What are the odds?

When we arrived at the Arcadia Invitational, Kevin and I found seats and watched a race or two while waiting for Brandon's race to start.  Then a lady sat beside me and starting talking.  She asked if I was watching a family member.  I told her my daughter was running in the evening but right then I was getting ready to watch her boyfriend.  I asked who she was watching and she told me her nephew.  I asked where she was from and she said CA but her nephew was from Utah.  I asked where in Utah and she said Riverton but she didn't know which high school.  I about started laughing!

It was Brandon's aunt!  She about died when I told her that was who we were watching as well!  She took a picture of us and sent it to her brother (Brandon's dad) who couldn't believe it!

Seriously, what are the odds?

CA Trip

We had a really nice time in CA over the weekend!  Kevin, McKayla and I flew out on Friday morning.  We got on the flight with no problem.  The first thing we did after landing and getting our rental car was take McKayla to a park so she could get in a run.  Then we had lunch and went to the Los Angeles Temple.  McKayla was baptized/confirmed for 26 individuals.  Kevin got to do the baptizing and confirming.  I handed out towels and was confirmed for some names myself.

Then we headed to Venice Beach.  Kevin and I used to go there when we lived in CA.  It has so much character.  This time we saw several street performers including a guy on roller blades playing an electric guitar with his amp strapped to his back.  McKayla thought it was weird that they have "Muscle Beach" a weight-lifting gym right on the beach.  We saw a sport that was new to us - Paddle Tennis.

Then we fought traffic for more than 2 hours to get to our hotel - made us all very grateful we do NOT live in California.  We got dinner and relaxed - read, watched TV, and headed to bed early.

Saturday morning I went running but mostly we relaxed and watched lots of NCIS re-runs.  Then we headed to the track meet.  Brandon ran first - in the open 400m.  He had a season PR.  The girls 4x400m team ran okay.  McKayla ran next in the 1 mile and did great!  Then it was Clay and Michael's turn in the 400m invitational.  Michael finished 3rd in a PR and Clay 4th.    Then Brady ran the seeded 3200m.  He ran a PR by 12 or 13 seconds.  McKayla ran the Invitational 3200m and got a PR by 16 seconds.  Last was the boys 4x400 team.  They ran a PR but were disappointed to finish 3rd when they thought they could do 1st.  The time they ran would have won last year.

After all that, we all headed to Denny's to eat dinner - even though by then it was 11pm.  We didn't even get back to the hotel until 12:15 am so we cancelled our reservations on the earlier flight and took the flight at noon.  We ended up all getting 1st class so it worked great!

Fun, fun trip!  The only drawback was that I did get sunburned.  (I should learn to act on promptings immediately - I did think of sunscreen earlier in the week).

Arcadia Results - Goals Met

McKayla's goals were to get under 5 minutes in the mile and to run a 10:45 in the 3200m at the Arcadia Invitational this weekend.

SHE DID IT!

Her time in the mile was 4:59.35.  This gives her the 21st fastest time in the nation this year!  (But only the 5th fastest Utahn - does Utah have more than it's fair share of great distance runners or what?)

Her time in the 3200m was 10:45.66.  This gives her the 62nd fastest time in the nation this year (but the 4th fastest Utahn).

AWESOME! 

Arcadia

Kevin, McKayla and I leave Friday morning for Arcadia, CA home of the Arcadia Invitational.  McKayla and I went last year and had a great time (and she ran well).

Arcadia bills itself as the Nation's Premiere Track Meet.  It boasts 152 U.S. Olympians and 24 National Records.  Arcadia has minimum time standards you must meet to even apply.  Then they only allow a limited number of participants so they take the very top marks for each event.  This year they said they turned away a "few thousand" qualified entries.

Then, they further breakdown the accepted entries into open, seeded, and invitational categories with the invitational being the best of the best.  Last year McKayla ran in the open divisions for both the 3200m and the mile.  This year she made the Invitational list for both events!  She is pretty excited!

The only drawback is the less than 3 hours between events (something her coach has never let her do before (usually only one event per day).

Her goal is to break 5 minutes in the mile and to run the 3200m in 10:45.  I hope she can do it!

track last week

Shanley ran in the region JV meet on Wednesday and got a PR in the 100m!

McKayla ran the 1600m and the 800m leg of the medley relay at the UVU Invitational on Saturday.  She took 3rd in the 1600m and felt like she could have gone faster.  Her time was pretty good for her first 1600m of the year so her coach was pleased. 

The medley relay team set the school record!  Woohoo!  She didn't even run her best-ever 800m time but was still good enough to help her team take the record by 3 seconds!

The boys medley relay team set the school record too but they were actually trying to break the state record and missed it by .42 seconds!  They still ran the 5th fastest time in the nation this year.  I hope they try again a little later in the season!