Foot Pain, and Running Offspring

The foot is still sore enough that I am not able to run my usual 5k tonight. This is rather depressing, but at least I feel a bit better about the whole thing because it is absolutely dreadful outside - cold and wet! Also, more rest can't hurt given I have a lot of catching up to do on my schoolwork, and am hopeful that four full days of rest will be enough to allow me to get back on the road this Saturday. We will be spending Canadian Thanksgiving in Ottawa, and I really want to run along the canal again.

Owen's first ever cross-country race went this morning, and although the result for him was a bit disappointing, I am very proud of the little guy for his perseverance in the face of adversity. First, Owen's school got the absolute worst starting position of all, and he was put at the worst spot of the worst position: the farthest at the back and to the right of a long line of hundreds of kids all ready to race towards a left hand turn! Here is the pic of the scene:



And here is Owen, stuck at the back of the pack:



And, oh yeah, here's the mayhem that ensued once the starting horn went off. Owen and his school is not even in the picture, way off to the left:


In the end, I found out much later that Owen fell about two-thirds of the way through the course, and he still made it to the finish, panting and out of breath. That is the most important thing, he did his best and you can't control your starting position, so I am very very proud of him.

Here's Owen nearing the end:


And the little guy, exhausted and disappointed, waiting in line in the "chute" to get his finishing number, giving his Dad the obligatory look so that I could snap a picture:


I think this experience was largely positive, and I would never complain about the way these races are organized because the volunteers work very hard to herd hundreds and hundreds of kids throughout the morning, but there was talk that the "better schools" got the better starting positions, so some suspicion may be warranted. I choose to believe that this did not occur and that Owen's starting spot, and that of his school mates, was just the luck of the draw.