A.M. Today was Jacob's last chance to break 7:30 before turning 6. So we did a time trial on the track.We drove to the track so that Jacob would not have to run too much for his warm-up. A little kid needs only maybe a quarter mile jog, no more, before a mile time trial, and he does need to do strides. Joseph, Jenny, and Benjamin were assisting in addition to myself. Aside from bragging rights a personal Palm Pilot was at stake. Yes, I know Palm Pilots are old, but my income, while good and sufficient for our needs, does not yet allow us to provide more expensive devices for a 6 year old even if they earn them. In the meantime, Palm Pilot can be used to read the scriptures, to play chess, and to learn about various mathematical functions on the calculator among other things. Jacob was quite excited about the prospective of owning his first electronic gadget. The first lap was 1:52, just as planned. On the second lap I became concerned because we did it in 1:55 with me having to keep asking Jacob to give me a low five. So Joseph, Benjamin, and I explained to Jacob in no uncertain terms that he needed to speed up. His natural tendency to obey came handy, and he sped up completely on faith believing that even if he thought he could not do it, if Joseph, Benjamin, and I thought that he could, then he could. His third lap was 1:50. This dropped Jenny - she said she was not feeling good. We do need some instruction that when you are helping your little brother in a time trial, even if you do not feel good, you should just push through it and keep the pace. But it was not the time for this type of instruction as we were trying to get Jacob to do another lap in 1:50, which would give him 7:30 for the mile. He hesitated some, hitting the next 200 in 57, so now he needed a 53. Then he got going and hit 26 for the next 100. Now he had it in the bag, more or less, but a 5 year old kid never has it in the bag. He can always panic and slip to some out of character pace, and lose the precious bird that was already in his hand. So in the last 100 I started clapping out the rhythm and saying ta-ta-ta, as Benjamin and Joseph kept cheering. His last 100 was 24, and he finished the full mile (not just 1600!) in 7:27.8. I ordered the Palm Pilot as soon as I got to the computer. Jenny, Benjamin, and Joseph ran back to the house (about 1 mile), while I drove Jacob. Afterwards, Joseph and Jenny ran another mile with me, and I ran 2 more with Julia, and 3 more alone with a pickup in the last 1.5 in 8:36 - this gave me the total of 8. Benjamin ran 6. P.M. 0.5 with William. | 