State!

Yesterday afternoon, at the Dean E. Hayes Track and Soccer Stadium at MTSU in Murfreesboro, JP ran the anchor leg in the 4 x 800 relay at the TSSAA State Championships.  

For the fourth time in a row that he's run the 800 in a track meet - solo or as part of a relay team - he set a PR, running his leg of the relay in 1:58:68.  His time was the fastest among his teammates that ran the relay, slightly ahead of Thomas Dennis, who ran the opening leg in 1:59:43.  

The Big Red's 4-man team ran the race in 8:04:20, roughly a second fast than their qualifying time at the Regional Championships.  They finished in sixth place, less than a second behind the city rival, Father Ryan HS.  Father Ryan's best runner, Ryder Ortner, clipped JP again on the final lap, this time by slightly more than three seconds.  

JP seemed to push the pace a little more, earlier, though, and I think he ran more competitively against Ryder.  The boys' time bear that out, too, as each ran about three seconds fast than at the Regional Championships.  I can't help but wonder if JP would have been three to four seconds fast had he been running track all spring, which would have included daily track workouts and strategy sessions for running the 800.  

Still and all, it's a pretty amazing feat for a freshman like JP to start every game but one on the junior varsity baseball team, then join the varsity track team as its season winds down, and run well enough to be included on the 4 x 800 relay team for the State Championships.  What's really impressive to me, though, is that as he continued to race the 800, he dropped his time down from 2:07 to 2:03 to 2:01 before posting a 1:58:68 time in yesterday's race.  

What does all this mean?  Where does it go?  I have no idea but, to me, that's kind of the beauty of it.  

I'm just so blessed to be along for the ride.