New Game in Town

For those of you who have met the Magster, you know she has an endless amount of energy. Last Spring, with the Dad not doing so hot, I took her out of sports for 4 months and it was a huge mistake. You see, a tired Magster is a sweet Magster...a wired Magster is something else all together. She's never bad, just sort of out of control.

This spring I knew we had to find something for her. So, I decided she'd run track. Why? Well, she's a pretty fast runner whenever she plays sports, she never gets tired and I was curious....Is she just quick or is she fast? There's a difference. No better way to find out then just have her run some races.

Last week, I met the track coach during a parent meeting. He's an older guy, retired, been coaching kids for 18 years. Has taken kids to the national level, but by his own admission, it's been years since that's happened, but he'd like to see it again. He's seen all types of kids and can spot a kid avoiding running at practice. He has strict rules about warm up and cool down and is very focused on energy prevention.

I almost cried tears of joy when he said, "I will make your kids tired. I will make your kids sore. They may cry, but if they hang with it, they will be well-conditioned athletes." I can count on 1 hand the number of times I've seen the Magster physically exhausted and I've never heard her complain of sore muscles...so this coach was a dream come true to me. I was giddy.

She started practice last night. Practices are 1 hour long and they "run". They start with an 800, then they run 50's, then they take a water break, then they run more 50s, then they run a 400, then they go home. Sweaty, tired, sore. At least last night the Magster fit that description. I didn't think she'd make it to the car. She complained her legs hurt as soon as we got home. Once she sat down last night, she didn't get up for a long time. And she was quiet. Even La Nina asked what was wrong with her. This morning you would have thought she was an old lady the way she groaned as she got out of bed. (Insert an evil laugh here...courtesy of her mother.)

She went back tonight. But tonight we only got about an hour of peace. She stayed up to her usual bedtime. She complained about some sore quads, but really that was it...darn it. She said it was much easier today and even kind of fun. I'm thinking by her next practice she'll be all adjusted, and that old coach better up the work outs...'cuz he just might have met his match.

On a performance note, I'm quite proud of her. The team is for 2nd to 8th graders and she's hanging with the older kids on the longer runs. During the last 400, I saw her running with a couple of La Nina's friends as they finished. When I asked her if she was ran with them the whole time, she said, "No, Mom, I was passing them before we finished." I think she's going to really like track once they start racing.