Runners of the YEAR!

I'm delighted to announce that you are looking at Catalayah Elementary School's male and female RUNNER OF THE YEAR for 2019-2020! Whooo-hoooo!!!

I mentioned in a previous post that the kids' PE teacher, Mrs. S, allowed and encouraged all the kids to continue running and submitting distances to her after they began distance learning on April 6th. Both of my big kids had set goals to earn their 100 mile medals this school year, but due to some issues with the new distance logging system, sickness, and weather this proved much harder than they anticipated. Last year when Bri was in 3rd grade, she earned her 100 mile medal in February. This year, she had only earned her 25 mile medal by the same point in the year. Bren was doing a little better . . . he was just a few miles away from his 50 mile medal when school was dismissed for Spring Break. 

Once Mrs. S announced that she would continue logging running miles during distance learning, I encouraged the kids to keep working toward their goals. They were able to track how far they were running each day on their watches, and I would email Mrs. S with their distances. Many days, this was a great way for them to cope with frustration and changes, and other days they just enjoyed getting out and running!

After just a few days, they both decided they wanted to calculate how far they had to run each day to reach their 100 mile goal. I was trying hard to not be pushy about the running, but I really wanted them to reach their goal, too! I was very happy with how diligent they were about logging those miles. They ran when the weather wasn't perfect. They ran when they didn't feel like it. They ran when they were tired. They even got up early and ran before church on several different Sundays! They ran together, they ran individually, they ran with Daddy, they ran while I walked, and several times Grampy took them out to run with him. Some days they were very motivated, and other days I had to push them a bit. They even ran some on our treadmill!

After they started running really consistently, those miles started wracking up in a hurry. They both easily earned their 50 mile medals and started working toward their gold (100 mile) medals. Mrs. S was so encouraging, and would release these cute videos every Friday on the school FB page announcing the medal winners for that week. I took these photos of the kids running for her to use in the videos.

Bren hitting those goals!

Thumbs up for running!

Brianna running with a smile on her face!

She didn't give up!

Running together!

When there was about a week left to submit miles, Mrs. S told me that Brianna was in the running for female runner of the year. The runner of the year is the runner that logs the most miles out of everyone in the school, and last year Bri was runner-up after logging well over 100 miles. Mrs. S never mentioned anything about Bren being in the running, and since other boys had earned their 100 mile medals several weeks before he did, I assumed that he was not close.

Mrs. S permitted students to submit miles until Wednesday, May 13th, and I encouraged the kids to log miles every day they could. Brianna logged a total of 110 miles, while Brenson logged 115 miles for the year! Whether or not they were the top runners for the year, I was proud of the diligence and discipline it had taken them to log those miles!

When the video was released this past Friday (the LAST day of school . . . yay!), I watched it by myself and was so pleased when Brianna was announced as Female Runner of the Year. Then, Bren was announced as Male Runner of the Year, and I was shocked! I hadn't even considered that he might get it, and had a very hard time keeping a straight face long enough to show the kids the video! They were both so cute when they saw their names . . . almost shy about it, but so delighted as well.

When we were finally able to pick up the kids' stuff from school last week, their medals and foot charms were all in a bag for them. Each foot charm represents 5 miles ran. They will also receive trophies soon.

Look at all those foot charms!

Gotta love all the hardware!

Yay for crushing those goals!

Those medals represent a lot of hard work and perseverance!

Running Club has always been about a lot more for my kids than just physical fitness, and that has certainly been true this year. I love that they were able to see how their hard work and diligence paid off. I love that they had a healthy outlet for their feelings about all the craziness and changes this year brought us. And, I love that they set goals and were able to keep at them until they were reached. 

I sincerely hope these are the lessons that will stay with them long after the medals have tarnished and the trophies are decayed. Congrats to my male and female RUNNER OF THE YEAR!!!