Yesterday, I watched my son come in third in a 3-miler. It was a beauty of a finish--he pulled ahead of the fastest runner from his school, thus finishing first for his school for the first time ever.
We hypothesize that he may have given himself an edge by shearing off his enormous head of hair. Think dandelion. Think Big Head O' Fluff. Think Black Power 'fro, except on a scrawny white kid. He informed his dad that he needed a cut by Wednesday, the day of the meet. Yesterday, when he tore past me at the start, I didn't recognize him. Think pencil, think Q-tip.
In the middle of the race, it started to drizzle, as the weatherman said it would, and then it started to pour. I personally had dressed for the forecasted weather by wearing flimsy and inappropriate clothing, covered with a raincoat. At the end of it, the runners were all drenched and so was all their gear, both what they were wearing and what they'd stashed under the bleachers for protection. It was so wet that one kid actually slid in horizontally across the finish line.
It was a pretty great day considering I had to change my clothes when I got home. He finished the race in 17:17, not a bad time at all. He's running like he's got religion. He's running like he believes.
I did a 3-miler yesterday and it took me about a half an hour. Today I can barely walk. Ah, high school...why didn't I appreciate it back then?
ReplyDeleteI think you should make one of your first short films about your son's running. Sort of a Chariots of Fire meets Salt Lake City meets Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control.
ReplyDeleteI think you should make one of your first short films about your son's running. Sort of a Chariots of Fire meets Salt Lake City meets Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control.
ReplyDeleteI shot some footage of the Murray race. Talk about not knowing what you're shooting. Much blurring. But out of 20 minutes of footage, I have maybe a couple of good minutes. Maybe. But anyway, this will be my first short film, called XC.
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ReplyDeleteBut you have to make the whole film an opening credit sequence, like SigNo.
ReplyDeleteAh, XC HS meets--great memories for me. Running was definitely my religion as high schooler. Thank God for running. I mentioned this on Dr. Write's blog, but will again: buy him Running and Being by George Sheehan if he hasn't read it. I want weekly updates on his meets--living vicariously through the youth.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, what's up with the big white kid afros? Tons of kids have them in my Mormon ward. I assume the trend was gradual but it caught me by surprise.
Napoleon Dynamite, baby. This is what I blame for the white boy afro. It's late 70s, early 80s nostalgia, which makes me a little ill. Don't we need to overcome the decade before we can get all nostalgic about it? As far as I can tell, we're still back there.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the giant hair: In my son's case, (a) he has super-curly hair because (b) so do his dad and I, and (c) his dad also grew the giant head of hair when he was around the same age. I feel it is an homage.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, if you'd like to see a pic of the hair, you can check it out here
ReplyDeletehttp://www.myspace.com/octoweiner
This is a few weeks ago, and the girl in the photo is his big sis, who combed the hair out to its gigantitude.
I'm all for homage big hair but I'm with Lynn on giving us some time before we can get nostalgic about an era. I need more time!
ReplyDeleteI checked out the hair--it's big or it was. On another note, his blog is much hipper than ours.