With such a solid group of runners this year, Ben's team decided to race together at the Nike Cross Southwest Regional in Casa Grande, Arizona. It was another fun running escape for me with our runner boy and a great success for the team!
With the high price of flights for travel the weekend before Thanksgiving, Ben and I decided to drive down, taking a couple of Ben's teammates with us, Sadio and Brett. It was a whirlwind weekend, with just two days between our driving days: one for course prep and one for racing and relaxing. The driving went smoothly, the boys slept for most of it, and the days in Arizona were nice--and noisy! Ben and I shared a house with all the guys and a few other chaperones from the boys' team (the girls had a separate house). They were all great company, but there was little down time. It was a very different experience than our mostly just-us-two experience at JOXC Nationals last year.
The boys had a great race day! In the end, they placed 9th in the region, which includes Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada, arguably one of the most difficult regions in the nation. So fantastic! The girls had a bit of a rough go, but they still felt that it was an awesome experience. Ben finished the race with a new PR of 16:13. He was the first freshman to finish in the Championship Race (2 other freshman finished faster than him in the open races), finished 4th for his team, and 122nd overall out of 235 boys. The time difference between 1st place and 235th place was only 3:30. That is how crazy fast and packed with talent the race was!
We had much of our Arizona family out to cheer Ben on, too. Aunt Angie and Uncle Mike who live in Casa Grande, Grandma Pat and Grandpa Dave Brown who came from Tucson, and Auntie Britt Booher, Auntie Dorothy and Uncle Brent Hancock all from Gilbert supported our boy with their cheers. That meant so much to both Ben and I!
It was an incredible end to an awesome season of stretching, growth and seeing what limits Ben could push. It has truly been a dream team with fantastic peer mentors who are now treasured friends to Ben. We are so proud of Ben and grateful that he could have a season like this as his first in high school. Next year will definitely look a lot different, but after this meet, Ben has set new goals and is ready to take it on.
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| Ben is really going to miss Connor when next season rolls around. |
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| Thank you, family!! We love you! |
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| One |
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| In the air. |
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| Still in the air. |
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| Two. |
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