Rubix's new glasses arrived after his first week of school. His glasses are very similar to Axel's. They definitely look like brothers. Here is Rubix as the edge of the pool "coaching" daddy while he was waiting for his swim lesson with Nick a few weeks ago.
Axel had his opener cross country race at Lowell Invitational at the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Keith was able to drop him off to take the bus at 7:30 am. He then coached Rubix's soccer game and brought Rubix to the pool where I was at with Phoenix and then headed to the city to see Axel's race. He managed to make it up there by noon. Axel's race went off at 2 pm.
Here Axel is with Nicholas and Jonathan. They are also juniors but are not on Varsity.
Here is the young man before the race. The sun came out just in time to warm the temperatures to a comfortable level for both runners and spectators alike.
Harker's Varsity team ran in the first varsity race consisting of 198 runners. Axel had a great start and was in the lead pack going into the narrow, "ankle breaker" section of the course.
He managed to finish 16th with a 15:10.14 for the 2.7 mile course. The top three winning team members were taken out of the list, bumping Axel up to 13th place, resulting in a medal!
Axel's teammate, Aiden, wasn't far behind and finished 36th with a 15:42.28. Axel said the second varsity race was a lot faster with their top 5 finishers sub 14 minutes (Axel's race was won with a 14:25). Apparently, Axel would have finished 60th in that field of 201 runners. I thought maybe it was small schools in the first race and bigger schools in the second race, but apparently it was random. I thought it was a great first race and was excited to hear that Axel loved his new race shoes. I spent hours researching the lightest race shoe for over pronators and Axel agreed these shoes did just that.....allowed him to run fast without any rolls of the ankle. He mentioned several of his teammates who rolled their ankles on the "ankle breaker" section of the course. One teammate was unable to finish the race!
Harker 2025/26 Cross country team! Ava and Sophie also had great finishes in their Varsity girls race finishing 15th and 21st. The girls team is excited to have Sophie join their team as a freshman. She is already proving to be a strong member of the Varsity team!
Go Eagles!
Samara and Robinson came out to cheer despite being injured. These kids truly love being apart of cross country!
Rehydrating with Daddy's big water mug.
Keith says the boys have started talking to each other on the field and have gotten good at passing it up the field and performing "cross shots".
Here are two videos of Rubix scoring. You can see how good his shot and foot have become. When I pick him up from school he is often shooting a volleyball into a hockey net on the playground by himself. I love how much he loves to work on his sports.
Keith wanted to run up Mission Peak again so we managed to do it a week ago Friday. Keith took off the day and we dropped the kids off and then ran up and down the 2000 foot mountain over 10 minutes faster than last time! It was perfect weather again. Afterwards, we met Keiko Sensei, his Japanese teacher who is visiting her daughter and grandson, for lunch. It was nice to finally meet her in person after 5 years of Keith taking Japanese lessons with her. She is a very sweet lady and I appreciate her working with Keith, and now Phoenix. Axel worked with her too, but has not taken lessons with her for over a year now.
Axel's second race of the season was the following week on September 13th, which happen to also be Back to School Day for both the upper and middle school. I skipped the upper school program to attend and cheer on Axel at the Fighting Knights Invitational. Axel raced at 10:45 am on Crystal Springs course where he will have his league champs and CCS.
Here is Axel doing a stride before the race. (Yes, it was overcast and very cold. Perfect weather for running/ racing and good for spectators who came prepared with appropriate jackets. Many did not, but my Parka was well used by Axel's teammates and parents. It got passed around, as I had two other jackets I was wearing. :))
Axel finishing the first mile (where the yellow flag is) still in 3rd (2nd in this picture) at a blazing speed of 5:08.
Axel in shock that he ran as fast as he did and finished 3rd!
Still in shock!
Harker Cross Country Team!
Phoenix had her first cross country race of the season this past Tuesday. It was at Bedwell park, but due to damage on the trial they changed the course! This made for an interesting race as no one knew the course, not even the coaches. Luckily, I was able to help figure it out after the first race and notify the coach. The Szolushas have run their alot and I know most of the trail system. They did have a lead bike and it was well marked with cones, so no runners were lost. It was actually an easier course with no hill, but still roughly 1.3 miles.
You can enjoy watching parts of her race with the below links. She finished 11th in the 7/8th grade race with a 9:29.2, averaging 6:58 per mile. She outsprinted an 8th grader for 11th place. She wasn't super happy with her pace, but she really has only been training for 3 weeks and she is only running 2 times per week. I was impressed with her effort, especially her amazing sprint finish and fight to finish before the girl next to her.
This week, Phoenix also had the year book cover submission due. She spent several hours drawing a beautiful Eagle and then drawing Harker Middle school campus. The theme was "puzzle pieces" and I loved her idea of middle school equating to "Putting the pieces together". Unfortunately, the students do the voting and apparently voted for a few AI generated art pieces and Phoenix did not make the top 3. I was really sad because this is the first time she took the time to submit something and I hope she continues to be confident in her artwork.
I was off for her 100 free and was able to film it. You can watch it below. She dropped 1.33 seconds for a finishing time of 58.62.
Her 500 free was also a drop of almost 10 seconds. She finished in 5:24.38, which is her first short course AAAA time for 11/12 year old girls. She is just a second off of the 13/14 Far Western cut, although her true goal is 5:10.09, which is sectionals. We will see how close she is able to get this season. I definitely think she will get there by the end of Spring season.
In other news, Rubix and Phoenix have started off the school year with positive grades on their first math tests and showing more maturity in getting their homework done, and utilizing the weekend for school work. Axel is still a professional student and of course is doing great. I was able to attend Phoenix's back to school day after Axel's cross country meet last weekend. Keith and I enjoyed meeting her teachers and I think she will have an easier time developing relationships with her current teachers. She has already stated, "7th grade is so much better than 6th grade". She has her first school dance on Thursday and the first fall break day is this Friday. I also went to Rubix's back to school night this past Thursday, and I think he has a great new English teacher that I am hoping is going to help him learn to appreciate reading and writing more.
We have a two day swim meet this weekend and more cross country meets in the coming weeks for both Phoenix and Axel, as well as Pac Swim Awards ceremony that Rubix was invited to. It will likely be another 3-4 weeks before I get a chance to blog, but it should have a lot of exciting Szolusha happening, so check back before Halloween!
No comments:
Post a Comment