My son is going to the Junior Olympics!

[ihone]

To all my Mazda family members - it's with great respect that I announce that my son is going to be attending the 2012 USA Track and Field Association's Junior Olympics in Maryland!

This is his first year in track, and has taken hold of his abilities and pushed himself harder than ever before.

Just over an hour ago - I got news from the USA Track and Field Association, Region 12 Area qualifier - He placed 4th overall in the 800 meter run for the entire Region12 conference! Tomorrow he runs the 1500 meter and 4x400 meter relay races.

Not bad for 8 years old!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!

 

[ihone]

edited......stupid photobucket....

 

[ihone]

 

[Outlawstar98]

Good luck to him!!!!!!

 

[Crazee D]

that is awesome!

 

[IshSonP5]

very cool!!!

 

[Jedidiah55]

special olympics not bad jk jk
as long as he likes it push him or find a coach to push him, i've heard that if you can run a 4:30 minute mile you can get a full ride to harvard, I was running 5:05 miles easily so if you buy him a treadmill now and make him run for the next 10 years you should have a pro athlete jk
congrads

 

[ihone]

Update to this story:

Now that the dust has settled and his timed results are in - his standings were as follows:

800meter - 4th place overall - time of 3:11.61
1500 meter - 4th place overall - time of 6:36.18
4x400 meter relay - GOLD!!! 1st place overall - time 5:29.xx

All ran with a 8-15mph headwind, so everyone's times were off.

This kid amazes me.....and I'm proud to be called his Dad. Way to go son!

 

[ihone]

Cooling down after the 1500m run:

crossing the line in his team's 4x400m run:

He runs the anchor-leg so his run is last. They got a great start (2nd-3rd for a few laps) - then Preston started and passed everyone in front of him! They finished 40m in front of the 2nd place team!

 

[RicoP5]

badass congrats and good luck to him and his team

 

[RacerXGirl]

That's awesome!

 

[ihone]

Being that this is costing so damn much - we're throwing a fundraiser for the kid next Saturday.

Openly accepting donations so he can get the chance to go. If interested - PM me.

 

[RacerXGirl]

What about doing something on Kickstarter to raise funds?

 

[ihone]

To end this saga:

800 meter run - he didn't place. 42nd of 48 kids.
1500 meter run - he didn't place.
4x400 meter relay - his team came in 8th overall.

I'm bummed for the little guy - because he takes these sorts of things personally. All I can do now is offer him some support and be a good influence for him to keep trying. A "loss" (which is what he called it. He called me after his 1500 meter and said "I feel like I've failed".) like this just means more work is needed.

Thanks for all the support and we'll see what happens next year.