Feeling Like Proud Parents

Saturday morning Tangy had her first cross-country meet. Her race started at 8:50 which is really early for Bobby and I on a Saturday. We had no idea how a cross-country meet works and how many parents would actually be supporting their child. We thought we would be one of few parents up and out in the morning. Wow were we surprised when we drove up to the meet. There were tons of people there! The meet consisted of about 10 schools from the surrounding area. The middle school boys started the race 5 minutes before the girls. There were about 75 girls in the race. We saw Tangy leave the starting line and had no idea how long it would be until we saw her again. We were waiting at the finish area as boys were passing by when we started to see a couple girls in the mix, lapping the boys. Then after about 3 girls, Tangy was there running! We were shocked! As she ran around the track to the finish line Bobby was encouraging her to run hard and not let anyone pass her. She was exhausted and she told Bobby that she was NOT going to sprint! :) She ended up placing 7th overall and 1st from her school. We were so proud or her! She was so excited to have done so well too.

It was a feeling that I've never experienced before...a feeling that "my kid just beat your kid!" :) And I'm sure it's because she learned everything from us! :) It was fun and I was so happy to see her be successful. She has worked really hard in practice this week so far because now she has that desire to do well again.

It's crazy to think that our role now is cheering & supporting our kid in a sport instead of actually being the kid in the sport. Selfishly, I wasn't too excited about getting up early and going to the meet; but after going to the meet I am totally glad I did and am looking forward to the next one.