Divisionals & State

Rockwell got to run at Divisionals. Ben injured his foot, so Rockwell ran in his place. It was at Lakeside Park in Orem. 

He ran well and was able to finish right behind the other boys on the team. I thought he did awesome, but apparently he had cramps the whole race and his time was one of his worst this season. I assumed he had killed it since he was right there with the Varsity boys. After looking at the times, everyone had a slower time than they're used to.

He finished 25th with a time of 17:54. Those are slower times for a Varsity race, so I'm not sure what it was about this course. The team just needed to finish in the top 10 teams to qualify for State though, and they did that easily.

Ben wanted to run at his last State meet, so he ran on his injured foot. Rockwell was an alternate at Varsity State, so he got the swag bags and decorations and everything on the bus. He and Joel were talking about how nice it was to be alternates there as they spent the day building a bridge across the river at the park and eating their snacks from the swag bags, instead of stressing about the race. Haha!

JV State was the next weekend. Rockwell cared a lot about this race. He said he had unfinished business with this course. This was the first race where Rockwell had an asthma attack last year. He was determined to have a better race this year.

Emilie came to watch him run. I didn't get any pictures of her there, but it was sure nice of her to come support him.

He started out great. He was able to get out in the front pack, but not go out too fast.

He looked strong for the first half of the race, but we started to see the pain on his face after about a mile and a half.

The pain was written all across his face in the final stretch. He couldn't push it and was clearly struggling.

It just breaks your heart to watch. Ben rushed right over to him once he crossed the finish line.

We hung back while Ben talked to him.

He finished 14th place with a time of 17:17.50. It was definitely a way better finish time than last year, but Rockwell said he wasn't worried about the time. He wanted to FEEL better this year and to be able to run his best. His breathing was okay, but he had a cramp in his stomach. Ben Carr was over at our house that night and said that his coaches from his cross country days told him that cramps are often caused by a lack of enough oxygen. I sure hope that the pulmonologist can help us get this all figured out!

I made sure to get Levi Blumer's name on this picture. Levi is Rockwell's really good friend, and he had a breakout race. He ran sub-17. When Rockwell heard that he said, "Yes! That's the one thing I'm happy about at this race." I thought that was very awesome that he was so happy for his friend's success, especially when he was so frustrated with his own struggles.