Faster than Me

We've known Delaney is faster at running than me, and probably everyone else in the family, at the 5k distance. However his PR was 22:00, which isn't as fast as I ran one in San Diego years ago.

That changed yesterday. I flew home from Boston, drove home, then drove 100 miles back up North to Fort Morgan for the last cross country meet of the season. This was the conference meet, and we were thinking Delaney was running JV as he missed a practice this week. After flying 2000 miles and driving 150 more, I arrived at the park and saw Delaney hanging out.

Those are the varsity boys and as I came up, Delaney said he was running Varsity still, which makes this his 7th varsity race. I think he only missed one this season, demoted to JV when another kid got faster.

We watched and cheered the JV and girls, and finally it was time for the boys varsity.

Only 4 or 5 schools, and a good day for Delaney. mid 60s, cloudy, and he said he felt good. The gun sounded, and they were off

A couple hundred yards in, Delaney had a good stride and was in the pack. Sometimes he's been drifting back, but he was in this one. They headed off across the bridge over the Platte and then came back. Around the one mile point, I was glad to see Delaney right behind another kid from his school.

Smaller strides, and I was hoping he'd keep moving, and get a good time. As I moved to the 2-ish mile point (they weren't marked), I was amazed to see three red shirts come out of the woods together. As they got closer, I saw Delaney a half step behind one kid on his team, and ahead of another.

They were moving well, and we cheered them on as they went past. There have been 7 varsity boys each meet, and Delaney's typically been the 7th one, closing out their school, though far from last in the meets.

However he did well today and as I hurried over to the finish, I hoped he could hang on.

If you look close, you can see the timer counting. I'm not sure if he crossed at 20:59 or 21:00, but either way it's a PR for him, and faster then I've ever run a 5k at any point in my life.

Delaney finished strong, in 5th place on his team, ahead of two kids that had consistently beaten him all year. I watched as coaches and all the other kids, including the two he beat, congratulated him on his run and beating the other two. It was really cool to see. Worth every minute of my drive.

The entire team.