A.M. All kids except Benjamin rested for the cross-country meet tonight. Benjamin ran 2 miles out with me, and 2 miles back, total of 4. I did total of 12. Picked up in the last 0.5 to about 5:40 pace, but it was a harder effort because it was uphill. P.M. Cross-country meet at Kiwani's Park. 3 K distance. Benjamin won overall with 10:42. Grant Gardner was second with 10:49. They both improved from the last time when it was 10:54/11:04, but Benjamin stayed ahead. There was a rabbit that got Benjamin going at a good pace early for the first 1 K or so, and he pulled away from Grant. But then Benjamin felt the pace was too fast and eased off to rest. This was enough for Grant to catch up. Then Benjamin rested behind him for some time and turned it on with about 800 to go as he usually does. This was enough to create a 7 second gap, but not enough to break 10:30 which we hoped for. Still 10:42 is his cross-country 3 K PR and an improvement of 50 seconds compared to last year. It might actually be a course record in for youth in the recent years - at least I do not recall a faster time. Joseph did quite well. His assignment was to break 14:00, win the Sub-bantams, and run in contact with John Hunter or Malcolm Stewart (top Bantam boys). He was not in contact the entire race, and he was not even leading the Sub-bantam race with 300 to go, but in the last 300 he kicked, passed Jayden Fitzgerald (leading Sub-bantam boy), and dipped under 14:00 by 2 seconds - 13:58. He improved his 3 K time by 14 seconds since the last race. John was ahead of him by about 10 seconds, and Malcolm beat him by quite a bit with the time of 13:05. But those boys are at least 2 years older, so that's OK for now. Jenny struggled today again, but less than in the 4 K, and ran a better time - 14:39 taking 3rd place in the Midget girls. Jacob ran a solid race finishing with 15:19 and taking 3rd in Sub-bantams. Julia struggled again and ran 15:42, which gave her 4th place in the Bantam girls. It was quite a challenge to keep track of all five kids in the same race. Afterwards Benjamin took William for 0.5 miles. | 