A.M. Today is the 20th anniversary of my baptism. When I was 12 years old I used to run a lot around a group of lakes in a park in Moscow. It was an interesting coincidence that 7 years later at the age of 19 I was baptized in one of those lakes. I cannot possibly describe the difference this change of direction 20 years ago has brought into my life. There are many things to mention, but here is one. Growing up I have overheard many people predict that I would never marry. They had their reasons, but they were looking at things through the eyes of the world, and not through the eyes of faith. In spite of a good measure of social awkwardness, or perhaps turning that weakness into strength, I was married within 3 months after returning from an LDS mission, and now after almost 16 years we are expecting our 8th child. Did a time trial with Julia and Jacob for 800 meters on the track. Joseph assisted with Jacob's time trial. The target for Jacob was to start out in 50 seconds for the first 200 and then hang on to dear life. Jacob ran the splits of 49, 53, 51 and 52 to finish in 3:25.6, which is a PR by 8 seconds, and the first time under 3:30. This gives us high hopes for the win in the Thanksgiving 800 as the course record for the times I've timed it is 3:28 and was set by Joseph last year. I would, however, feel more comfortable if he entered the race with a sub-3:15 PR, which he will probably have by Thanksgiving. Joseph ended up running 3:23. He was running in front. He forgot how fast Jacob was and thought that he could just comfortably coast through the whole deal. I had to prod him several times to speed up as Jacob several times almost ran into him. Then I paced Julia. Her target was also to go out at 50 seconds per 200 pace but it was more of a keep your head above water rather than a dream pace. Her splits were 47, 51, 51, 47 - total time 3:16.6 which is a 10 second PR. I was quite happy with that. This was a good step for her to get closer to breaking the 7:00 mile. At least it gives her the confidence that she can get to half-way on pace with good 10+ second margin from an all out 800. We ran a cool-down, so the total mileage was 1 for Jacob, 2 and for Julia and Joseph. Then we went home and I ran 3 with Jenny. Benjamin was supposed to run 7 at the Scout Camp. I ran 7 more to make the total 12 miles. P.M. William asked me if he could get a watch. I told him he had to break 2:15 in the 400 on the track without holding my hand. This was quite a challenge as his best is 2:21 with the hand, and he had not yet run the full 400 without holding a hand. But I knew that he needed to achieve this milestone if he had any hopes of winning the Thanksgiving 400 meter race (3-4 age division). He agreed, so I took all of the kids that were home to the track. William ran 2:25 with the splits of 33, 35, and then 1:17 for the last 200. He was running OK in the first 200, but then lost focus, it was not a matter of fitness. This was good progress, but he had not reached the goal that he had the fitness to reach. So I explained to him that he needed to try again. He almost got it in the second try. His first 100 was 29, then 34. I thought he had it in the bag, but then he tripped and took his time to get up. He still finished in 2:27, but he will have to try again to get the watch. Stephen was in a bad mood, but we decided to see what he could do for 100 meters. Normally the result for a 23 month old in that condition is DNF at best, otherwise DNS. However, somehow Jenny and Julia managed to dance in front of him making a lot of noise and he got through 100 in 46, which is his new record. I think right now he could crack 40 in better mood or with more bad mood fix practice. He needs to be in the low 30s to win the Thanksgiving 100 (0-2 age division). Then Joseph, Jacob, and Julia wanted to do timed sprints. First Julia raced Joseph. Joseph won, but his time got messed up. Julia got 19.6. Then I ran with them individually. Joseph got 19.0, Julia got 19.8. Then I ran with Jacob - he surprised me with 20.1. That is really good speed for a 6 year old! Maybe not that great for a sprinter, but definitely good for a distance runner. Then Joseph wanted to run 200. We did it in 39.8, which is his new record. I ended up with about a mile total of running.
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