League Champs, Folsom Invitational, CCS, and Wolverines Soccer Party

With day light savings ending and the days much shorter, fall suddenly came upon us. The temperatures dropped drastically and the leaves have changed colors and cover the ground. The last couple of weeks have been full and this post has more pictures than any post before. As you know, Axel started getting posterior tibialis tendonitis after Halloween. He worked hard cross training, icing and taping to be able to run in his cross country league champs on November 8th. I was not able to attend because I picked up Rubix and Phoenix early from school and headed on a 4 hour adventure to Folsom in order to get them to warm up at 6pm for the Folsom Invitational Swim Meet that started the following day. 

The varsity boys getting ready for their race. 

The boys at the start. 

And they are off!

Keith had the privilege of attending this meet and going with Axel to celebrate the season at their annual pizza party post League champs. Here is Axel after the first mile starting up the steep hill. You can see his determination, despite not feeling himself. Apparently, he felt his breathing was off and his running did not feel dialed in, like it usually does. 

His teammate Aiden catches him and runs over a 45 second PR, finishing at a 17:09, right behind Axel!

Here he is at the finish sprinting in for a small PR of 17:07, 2 seconds better than his 17:09 he did at Crystal Springs earlier in the year. 

He was disappointed but knew he had CCS coming up the following week and a plan for redemption, hoping he would be able to train normally in between meets, and finally run his potential, which is well under a 17 minute race. 

After the race they had their senior award ceremony. A group of 4 runners were assigned to each of teh 10 seniors. 

They presented the seniors with a poster and gifts to send them off with tangible things to remember cross country by. 

Here Axel is presenting his poster to Harriss, his running partner for the past 2 years. 

He made such a great poster, including a couple of cute baby photos of Harriss.

He also presented the gifts to him. I love these pictures that a couple of the parents captured!

Happy cross country crew!

The 2024 Harker Cross Country Team!

1..2...3.....Go Eagles!

The following morning I headed to the Steve Miklos Aquatic Center and had the kids in the water for their warmups by 7 am, while Keith got up early to make the 2.5 hour drive to meet us. Yes, they also had "warm ups" the night before at 6pm, but this was the official team warm ups before the first day of prelims. I was able to set up our tent with Karolina and we had a nice warm area for about 10 swimmers and 8 adults. Another mom even brought portable heaters! This made the transition from very hot to very cold a bit more manageable to the kids. 

Gma Susan surprised us and showed up on Saturday to watch the kids. It was so nice to see her!

Rubix was happy! Phoenix was in a difficult place because she was adding quite a bit of time on her events. She has had one of those seasons where her times are about the same or a little slower in several of her events, although her 50, 100, 500, 1000 and 1650 free style events have all seen good drops. I think it is natural that we tend to focus on where we are not doing as well, rather than where things are improving.

Despite, Phoenix's adds, both kids did well enough to make finals in all of their events. Keith officiated the finals in order to get our volunteering hours in.  

Here coach Victory is giving the 9 and under crew a pep talk on making finals and getting ready to swim their hearts out!

Phoenix with Stella and Helen trying to stay warm!

Getting ready for the Star Spangled Banner!

For finals they had a ready tent and red carpet where the "A" final walked out of and each swimmer had their names called out. They played fun music and had a volunteer walk out with a sign that said the event name. i.e. 100 Fly

Rubix excited to drop for the second time that day in the 100 Fly and achieve a AAA time at 112.29! For every drop they get a duckie!

Phoenix getting ready for one of her finals!

On Saturday they had the Medley relay at the end of finals. Phoenix did the 50 free to finish off the relay! Can you imagine, she did a relay start to get a high 26 second 50 free to finish the team off strong and almost beat the A team and getting 5th overall out of 12 teams! Iris did back stroke, Stella did fly and Helen did breast stroke. 

Rubix was the starter as the back stroke leg for his team. Jeffrey did breast stroke, Anay did fly and Albert did free style. 

On Sunday Gma Susan came again, but this time with Gpa Brian in tow. Gpa was excited to see and film the kids. They were able to see Rubix's 50 back and Phoenix's 50 back and then 200 fly, just minutes later. 

Phoenix was such a trooper completing the 200 fly 7 minutes after racing the 50 back. 

The kiddos did well enough to make finals again in all of their events on Sunday too! Here is Rubix again in the ready tent. 

On Sunday night with had the privilege of seeing Auntie Shannon and Braylin and Aya! They were able to see Rubix and Phoenix do the 50 back, Phoenix do the 200 fly, and both kids do the 200 free. 

They needed to go because it was getting late and Rubix wasn't going to swim his 3rd event until 7:30 pm. 

I left with the kids right after Rubix's last event to get them to the hotel and to bed and then took off at 8:40pm to head home. Keith arrived right when I was leaving and stayed with Phoenix and Rubix for the final day of the swim meet. Most of the public schools had Veteran's day off, but we didn't. P and R had to do homework and classwork between Prelims and Finals each day in order to not get too behind in school. I went to work and Axel went to school on Monday, Veteran's day. Keith got back at 10 pm with the kids, but luckily they slept in the car starting at 8:30pm. It took them all week to recover and Phoenix came developed an ear infection within a day. They raced in the dumping rain for prelims and had to deal with the cold weather for the first time. The kids had another 3 day swim meet this weekend, but Phoenix only went to Saturday and skipped Friday and Sunday (today). 

Yesterday was CCS and it was the first time in 14 years that both the girls and boys teams made it as a team. Last year, only the boys made it as a team. 

Here they are at the start. Axel managed to get in one small workout and 3 other short shake out runs. He still has pain when walking after getting up from prolonged sitting, but is able to warm up enough to run with little to no pain. Not running much intensity for 2 weeks definitely effected his muscles and all of the compensations he has been doing walking, I am sure doesn't help. He was extremely positive and felt like he was ready to run the race of his life. 

He started out really well and clocked a 5:18 for the first mile, keeping himself within reach of the top 15-20 guys. 

You can see he is right with a big pack going up the hill. 

He is determined and looked like he was going to crank it up once he got over the hill. 

He tries to push through and pass one runner at a time, but he just couldn't go as hard as he wanted. 

He pushed...

And pushed....

And pushed....

but he just couldn't keep up with the fastest guys. 

He gave it his all and finished strong. 

He sprinted to the very end as fast as he could, but....

unfortunately, he finished 17 minutes flat, actually behind two of his teammates that he is usually 30-60 seconds faster. 

I was beyond proud of him, despite him not achieving his goals. He stayed extremely calm through his injury, always staying positive and listening to my medical advice and his coaches advice. He still PR'd in every race of the season, but he wanted to have a good race at Crystal Springs, like he has had on other courses. He was hoping to run to his potential, which is likely around a 16:30. Unfortunately, he will have to wait until next year, but until then he will continue to be a great teammate and inspiration. 

I am so incredibly proud of the person, friend, teammate, etc. that Axel is becoming. He is such a wonderful person to be around and I am honored to be his mother. 

We even had the privilege of seeing Eileen come cheer Axel on. Keith and Rubix made it just in time from the swim meet. Axel raced at 12:55 pm.

Such a trooper, he let Rubix come with him on his cool down with his teammates. I don't know many 15 year olds who embrace having their 8 year old brother hang out with his friends. Apparently Rubix easily ran a sub 7 minute pace with Axel. 

My boys!

Harker Varsity girls and boys team! 

While we were cheering on Axel, Phoenix stayed at the swim meet and hung out with Helen and Stella. She had so much fun going to In-N-Out and then to Stella's house for the afternoon. I didn't get home with her until 5pm! What a long day!

Today, Keith took Rubix to the swim meet, while I prepared for 30 people to come over. We hosted Rubix's soccer team for an end of season party! I took the opportunity for the Szolushas to get our first family photo of the year! I told the kids not to worry about what they are wearing, but to come and smile and be happy that we are all together for one afternoon!

Rubix had the time of his life. 11 boys played in the park, ate food, received their trophies and then played laser tag and ate cake. 

I don't believe my house has ever been so loud!

Half the boys on one couch waiting for their names to be called up. 

Coach Keith presented the trophies and plaques to Coach John, Coach Dong and all of the kids. 

Cake time... only half of the kids decided to sit and eat while the others continued to play. 

It was quite a night. It has been quite a couple of weeks. Next up is our Friendsgiving and then Thanksgiving so check back soon!