Bob Firman Invitational

Andrew is running cross country at the junior high again this year.  The high school cross country team goes to the Bob Firman Invitational in Boise every year.  This is a big race put on by Nike with teams from several states.  Three of the boys on the junior high team were traveling with their parents and older siblings to the race in Boise and were going to run the middle school race. They needed five boys to make a complete team and were hoping Andrew and a few others could join them.  After a few weeks of trying to figure out if there was space in the vans to take a few junior high boys the final verdict was that their wasn't room and they couldn't go.  I could tell Andrew was disappointed so I decided if all they needed was a ride I would drive them up to Boise.

I had a lot of people tell me I was brave to take a baby and a bunch of junior high boys all that way but what they were forgetting is that I have the easiest baby in the world (I know you think I'm exaggerating but I'm not) and that I had three terrific teenagers with me.  We had a great weekend!  I was so glad I took these boys and they got to experience such an amazing race!

The three boys I took to the meet.

I knew these kids were good runners.  Their junior high meets are against the other Ogden District schools and the other teams really don't even have a chance.  We usually come close to sweeping the top 10 at each race.  It is a short season for them so it was great to get the opportunity to throw in another meet.  This was a completely different experience for these boys.  This was a big race with over 200 runners from schools from five different states.  Not only were there a lot of runners, but there were a lot of fast runners.  I warned Andrew to get out fast so he wasn't stuck in the back of the pack.  I was thrilled to see him come around the first corner towards the front of the pack.

It was a 3000 meter race around a park.  We were able to run to a few different spots along the course to watch.  Towards the end I could tell that Andrew was starting to hurt.  This was really the first time I've seen him in a race push himself to that point.  It was great to see him and his teammates step it up at a bigger meet.  Andrew finished in 29th place and had several of his teammates finish close to him.  I knew they had done well but it was hard to tell with so many schools there where they would come out in the team score.  After watching the middle school girls race (Mt. Ogden also had six girls there to make a team) we headed over to where they had the results posted.  The boys race had come down to a tie breaker with the 6th runner and Mt. Ogden won out of 23 teams!  Our sixth place runner was over sitting on the grass because he wasn't feeling well but was soon mobbed by his teammates for winning the race for them.  I was so proud of those boys for running so hard and doing so well!

Andrew and his teammate Ben sprinting to the finish.

The boys were thrilled with the trophy they won!

With the girl's team with their 3rd place trophy and with Bob Firman, founder of the race.

Click here if you are interested in watching a video of the race.  It really is impressive to see how far up these boys were in such a huge race.  We got a late start on our drive home since the middle school races were the last races of the day.  I thought the boys would be so worn out they would fall asleep but they were so excited they all lasted until almost midnight when we got home.  I'm so happy for this great group of kids!