Melayna's First Track Meet // Third Time's a Charm

 Melayna was finally able to compete in her first track meet of her 8th grade season on Tuesday night.  She has had two other meets previously scheduled but both of them were cancelled due to the cold and rainy conditions that we've had this spring.  When we woke up to rain once again on Tuesday, I was wondering if she'd even get that meet in, but thankfully the rain moved on in the early afternoon and the sun was shining by the time that Nolan and I arrived to MapleCreek Middle School where she would be running in the 100 hurdles, the 4x100 relay, the 200 hurdles, and the 4x400 relay.  (Unfortunately, Noel wasn't able to make the meet as he was coaching a high school boys meet and the two older girls had to work).

Her 100 hurdles were the first event of the night.  She has been working on starting out of the blocks for this event this year but since they had only arrived 10 -15 minutes before the meet was suppose to start, she barely had time to stretch and warm up so she decided to ditch the starting blocks.  There was also a bit of miscommunication between the starter and the announcer as he was announcing the third and final call for the girls hurdles as the race was actually starting.  Melayna had a few miss steps along the way but she didn't fall and she ended up fighting hard to finish in second.  (The timers weren't ready for the start of the race either, so no one had accurate times as they had Melayna running a really super fast 16 or 17 seconds, which would be a new PR and she doesn't think she ran quite that quick yet). 

There is Laynie over in lane three wearing the black uniform.  At this point in the race, it was anyone's race as she was right up there tied with the other two.

Then the runner from Maple Creek kicked it in to another gear and it was a race between 2nd and 3rd.

On the way home, she was talking about how uncomfortable her race was and she felt like she was flailing all over the place, but after Noel watched the video, he reassured her that she was actually in a good place for point in the season and they'd work on a few little things in the days ahead but not to be discouraged because he thought she actually had pretty good form.  That seemed to make her feel better about it.

After a few minutes, she would be back to run the second leg of the 4x100.  I tried to catch pictures of that race but we were facing right into the sun so you can't really see who the runners are.  They finished 2nd overall in that race out of 6 teams, so Melayna was happy with that.

Here they are lined up at the starting line to receive their instructions....

Melayna's third event would come over half-way through the meet as she would run the 200 varsity hurdles.  She would be in the first lane for that race and would have a much better run in this hurdle event. She finished 2nd overall and although I don't know the exact time, she thought that she was very close to a new PR in that event.

After Noel watched the video of her 200 hurdles, he told her that she ran those really well.  She just got beat by a faster girl.  There's nothing you can do about that, right?

Last up for the night was the 4x400.  She does not like to run the 400 but she says that her compromise is that if they are going to make her run it, at least she is going to run the first leg so she knows exactly how to run it and what she needs to do to be in first place when she hands off the baton.  They finished 2nd in this relay as well and she ran a 1:10.  (Not her best time, but not too bad for her this early in the season).

Here she is in lane 2 waiting for the start.

Her next meet is scheduled for Monday night at her home track....but there is also rain in the forecast so we'll see.