Thursday, September 24, 2009

New sport for Jordan

We are experiencing something new this year with Jordan... "Cross Country".
Jordan is not a long distance runner so she really went out on a limb deciding to run cross. Her motivation was to do a sport to help her stay in shape for track season. But it has turned into so much more than that for her. She never is at the top of her pack but each week she improves and sets goals for herself.
One day last week she had a particular bad day at practice and came home in tears. Coach mentioned a time that she should shoot for that was longer than the other girls were encouraged to shoot for. Jordan took this as Coach not having faith in her ability or confidence in her. Going into todays meet Jordan's best time was 29 minutes 55 seconds. Coach had told Jordan that he hoped Jordan's best time would be 28 minutes 30 seconds before the season was over.
.....well, Jordan passed the finish line at 28 minutes 3 seconds today!!!! Jordan was in tears when I approached her at the finish line. I asked her what was wrong not realizing they were tears of joy. She said "Mom, I ran really good". I grabbed her and gave her a hug and then I cried myself. It's times like these that make being a parent the BEST thing in the world!
Here's Coach congratulating Jordan and telling her how proud he is of her.... But he's not as proud as I am!

2 comments:

Jen said...

That is a proud moment! Congrats to Jordan. I would see her at the finish line about a week and a half later. ha.

John Kuttenberg said...

Finishing and improvement are the two most important things in xcountry. Your daughter is and has always been a finisher and she is definitely improving. In the xcountry world that is a success.