Surprised, But Not Really

Sometimes things surprise you, sometimes they don't, and sometimes you are surprised and yet not surprised

I experienced all sorts of that on Saturday!

The ever-full-of-surprises Brenna has been running cross country, doing summer training, and faithfully running miles and miles with her team.  Last week the team had their time trial meet, and Brenna ran well enough to be on varsity for the first week!  She actually placed 8th, but due to someone being ineligible, she took the 7th and last spot on varsity!

So Saturday was the first meet, Capital Invite...23 high schools, swarms and swarms of runners. Brenna ran with 62 freshman girls and placed 7th!  Amazing job, making it look so easy even though I know she was working so hard.  And that was also enough to claim the #7 spot among all her teammates...still varsity!  I'm so proud of her.  It doesn't surprise me that she's worked so hard and given it so much, but it does surprise me that the results have been a spot on varsity as a freshman!  And the sweetest bunch of girls, I'm so thankful.

New spikes!

 

The Oly freshman four!

 

Brenna coming through about the half-way point.

 

And here she is sprinting into the finish!

 

Another surprise, that shouldn't realize surprise me, is how much Alex poured himself into his sister's race.  Alex isn't running for the team this year because of all the music conflicts.  Very tough decision to make, disappointed yet understanding coach, disappointed but certain runner.  So Alex threw himself into his new role: coaching and cheering for his sister!  He took the freshman girls on their warm-up run.  Once the race started, he ran from one location to another along the course, cheering Brenna on and telling her to "GO! GO!".  It warmed my heart to see him get so involved in her race.

Brenna getting a little pre-race pep talk from her big brother!

 

I don't know the lady in this picture, but Brad just happened to catch Alex in the background, white shorts/grey shirt, sprinting across the field to go find another spot to cheer after Brenna went by!

 

 

 

 

 

A little later in the day it was time for Beth's first cheer game of the season!  It was a beautiful day to be in the shade, so we were thankful for a shady track!

And the surprise here?  I think my girls have hit my height.  I'm not really surprised, because I've known it was coming.  But I'm surprised to find myself there already.

 

I was making the girls shrink down a little bit.  Not working.  Technically I could crop this picture and make it look like they really are littler than me, but that would be just deceitful.  I've still got 'em both in the weight category, so there.

 

My photographer was in Seattle for a music lesson with his son, so I didn't do a very good job getting pictures.  This is it.  But they are cute!