Mud Run :: The High School Version

For today's cross country meet, we traveled east to a little town called Freedom over by the Fox Cities area. The 30-school event was held at the Irish Waters Golf Club, a nice course that received a ton of rain this week like everyone else, I guess.

It was more like Muddy Waters than Irish Waters! It reminded me of our golf outing last Saturday... a little squish, squish here and splish, splash there. And I only had to deal with it as a spectator!

Our runners dealt with slippery, slimy grass and puddles on their course. Did I mention mud?

Carter had it splashed on the backs of his legs all the way up to his arms and face. Wow. Not quite as much as my Dirty Girl run, but a decent mud run nonetheless.

A few photos:

What a crowd of varsity runners from 2 dozen-plus schools looks like at the start!

Coach encouraging our team at the one-mile mark.

Carter keeping pace with one of the new team members, Theo.

With less than a half-mile to go, Carter looks to pass.

The guy in orange was coasting to the finish...

So Carter kicked it in gear and passed him at the finish line! He had a decent finishing time but not a personal best. This was our first year participating in this meet so there is no year-over-year comparison.

Our Royal runners catch their breath after the race.

When the meet was over, we had supper in Freedom with some other parents and got home about 11 p.m., just beating Carter's arrival. Long bus ride plus food stop plus going to meal at Perkins when they got back into town! Hope he doesn't have anything to get up for tomorrow.

In the meantime, I couldn't go to bed until I blogged AND completed Day 3 of the 5-day gratitude challenge. Today I am thankful for:

1) Creativity: Always finding creative ways to design graphics, to preserve memories in scrapbooks... and to get out of loathsome chores.

2) Heart and Sole: Appreciate having a healthy heart and ability to move my feet, even at a slow pace. Love that Carter enjoys running (for cross country anyway) and is making healthy choices early in life.

3) AHS Family: Despite being a relative newcomer AND Lutheran to boot, I feel welcomed and loved in the Assumption Catholic Schools family. Have come to know and befriend some terrific people!

Today I nominated 3 of those AHS family members. I should probably nominate all of Carter's cross country team, who I'm sure were quite grateful to take showers tonight!