Track Meet

Every Tuesday night in Rochester they have a kids track meet. We've forgotten all summer and finally remembered! We rushed out the door and met up with our friends the Rockne's only to get there and Gerrit wanting nothing to do with the whole event! I quickly got him in line for the 50 m dash and when it was time to run, he wouldn't so I held his hand and ran with him only to have him start crying! Yep, he cried the whole time - thank goodness it was only a 50!

We tried getting him to get in line to do the long jump but again, he wanted nothing to do with it. So we said we'd leave (after all the work getting there on time!) but he wanted to stay and watch. He finally wanted to run with dad - on the grass:

He then warmed up to the idea of running on the track - of course, opposite of the events where no one was around:

Finally he was ready to give it a try and run...unfortunately the 3 yr olds had already run the 100m! I told Adam to just get him in line, who cares if he missed his age group - the kid wants to run! So Adam goes to the starting line with him:

Can you guess what age they were up to when Gerrit ran (in the above picture)? 6 yr olds!

Here he is, happy as a lark running the 100 m dash:

The gang taking a break between races:

Gerrit wanted to race again so we waited for the 200 m dash. This time he did run with his age group.

Dad is in the lead....Gerrit checking out the competition and Dad counting how many kids he's passed (who's competetive?).

Getting a smily face at the finish line

Taking a much needed drink after that long 200 m dash

Gerrit finally wanted to do the long jump and luckily the line was much shorter than the 1st time we tried to get him to get in line. Check out that air! His furthest jump (all of 2 jumps) was 2'6"

We decided it was time to head home (even though I think Gerrit would've ran the 400 if we let him). As we were walking to the car we passed a ball diamond so the kids had to run the bases (Matt's idea)

Gerrit was safe at home, thanks to great umping by Matt and Abby

The big ribbon Gerrit received for partcipating in the track meet.

I think we'll go next year, just not on the last meet of the summer as it was pretty busy. We decided that in order for Gerrit to warm up to soccer camp (which we paid for), I'll have to brin him early enough to see what is going on and give him a chance to get use to the whole idea. Once he tries things, he loves it and has a great time, its just getting the kid to get started that is the challenge!