#hedoessportsnow

I went looking for this post in my history and began to panic a little bit when I couldn't find it.  Then I saw that it never made it out of the draft stage and realized a better title for the post should be #mamaneedstoblogmore.  So here it is - months late but you know what they say.

 

Spencer came home on the first day of school and announced to me that he wanted to run on the cross country team.  I was a little surprised because he has never really had much interest in running in the past but I was also a tiny bit thrilled that he was putting himself out there to try a new thing.

 

Now that the season is over I can honestly tell you that it was a great experience for him.  Many of his friends were on the team as well so he had a great time hanging around with them at meets and practice.  His favorite teacher was the XC coach so that was an added bonus.  He never complained once about too much running or not wanting to go to practice.  He was pretty good at it too.  He will never be the fastest kid out there but he will never be last either.  He was always middle of the pack - usually choosing to run with a small group of team mates. 

The part of our first foray into XC that I never want to forget is what a scramble it was that first day he decided to join.   As I said it was the first day of school which means the kids come home with paperwork on top of paperwork to be filled out and returned.  He informed me that XC practice started the next day and he was supposed to have a physical before participating.  Since his last physical was over six months prior - it was not considered valid.  So I got on the phone and called a local medi center that told me that they did sports physicals for thirty five dollars and they closed at six that evening.  Hailey had cheer practice that same night with cheer photos that I had to get her to.  As soon as Trent got home (from his first day back as well) I told him that he had to hurry up and get Spencer to the medi center for his physical and then they had to go out and buy him a pair of running shoes.  Since he had never been a sporty kid in the past, his new "tennis shoes" that we bought for school were glorified Van's - nothing you could do real running in.

So everything worked out.  Hailey got to cheer.  Spencer got and passed his physical.  They went to the store and bought some shoes.  It wasn't until later that evening when I asked Trent where the shoes were.   When I opened the box I about fainted.  I know the day was hectic and we were all running crazy, but really?  Dr. Scholl's athletic shoes for your seventh grader?

I couldn't even speak about it.  All I could picture was an old man rocking these babies as he did laps around the mall.  There was no way I was sending my kid to school with these.   The whole thing says so much about Trent and Spencer - they are just who they are.  They don't care what other people think.  A shoe is a shoe right?

Trent said they had gone to Meijer to buy the shoes and this was all they had that fit him.  I told him that maybe they should have left Meijer and gone somewhere else - a sporting good store maybe.   In his defense, he is a weird size right now - like a men's seven which is kind of hard to find.  Dr. Scholl's to the rescue! Come on!  They are not even running shoes! Though they do have a stability bridge. 

Needless to say the next morning I returned the Dr. Scholl's and found him a pair of Nike running shoes in his size. 

This spring Spencer decided to keep with running and go out for track.  The team has their first meet tomorrow.  Just because he loves to keep me on my toes Spencer told me last night that he needs to have sprinter spikes before the meet.  So guess what we get to shop for after school today?  That kid - he is something else!