Skating, sweating and cross country

This morning was CeCe's second skating lesson.  I have to admit, I was a little nervous.  Maybe even a lot.  We had tried on Ginny's old skates (which were Bauer) and they fit, so we had them sharpened.  We laced them up this morning and waited on the bench with baited breath.  The instructor came up, gave me a little nod and commented that we had new skates.  She inspected them and they seemed to be to her satisfaction.  And I'll have to admit, she may not be warm and fuzzy, but she does know what she's talking about.  CeCe did amazing today.  She got up on her own, more or less did everything she was supposed to and I didn't have to go out on the ice at all.  She even took a few steps going backward!  I guess the right equipment does make a difference.

On Monday Jorja brought home a note for cross country running.  It turns out their race was going to be 2 km.  That seemed like a lot to me.  There was no way our seven minute training session equaled two kilometers.  So I got a pedometer app for my phone and we set out to run 2K yesterday.  We didn't run the whole way (had to walk for a few stretches), but we did it.  And neither of our chests felt like they were on fire either.  It's amazing what even one day of conditioning will do.  It was about 25 degrees yesterday while we were running though, so we were both good and sweaty.  I sweat when I breath in the summer, so this wasn't a new feeling to me.  But for Jorja, this was apparently a new experience.  As we were nearing the end of our run, she said, 'Dad, am I ever sweating!  I think I'm sweating in parts of my body that have never sweated before.  Usually just my armpits get sweaty!'  Good times.

So with her one full run of 2K under her belt, we set off for the race today.  She made sure we had a towel along so that she could dry off when she was done.  She was anticipating another sweaty outing.  

We were so proud of her.  She finished the race, still running, in about the middle of the field.  21st place overall.  Pretty good for someone who was needing her inhaler after runs a week earlier and never ran that far before.  She was tired, but her lungs felt fine this evening.  Here are some shots of the big race.

In her Team Father Gorman blue shirt:

Her 'sharpied' number on her arm:

A little less than half way though, they came by the start/spectator area:

The final stretch:

A much deserved drink and towel:

So it was an exciting day in our house for two kids and and their sporting endeavors.  Pretty cool to see the improvement.  October 1st is the next race.  It will be interesting to see where Jorja is then.  Later.