Speed Racer

I was so proud of Dani today at her track meet. She runs the 110 meter hurdles and the 800 meter. She is constantly finishing fourth on the hurdles and does her best every time she goes out on the track. I have always told her from the start that as long as she gives 100% of her best then that is all I can ask. She comes back a little gloomy and I ask her, did you give your best. She'll say yeah and things are better.

She originally didn't want to run the 800 meter race and was a bit disappointed when Coach said that it was her event. The first week she ran the first lap and walked most of the second with a super burst of energy at the end giving her a time of 3.40. The next two meets were about the same but the walking became less, she learned to pace herself a little bit better and her times went down 10 seconds each time. I always told her I was proud of her ~ and I was because Lord knows if I did it then I would be dead on the field with my inhaler hanging out of my mouth!

Tonight she did her hurdles and owned her fourth spot. She is okay with that especially since she hit her ankle on the 2nd to last hurdle. Dani pulled through and never missed a bit. She came back and listened to my Disney mix stick and continued to stay warm. She ate her apple and drank her Gatorade. The 800 was called, she gave me a kiss, I told her I loved her and to do her best. She was in Lane 2 with the other 9 girls who run it for her school (there were around 30 girls total). The starting gun goes off and it's on from the beginning. Dani got to the front group of girls and she paced herself. First lap round I holler for her and tell her she's doing a good job. She went around the bend for the second lap and I was prepared for her to slow down but it never happened! She rounded all the corners and was still running ~ even got a burst of speed at the end and passed a couple girls!! Dani came in around 10th place with a time of 3.15 and I was so proud I could have cried.

She hugged her coaches and they all told her "Good girl, way to go" and she ran up the stands to hug me with the happiest smile I have ever seen. You would have thought we won gold in the Olympics! I told her I was so proud of her for doing such a great job but the best part was she was proud of herself. Her goal has always been to just beat her own time and do her best to get around and never stop but today she was on cloud 9.