Trail Running, CC and Dom's 14th

So yesterday after bailing out of work at noon I headed over to Petrifying Springs to run as far as I felt like going...no real plan. I knew there were tons of off road trails back in the woods but had not seen any of them since highschool when we used to drop acid and sneak in there at night to tromp around. So I pulled up and put on the NBM....and happened to look up and see what could sort of pass for a trail heading straight up....cool. I ended up doing 5 miles on off road trails all over the damn place and LOVED it. Took forever but it felt incredible and I was a dirty puppy when I was done...exhausted as well....good stuff there..

Today cross country was cancelled for both the boys due to the air quality drifting over from the Minnesota fires...damn shame...such beautiful country burning away.

Vincents coach started running him with the faster kids this week and stopped over last night to drop something off for V and hopped out of his truck to chat a bit. This dude loves to talk...holy smak! But he was saying to me that he bets V shaves a minute of his time from last weeks meet and I kind of chuckle....looked him in the eye and said.."bet it's more than that." And I bet it is too....he's itching to race and now that he knows his hip is better...he's throwing himself into his training and I can't wait to see what he does this weekend. He wants to go varsity this year....he needs to run an 18 minute 5K to do that. His fastest one ever was 21 and some change when he was 13 years old. He ran a 21 minute 5K this last fall with NO training...I'm thinking the 18 minute one won't be too big of a reach. The big thing that sucks...is that his schools cross country squad is so small that they don't even have enough guys running varsity to score points at the MEETS! How freakin lame is that. They have 3 varsity guys...they have to run 5 in order to score points. There's some fast kids on JV....Vincent took 3rd out of 7 for the JV squad...but damn. How crappy to do all this training without any hopes of doing anything with it. If V bumps up to varsity they'll still be 1 short. Blah..drives me nuts...they have a million kids out for their shit football team.

Dom's first meet is next Thursday. We ran 400 meter intervals on his birthday to celebrate. He didn't even complain. I've said it before and I'll say it again...if you have to have kids....have a Dom...can't beat him. And he'll be at that meet....rocking his ghetto Vibrams and running till he barfs...cause that's how he rolls.

Each year on their birthdays...or pretty close to it....I write each of the kids a letter and tell them about their year...what the accomplished...places they went....things they liked. And as I was writing Dom's last night...I was marveling again and how blessed I am with all my children...but him especially. He was not born under the best circumstances...my ex-husband and I were already separated and had a divorce in the works, among many other things....so he had shit stacked against him before he even got here. And in spite of that...or maybe because of that...he has turned into the most remarkable person. Overflowing kindness, trustworthy with a heart that barely fits in his chest. I remember when he was really young...maybe 4 or 5...and at church before they went off to their Sunday school class they would go up and sit with the pastor and he would tell them a story. Well this particular Sunday the pastor had a little throne up there and he let a few of the kids sit there and tell what they would do if they were king. Dom was the last kid to sit in it...and when pastor asked him...Dom put his hands on the arms of the chair....looked out into the congregation and said clear as a bell " I will save the people."

And you know what? I think he will.

Happy Birthday Dom

xoxoxo