Track Jack

Jack was excited to try Track & Field for the first time this year.  Jack is pretty fast, and he has lots of energy and likes to run, so we thought it would be a perfect fit.  He really enjoyed it and tried a few different events during the four meets of the season.

The first meet was in Salem (on Star Wars Day), and it's the one where I took the most pictures and videos, though I didn't keep track of times.  Mom was visiting at the time and we had fun watching Jack and cheering him on.  And we loved how he would turn and smile at us when he heard us calling his name during the longer races.  At this meet he ran the 50m, 100m, 400m, and 800m and told me afterward that the 800m was his favorite.

Jack's second track meet was on May 18th in Payson.  Jack actually participated in 5 (usually they are only allowed 4).  Javelin, using a small Nerf-like spear, (longest distance 25'1"); 1600m (8:59); 50m (2nd place in his heat), 400m, and 4x400 relay (6:31).  The cool thing was that since the 4x4 relay is at the end, almost everyone had left by then, so the officials let non-track kids participate.  So Jack's team also included Sascha, Paolo, and Cat.  Eliza was also able to join a team of one other Orem Track Club boy and two Payson Track boys.  Cat and Eliza loved getting to compete!

There was a meet that Ben had to take Jack to in Orem in early June.  Then the Lehi Invitational, the final meet was about a week later.  This was on a cool Saturday morning.  After a short time at the meet, it started raining.  We weren't dressed for it, so we huddled together under blankets and an umbrella we had in the car.  But the rain couldn't dampen Jack's enthusiasm.  He competed in 3 events before we decided we had enough of sitting out in the cold rain and went home.  Jack ran the 100m in 20.14, the 400m in 1:47.37, and was part of the 4x100 relay that took 3rd place overall.  He hadn't planned on competing in a relay, but they were short one boy so one of the coaches asked Jack to join the team.  Jack actually dropped the baton when he was getting it from the previous runner, so they might have placed even higher if the race had gone smoother for his team.

During the final track practice,
Jack got a medal for placing 3rd in the last meet of the season.

Now that track is over, Jack says that 400m is his favorite race and that his favorite thing about being on the track team was competing in the track meets.