Cool Runnings

Blogs are for bragging, right?  Leanne's long and lean legs ran on the Cross Country team again this year.  The team just finished the season last week with the Awards Banquet where Leanne won the award for Most Improved!!  She really made great strides (pun!) this year, considering she hadn't trained during the summer and started after the first day of school when most of the team had already been practicing since August.  She PR'd at almost every meet.  That means she beat her own Personal Record .  She worked very hard during the season with a lot of early mornings, late nights and not much sleep or free time.   And she still kept up with homework, show choir practice, and youth group, etc.

She got new pink spikes this year and some painful blisters along with them!  Ouch.

These next three were taken during last year's Cross Country season by a friend of ours.

Pushing herself at the end of a race!

This was at the home meet in Bemidji, coming up to the finish line.  She came up from behind and beat the girl in red by a foot!!

It was close!!

Going over the finish line (to the left of the burgundy sweatshirt) and getting one of her best times of the season in the 2 1/2 mile race (18:41).  She improved her time by 1:18 overall during the season in the 2 1/2 mile race.

This was taken during warm-ups at the Sections meet in Little Falls, MN, and Leanne was one of the seven girls who qualified to go.  It was really rainy and cold. She also PR'd at this race (18:40)!!!

She is in the middle.   

Here she is with some fellow 9th-grade teammates after her race in Bagley, MN, where she placed 12th and got a medal!!

With some of the other girls on the team...

they had a great time together.

We are very proud of you, Leanne, and enjoyed watching you run! 

The verse she has posted in her room: 

"So Spirit come, put strength in every stride,

give me grace for every hurdle;

that we may run with faith,

to win the prize of a servant good and faithful."