JP's first cross country meet of the season was Thursday at Vaughn's Creek Park which is, in essence, MBA's home course. Belmont University's home course, too, for that matter.
I've arranged my work schedule this fall so I won't have to miss any of JP's cross country meets. I left work early on Thursday and picked up Joe at USN because Jude had a 4 p.m. meeting. I wanted to make sure Joe and I could get to the meet in time for the girls' race, which started at 4:30 p.m. The boys' race was scheduled to follow, a little before 5 p.m.
As I mentioned last year, I get more nervous before JP's cross country races than with any sport he plays. I'm not sure why that it but it's a fact. I'm pretty sure it's because running is something we have in common. While I've never run at the level he is at right now, I know how it feels to run a race and push your mind and body to the limit. I know how that feels and I know it takes courage to toe the starting line with the realization that you're about to put your body through a certain amount of pain in an effort to run your best in that race.
JP has put in so much work this summer. I was confident that of the 75 or so other runners at the meet, no one had put in the mileage JP had leading up to the race. I knew he had run well at practice, as evidenced by the 10:24 two mile time trial he ran last week. In other words, I knew he was ready. Still, I was nervous for him, wondering if there was a runner we didn't know about - maybe a talented 7th grader from another school or an 8th grader who had moved to town over the summer. It turns there wasn't, at least not at this race.
I waited at the 1 mile mark and as the boys approached, JP was comfortably in the lead. By comfortably, I mean the second place runner - a new boy from USN - was 30 or 40 yards behind him. I walked across the park to wait at a spot at the 1 1/4 mile mark. I waited for a couple of minutes, then watched as JP emerged from the tree line. There was no one behind him, at least in my line of sight, until he got even with me.
"How far back?" he asked as he ran by me. "Way, way back," I replied. "You're good." And he was.
I walked over to the finish line, across from where Jude and Joe were waiting. A couple minutes later, JP made the final turn and headed home. As he approached where I was standing, I could hear a few voices cheering for him. He was running comfortably and finished strong, more than thirty seconds ahead of the second place runner. JP's buddy, Abe (a rare combination of hockey player and cross country runner), finished third. MBA won the meet easily.
What made me the proudest, though, was watching JP finish the race, pick up the first place index card, then immediately walk back up the outside of the finishing chute to cheer on his MBA teammates as they finished the race. His coach, Elijah Reynolds, took note of that when he addressed the team after the race. To me, that was JP being a team leader, and it made me really, really proud of him.
A few minutes later, I drove Joe to baseball practice at Warner Park. In between coaching he and his teammates, I couldn't help but show the video I'd made of JP winning the cross country race to a few of my fellow coaches and dads.
A pretty damn good afternoon and evening, I would say.
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