The Junior Olympics

Race Day was finally upon us!  And we had one nervou-cited (nervous and excited all at once) girl on our hands.  She was up and ready before dawn and spent her time pacing while the rest of us got ready.  She wasn't racing until noon though we had to be at the track by 10 am and with MadHatter having woken us all up earlier than necessary, we made it to the track by 8.  Which we won't be doing again!  That sun is brutally hot in July and an open track doesn't give off a lot of shade.  And all of that extra time just gave MadHatter too long sit around, get inside her own head and build up her nerves.  We have added a normal arrival time to the list of things we now know and shouldn't do next time.

After what seemed like days of waiting, it was time to warm up.  While MadHatter ran through her sprint drills, I went to the heat sheet boards and found which heat she was in and which table she needed to check-in at...

There were 14 heats of just 11-year-old girls!  

MadHatter was in the 4th heat.  It is all done by qualifying time - and let's just say MadHatter's time was far from her best.  In fact, is was almost a second slower than her usual.  But she made it this far and that is all that counted!

Warmed up and ready to go!

Off she went to check-in.  No parents allowed past the security fence so I said good luck, sent her off and headed to the stands to wait for her heat.

And then watched her trip over her own foot while coming off of the starting line and knew that her nerves had gotten the better of her.  She placed last in her heat.  But you know what - She will always and forever be a Junior Olympian and no one can take that away from her.  She was a bit disappointed in her performance but it didn't keep her down for long.  She said she was just happy to have been able to participate in an event that she never thought she would get past Regionals in.  She also told me that next year, if she made it, she wouldn't be so nervous because now she knew what it was all about and how it all worked.  Personally,  I was just so proud of her for setting a goal and working so hard to achieve it no matter how she placed.

And I got an Olympic athletes autograph!

We had a couple of days between events so we had to fill our time somehow.  With a waterpark just 2 miles from our hotel room, we knew we would be beating the heat for one of those days. 

And for the other day, we picked up B and went to the movies, shopping, and dinner at his indulgence spot.

Suddenly, it was Friday morning and time for the Long Jump competition.  This time she really did have to be at the track early.  With an 8 am start time and a 6 am call time we had to leave the hotel by 5:30.  Not a problem!  Once again she was up and dressed before any of us could get out of bed.

It is always a little weird when I can't be on the track watching her warm up and telling her if she is on her mark or not but thankfully one of the line judges was helping her out a bit.  It also meant that I didn't get any clear pictures of her jumping in her heat. 

She did well, but again, she said her nerves got the best of her.  She was jumping behind the line by quite a bit because she was afraid of scratching which cost her almost a foot on each jump.  You could see that she knew she wasn't doing her best but she just couldn't shake it.  She was beating her self up and it wasn't doing her any favors in helping her jump farther.  She forgets sometimes that she is still very new to this and is competing against girls that have been doing this for many years, not just months. 

After finishing her 3 jumps, she came back to the stands and we set off for home.  It would be hours before they finished running over 100 girls through their jumps but we already knew she hadn't made the top 10 (though she did finish 3rd in her heat).  When we finally had the standings we found that she had placed in the top 50.  She was a bit disappointed about that but then I explained that it means that she is one of the top 50 11-year-old Long Jumpers in the United States!  Pretty impressive if you ask me.  That seemed to cheer her up.  And then she looked at the medal-winning jumps and was sad for another few moments.  She realized that if she had just jumped what she usually did in a normal competition she would have medaled (at 5th place).  But it was only for a second and then she was back to herself saying that next year she would work even harder and take home the gold!  And I truly believe she might.

Our 12 hour drive home.  We made it in just before midnight!