a time of 18:17 and Jonah was in 19th place with his time of 20:02. Kanyon ran the 1.7 mile-long middle school race in 13:41. I enjoyed watching all 3 of them run. It was a fun race to kick off the season!

The high school boys team all got new matching sunglasses this year.

I love watching his strong, big push at the end of the race!

September 13 was the big Tiger/Grizz Meet in Idaho Falls. I barely made it in time to see the JV race that Jonah ran in. His time was 21:39. He looked like he was in pain for the most of the race, and Josh and I were concerned about him. He was over a full minute slower than last week's time. Afterwards, he informed us that his knee had been hurting at practice all week, which we hadn't known. We took him to the doctor at the walk-in clinic the next day, and he was diagnosed with tendonitis in his quad--an injury from over-usage. As a result, he needed to go to physical therapy and rest his muscles, which meant he wasn't able to practice with the team or go to meets until it improved. Micah ran in the varsity race and got 18th place with a time of 18:28, which was great! Kanyon ran the 1.6 mile middle school course in 12:49. It was a HUGE race with middle schoolers--there were 310 runners! 

Jonah and teammate Boaz really pushed each other leading up to the finish line!

September 18 was the Ririe Invitational at 7N Ranch near Heise Hot Springs. Salmon high school didn't come to this race, because they were attending the Bob Firman meet in Eagle a few days later. This meet must've been the only one going on in the area besides Bob Firman for the week, because it was jam-packed with people, and there wasn't enough places for everyone to park. It was a zoo!!! The 1.5 mile school races were first. In the boys race, there were 240 runners, and they filled the width of the entire field! It was an impressive sight! Kanyon ran the course in 12:02. He did awesome! As soon as he was done, I checked him out and we left--it took forever because the roads were blocked with parked cars and pedestrians who had to park a mile away to get to the race! It was such a mess!

Saturday, September 21 was the Bob Firman Meet at Eagle Island State Park near Boise. Jonah came with the team, but he was unable to run in the race due to his injury. Micah ran with the varsity team in the Elite race, which was a first time for them. They basically gave up medals which they would've gotten had they run in their regular assigned Varsity race, but the team supported the upperclassmen in their desire to compete with the fastest teams from multiple states. I drove down on Friday night and stayed at the hotel with Josh, since he'd driven the bus for the team (Kanyon opted to stay overnight in Mud Lake). Josh's parents, Ammon, and Gideon & Alyssa were all there to see Micah race, which was so nice! Micah's race time was 17:20, which was impressive! He was happy with his individual results. After his race, I drove back to Mud Lake to get Kanyon before driving home to Salmon, arriving a few hours before the XC bus.

I just love the pop-up XC tent villages at the bigger meets!

Josh and the older 3 boys hanging out at the team tent.

September 25 was the Salmon Invitational in Salmon--which is always my favorite race of the season! I feel right at home on Josh's golf course, and to watch all my boys compete on the beautiful course is always a seasonal highlight for me! Unfortunately, Jonah was unable to compete in this race due to his injury. Micah ran it in 19:32, receiving 9th place and a water bottle for being in the top 10 finishers. In the 2-mile middle school race (which would be Kanyon's last race of the season, but we didn't know it at the time), Kanyon's time was 15:53. He raced his heart out at the end, beating the Challis runner by just 7/10 of a second! The weather was gorgeous, and it such an enjoyable day for me!

Kanyon and friend Jackson. They rode around in and

drove others around in the golf carts after their race was done.

October 3 was the Bob Conley Invitational in Pocatello. This was the 3rd meet that Jonah missed. Micah ran the 5k course at the Health & Wellness Complex in 17:57. His team got 1st place overall, and he received a medal. After the race, I took Jonah to eat and get groceries before heading back to Salmon, and picking up Kanyon in Mud Lake on the way.

October 9 was the Firth Invitational at Firth. There was a freak snowstorm that day, and the West J coaches decided at the last minute to not take the jr. high team because they didn't want them running in the snow, and then waiting in the cold for hours for the high school races to finish. The Salmon coaches decided to let the varsity team have a break, so they only took their JV team to this race. Jonah was finally feeling better, and this was the first race he'd participated in in a month. He was glad to be running again. His time was 21:07--better than the last time he got a month ago when he was racing in pain, so that felt hopeful. It was freezing cold, but thankfully it had stopped snowing by his race time! A lot of the runners wore hats, mittens, and long running pants for this particular race due to the weather!

Twinners with their hats!

Jonah with some of his friends on the JV team at Arby's after the race.

October 23 was the District Meet at West Jefferson. I'm glad they hosted! It's so easy for me to get to! It was pretty cold, and the wind was blowing, but it wasn't as bad as it had been the day before or even that morning, which I'm grateful for. One of Micah's goals for the year was to medal individually at district XC. He was SO close--only about 5 seconds behind the 10th place runner. He gave it his all, and I was so proud of him--but I was sad that he didn't get what he'd set out to do. He got 11th place with a time of 17:47. Jonah finished with a time of 20:15, only 13 seconds slower than his time on the same course when he'd had his first race of the season. I thought that was amazing, considering the fact that he missed about half the season, and wasn't running for a month in the middle of it! Both the boys and the girls teams got first place in the district, and qualified to go to state. Micah qualified as the 6th runner on our varsity team, which is the same position he was on last year's team, too. I was so proud of my boys, and for the all the hard-working athletes at this meet!

Our high school boys XC team is HUGE!!!

November 2 was the XC State Championship at the Wellness Complex in Pocatello. Salmon is in the 2A division. The team went down on Friday night and spent the night in the hotel, so I drove down and stayed with Josh in his hotel room (he drove the bus again). On Saturday morning, Edward & Kathy came down and brought Jonah with them. Kanyon opted to stay in Mud Lake for the night. My parents even drove up from Utah to see the race, which is the first time they've ever come to any of the boy's XC events. The weather was beautiful, and I was feeling confident that our boys team would win again, and THEY DID!!! They are now back-to-back state champions!! What an accomplishment for this team! And the most incredible part was that Micah placed individually at state, which totally made up for not placing at districts!! He earned 17th place with his time of 17:00 flat! He PR'd at state, cutting nearly an entire minute from his time on the same course a few weeks prior, and it blew us away how amazing he looked! He definitely gave his all, and was on cloud 9 afterwards, knowing that his hard work paid off! The boys team got a score of 22--the next team was Soda Springs with a score of 72. In fact, our top 5 runners alternated numbers, earning every odd number point under 10!! What a memorable day!

The sheer motivation is totally visible!!

He did it!!