Beavercreek Invitational & nice weekend

 Alyssa's cross country team participated in the Beavercreek Invitational on Saturday. This was the first meet of the season where the course wasn't at a k-12 school- rather it was held at Cedarville University. Well, it was sort of held at Cedarville University. The address given for the invitational was Cedarville University's address. We drove through the small campus and could find nary a cross country meet. At the end of our drive through the school's grounds, we saw what appeared to be a cross country meet across a country road and adjacent to a cornfield. The area was some sort of preservation/ prairie area that was owned by the university. It was, fortunately, the site of the Beavercreek Invitational. We didn´t arrive with too much time to spare but the timing worked out because as we were walking from our car we saw the runners making their way to a grassy expanse and realized we were close to the starting line. So we stopped there to watch the runners start. 

We weren't 100% sure that Alyssa was going to run. After Friday´s practice, she mentioned that her hip hurt. It didn't hurt as bad as a pulled muscle but she was sore and felt it when she moved. It was not any better Saturday morning and she asked us if she should tell her coaches prior to the run. We said that she should tell them and if she was in any doubt about whether she should run or not, to not run. She's made such great improvements with each meet- we wouldn't want her to feel bad, literally from the pain and figuratively from feeling bad if her running speed was impacted and she didn't have a good race time. Plus, she may damage whatever was wrong even more. Anyway, we saw her line up with the rest of the runners and it was obvious that she was going to run :).

Despite her less then perfect feeling body, she had yet another PR and shaved off almost ten seconds from her time of the last meet. She averaged about a 6:33 minute mile. She finished seventh for the school and was in the top twenty of the 110+ runners that competed in the girls varsity race. The Springboro varsity girls came in second place out of eight schools that were in the invitational.

The bus transporting the runners didn't arrive back at our high school until about 2:00 pm (this race was unusual- but nice, in that middle school races were done first and the high school races later. The girls varsity race started at 11:00 am which meant she didn't have to wake up super early to catch the bus to Cedarville. On Friday, I talked to a mom who has a middle school runner who said she had to get her daughter to the school by 6:20 am Saturday morning to catch the middle school bus going to Cedarville). 

Alyssa ate then showered and then the girls and I along with Alyssa´s friend Avery headed to Wal-Mart to the nail salon that's located inside Walmart. Avery and Alyssa got their nails filled in while Abby had acrylic nails put on her fingernails. The girls' nails look great but, man, did it take a long time. We were gone over two hours. That's a longer than ideal time to be in a Wal-mart ;).

Donnie has grilled out nearly every Saturday and Sunday evening the past month and a half but we decided to go out to eat Saturday evening. We went to Bibibop in Centerville. It´s fast food but the concept is like Chipotle and the food is Korean (I´m sure Americanized but still it's Asian inspired). Donnie and I had had it before and liked it but the girls had never had it. Alyssa liked it but Abby thought it was just ok. We went to Kohl's afterward because Alyssa was hoping to find something she wanted. She didn´t but Abby did.

Sunday was church watching in the morning, followed by the grocery store for Abby and me and the running store for Donnie and Alyssa to get new shoes. It rained in the afternoon which was perfect for staying home and getting things done around the house- a nap, reading, laundry, school work for the girls, just things inside. It was nice doing all those things snug as bugs inside the house. And that was our weekend.

Just a few pictures- I didn´t get any great ones of Alyssa running. She was always with a big group of girls. So I just have a few from the beginning. Here the girls are walking towards the starting area.

The girls' coaches give some last minute advice/ encouragement. One of her coaches is a teacher at another district who must come straight from her teaching job to coach the girls after school for two hours. I´m grateful that the coaches are willing to coach in addition to having full time jobs. When Alyssa played select soccer, we paid thousands of dollars for the training she received- it was super expensive but coaching was also most of the coaches full time jobs so the fees didn´t seem that outrageous in light of that. Our high school charges a small ¨pay to play¨ fee each season but it is nothing compared to the fees we paid for select soccer. 

Getting ready to run...

And they are off...

The course was pretty- at least the small portion of it that we saw

I didn´t mean to take pictures of bystanders- we were standing at mile one to cheer the girls on when I noticed people were walking to another area to see the runners. We aren´t familiar with the course so we had no idea where the runners would be going- which is why we followed where others were headed. I realized that Alyssa was going to get to the point we were heading before we were. I started to run to catch up but realized it would be futile (I don´t run anywhere near a 6:33 mile...). So I thought I´d take a picture from where I was standing hoping to get Alyssa in the frame. Nope, well, got her legs.