A Great Day at Sunfair

The day started at 4:30 a.m. and ended when we got home about 8:30 p.m. - a really long day - but one that our family will remember for a very long time.

We first dropped Kirsten off to make the ride to Yakima with the team, and we picked up a couple of extras to drive up in our car with the twins - Mitch Yoke and Anthony Armstrong. We arrived at Franklin Park nice and early to help Kraals and Snyders with camp set up and so that Gary could check in with the lead photographer and find out the section of the course they wanted him to cover. He ended the day with about 3500 pics, having covered 9.5 miles (he wore his GPS)!

This course is a difficult one with one steep uphill and another longer less steep incline that they run twice and then the corresponding downhills. PRs are not usually made on this one. The freshmen run a 2 mile race, upper classmen 3 miles. Kirsten was hoping to finish in the top fifty and she made it at #44 with a time of 16:36, a PR for her! She's making good progress this season.

Kevin WON the senior class boys race with a time of 17:11.0 and Kyle came in 3rd at 17:18.6!!  WooHoo!!! Very proud mama here. :)  The fun thing was that the boys who were #2 and #4 were also twins!

In the varsity flights our Kamiakin boys did us all real proud coming in FIRST (as a team) in both our school division and overall. Each boy placed in single digits in their race (2 #1 wins), including one guy who took the SAT that morning and made it to the park in time to warm up for his race! Our girls team didn't score as well, but several girls came in with top 15 placements.

The competition was amazing with so many nationally-ranked individuals and teams. We're blessed here in Washington with some great talent. The Glacier Peak girls have an incredible team led by Amy Eloise Neal who  broke the course record with a blistering 17:09.3. The thing is the girls who placed #2 and 3 had impressive times of 17:19 and 17:49 and the top six girls all broke 18 minutes!

Kamiakin's own Anthony Armstrong (ranked #5 nationally) ran with Andrew Gardner (#10) for most of the race, causing some angst in the Kamiakin crowd who are used to seeing him leaving everyone far, far behind. But he's a smart runner and knows his competition and just ran with Gardner and Vargas (Eisenhower) until coming around the bend for the finish line. That's when Anthony's kick overpowered Gardner for the win, 15:07 to Gardner's 15:09.

With all the excitement to see our boys and girls run, I ran more than I had for a long time - thank goodness it wasn't the first meet of the season so I have broken myself in a little. Still, DH and I are both recovering physically from the effort. :) And ESPN-Rise published two of his photographs on their website Sunfair coverage. He's thrilled, to say the least. :)

A great day indeed.