{"id":12940,"date":"2023-10-28T18:56:49","date_gmt":"2023-10-29T01:56:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/?p=12940"},"modified":"2023-10-28T18:56:49","modified_gmt":"2023-10-29T01:56:49","slug":"final-xc-meet-as-a-parent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/?p=12940","title":{"rendered":"Final XC Meet as a Parent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
Final XC Meet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Today I witness my youngest son run his last Cross Country Meet. There is still track so my days as a parent spectator are not over, but XC has a special place in my heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dropped my son off at school before the bus left at 7:45 AM but no one was there yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Girls were running at 10AM so we wanted to be there for them, so we left at 8:45 and got there with about 30 minutes to spare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was nervous that my son wasn’t going to crack 19 minutes, but he did. He didn’t qualify for state, but I knew there was a sub 19 in him and it just needed to come out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which leads me to this unusual open letter which I do not think any of my kids will read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open Letter To My XC Kids<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally this letter was just going to be for you my youngest, but this is for all of you<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting with you my oldest son, I wish I got you into the sport your freshman year, but you trailblazed and showed me, what fund XC could be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To my oldest daughter, you really showed what running passion was, you made it to state twice at XC, I know you could have made it to State in Track if it weren’t for Covid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To my youngest daughter, I know I forced you to run XC your freshman year, but you came back your senior year. I am grateful you did, since Covid cut off your chances to go to State in Spring Tennis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And to my youngest son, you cap the XC experience for me. Look at how you improved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But that so reflects your growth I hope you see that. When you started XC it was weird, it was actually 2021 not 2020. XC was in Spring, you PR’d at 37:23 in 2021 spring. You must have hated it when I forced you to run again in Fall 2021, but look at your times. From Spring 2021 to Fall 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recall you hated having to run districts, you just wanted to hang out, but I think that qualifies you for Varsity. You were so upset you had to run some more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, I did not require you to run, you did it as your own volition. You didn’t crack 20 minutes, and you were upset you didn’t. There is a genuine change in you that was impossible to not see. You had a passion in running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now, today, at your final race, I knew you weren’t going to State, we both knew. You could have just cracked 20 like I wanted you to, but you showed heart and cracked 19. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You went from a kid that was called into the VP office for, emotional outbursts, a kid that was behind in reading. I kid that didn’t want to go to school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To a Co Captain on the XC team, the fastest 5k runner in your class. I kid that got A’s the occasional B, and only 1 C in a class that challenged you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you for the gift of showing me your heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ok that is all, just wanted to post me weight, and yes I got my fitbit goals too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weight: 343.6<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I witness my youngest son run his last Cross Country Meet. There is still track so my days as a parent spectator are not over, but XC has a special place in my heart. Dropped my son off at … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,6,7,3,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fitbit","category-milestone","category-misc","category-training","category-weighin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12940"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12943,"href":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12940\/revisions\/12943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apolonio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}