Fabulous 400...

*Warning this a proud MaMa post*
yesterday was ms. A's first track meet of the season, she did well.  Even though we had a little of this:

stinker--still placed first.  I was surprised she stayed up!

Then there was a little of this:

her step was off by a toe, she'll get it--she placed 2nd.

She also ran the first leg in the 4 x100, the girls ran well, they took 1st:

but the race that I wanted to talk about was the last of the meet, 4 x 400.  The 400 is a HARD race, you are sprinting for a whole lap.  (my girl was running the anchor or last leg of this race)  You have to be some kind of crazy to run this race, I remember having a love/hate thing going on with it.  You feel good for about the first 250 meters, that last 150 is a BEAR, you want to DIE--RIGHT there.  You can hardly breathe, your vision is a little wonky, your legs well--there shot.  All you have left are your arms, it's almost magical how when you pump your arms your legs respond--almost like a puppet.  That last 150 right before you run in front of the stands is lonely--there is USUALLY no one there to yell for you--you have to do this bit on your own.....

My girl she is quiet, not necessarily shy--just quiet--much like her dad.  What I found out after the race is that my girl, told the anchor of the other team that if she was in front she would do ANYTHING to catch her.  BRAZEN--YES.  When she told me I wondered what had possessed her.  Then I realized what HAD possessed her.  It was the same thing that had DRIVEN me and MY mother AND my brothers.  The need to win at ANY cost (fairly of course!), to dig down SO deep you didn't even know where the extra came from.

The race began.  The girl that ran the first leg for our school hadn't run track before and she did a GREAT job of keeping the girl from the other team within about 5 meters.  I was standing at the last 100 (my favorite place to stand to "remind" the runners that they have arms and they should pump them.  It's also a great place for that last shot.  that face of pure--I've-given-all-I-have-and-I-wanna-die.)  My friend and I yelled at her to pump her arms--she looked over at us like WHO ARE YOU?  We yelled EVEN more.
The second leg girl, well...she is a distance runner, not a sprinter and lost a WHOLE lot of ground.  The third leg girl gets the baton and begins to run--she did well gaining back about 5 meters.  Then she hands off to my girl.   The space between the runners is an ALMOST impossible distance (there has been some debate over the actual length, I will just say it was about 150 meters) My girl takes off sprinting,  at about 250 meters I notice something--she is actually GAINING on the girl!  I start yelling my guts out (my family tells me I am loud and embarrassing, which well...I am!  The kids from the other team that were standing a long the fence confirmed that by looking at me--I don't care!)  My girl is still running comfortably-still gaining, she hits the last curve and just seems to eat up the distance in nothing flat.  (the other girl was STILL running, and NO she wasn't jogging. The kids along the fence from her team were yelling helpful things like--"run faster because she is going to catch you!"  I took one look at her face and realized there was NO more gas left in her tank.)  I think my girl's team realized about the same time I did that she had a chance to WIN the race!  They started screaming their heads off!  She hit the line of the last 100 and she was at the shoulder of the girl, she then passed the girl using EVERY ounce of energy and finished 5 meters AHEAD!

(I have NO idea how I kept my camera still for these shots, I was screaming SO much!)  

I tell this story for a few reasons.  This is MY blog and I want to, this moment was one we want to remember, and lastly this is NOT a normal occurrence.  You see in ALL my time running track I've only ever seen that come from behind and win scenario a HANDFUL of times.  It was INCREDIBLE!  And yes, I even yelled, "that was MY girl!"  The other team's kids REALLY looked at me then--again--I don't care!

Mr. Hubby and I have been telling this girl that she is a 400 runner, she didn't want to believe us, well yesterday PROVED that she is.  BONUS, she shaved 7 seconds off of her time!  7 seconds!  Now that the fire is in her blood she wants to beat my times--GOOD, gives her something to strive for!  (I'm all about setting realistic goals...)

After the competition was all over we went over to her coaches to check her out to take her home.  There is a new coach who was saying how impressed she was of my quiet/competitive girl.  "She can jump, run, hurdle--she's pretty brave."  I looked at her and asked her if she knew what my girl's nickname was.  Neither coach knew.  I said, "it's Psycho.  and I gave her that name."  they nodded their heads in agreement (either that it was fitting OR that I was insane for giving my child that nickname.)  

It was a good day.  Yes, I was proud of my girl.  She put her WHOLE self into what she was doing, she knows FULL well that it doesn't ALWAYS work out that way.  But today, we will take the win.