Axel had his Homecoming dance on Saturday October 18th. He had spirit week leading up to the dance and was involved in the spirit dance. He practiced for weeks and there class ended up winning the spirit week points. He waited until a couple of days before the dance to decide to go. He went prepared this year in sneakers to prevent any extra stress to his legs considering his tibial stress fracture that started about this time last year. Unfortunately, he does not have any pictures to share, although, I emailed a couple of his friends (who are girls) to see if they have any to share of Homecoming or Halloween. After the dance, Keith took him and a few friends to In-N-Out. A group of almost 10 hung out there for an hour and then everyone headed home.
We found out that Phoenix earned a top 10 in the United States time as an 11 year old last year for the 1650 with a time of 19:09.72. Her coach received this from USA swimming to give to her. This is definitely frame worthy.
The kids attended the Gilroy Gators Spooktacular swim meet on October 25th and 26th. They swam really well and had some great drops. On Saturday I was solo with the kids, as Keith went to soccer to coach the team, even though Rubix decided to skip the game for the swim meet. Keith arrived half way through the meet.
Phoenix started off the meet with the 100 Fly, an invite that she typically doesn't prefer, but one that we thought she needs to work on to get better at. She did this event during the MAC meet and dropped 2 seconds to a 107+ and, remarkably, she dropped another 2 seconds achieving a 105.32 which is the 11-12 Far Western time and just a half a second from the 104.79 she needs for the 13 year old Age group cut. I am so happy of her for working on her weaknesses and trying really hard!
Rubix had an incredible 100 yard breast stroke, racing against his teammate Albert. Both boys had a big drop and achieved a 120 time with Rubix a 120.94 and Albert a 120.30.
After watching Rubix's incredible race, I was absolutely blown away watching Phoenix race the 200 breast. She did this event right after she turned 11 and has not done it since in short course (after racing this in long course when she was sick and adding half a minute). I thought it was time for her to try again because working on your weaknesses only makes you stronger physically and emotionally. Well, she went out so hard that she PR'd in her 50 (35 second) and in her 100 (1:15) and was able to keep the high tempo and pace to finish with a 2:36.06 catapulting her from a couple thousand in the nation to 46th in the nation and top 5 in PAC swim and just under 8 seconds from sectionals! The parents and coaches who watched were in amazement. It is rare to drop 18+ seconds in a 200 yard event, but Phoenix pulled it off with elegance!
Rubix swam the 100 IM and 50 back in just about the same time he has in the past, so I decided not to post them.
Phoenix finally dropped below 58 seconds in the 100 Free finishing strong amongst her teammates.
On Sunday, I had my 4th session as an official apprentice which meant I was making the calls and being evaluated for my readiness to become a full fledged stroke and turn official. Keith was very cute and wanted to take a picture of me before the meet started.
Here I am with my evaluator. I worked with her for the entire 5 hours and luckily she agreed I was ready, along with the meet director, Meta. Unfortunately, when I am working the meet I don't always get to see the kids swim or video their events. I worked the boys side, so I was able to see Rubix have an incredible 100 yard back swim racing his buddy Albert, but Keith did not film it. Rubix and Albert went 107.99 and 107.14 taking the 12th and 6th spot, respectively, in the country for all 10 and under boys. Absolutely, blazing fast! I also do not have his 50 yard fly which was a drop to 30.22, still shy of his goal of breaking the 30 second barrier.
I did get lucky and I was able to watch Phoenix swim the 100 back during one of my breaks. She had a good swim dropping to 102.98 just a quarter of a second from the 102.69 she needs for a AAAA time and still 3+ seconds from her ultimate goal of sectionals at a 59.49.
I was also lucky to catch Rubix's 50 breast on my second break. He swam really well despite a slow start and was just fraction of a second (.19) from AAAA time with a 36.58.
I missed Phoenix's 100 breast altogether, but Keith was kind enough to film it for me. She by far out swam herself finishing in a 113.68, which is a AAA time. To give you an idea of how well she did in her breast stroke "off events", she is now considering doing the 200 breast stroke at Age group champs in Dec.
On Wednesday, October 29th Rubix had his first basketball game! I was unable to attend live, but I was able to watch it via "live stream" at 5pm. I made it to Phoenix's swim practice, just in time to pull up the game. I had come from Axel's cross country meet he had at Bayland's Park. It was his second WBAL league meet. The varsity boys ran at 4pm. I was lucky enough to leave work in time to arrive at 3:45 pm to see him race and then make it to the pool in time to watch Rubix play and then Phoenix swim after his game was done. What more can a mom ask for, but to somehow be apart of each of her kids events. Keith was able to attend Axel's meet and then drive to the school in time to watch Rubix "live". They finished the game just in time to get Rubix to swim practice! What a day..... now onto Axel's race.
Unfortunately, but fortunately, Axel came down with a cold on the Friday before his meet (October 24th). He actually did not run on Friday or Sunday and his run on Saturday was only 2 miles because he was too achy and not well enough. He was able to do a 5 mile easy run on Monday and do a fairly good pre-race warm up on Tuesday. Keith and I were both not expecting him to feel very good or race his best, but despite the circumstances, I thought he still raced well. He even dropped 13 seconds from his time last year, but was likely 20-30+ seconds off what he is capable of if he were healthy.
The meet was surprisingly small with roughly 50 runners with maybe 7 or 8 schools attending from his League which has 14 schools in total.
Here is the pack start.
Axel about a half a mile in.
Axel at a mile. The end of lap 1
Axel at a mile and a half.
Axel going into mile 2 and the rollers
Axel going into the last 800 meters.
Axel finishing the 3.1 mile race course.
Axel actually took off right at the end because he hit the "brown zone" and starting loosing his bowels. His pain face was holding back his abdominal/ intestinal cramping. He told me before the race that lunch wasn't very good and that he would see how his stomach was during the race. I was so impressed with his ability to run through that and finish at 16:32.29, 5th place, from last years 16.45.50 and 8th place. He has his league championship this Friday. Keith will be able to attend. I will be driving to Folsom for the swim meet with P and R and will miss it, but we are excited and hopeful he is feeling better and will continue to feel better going into CCS the following weekend. As I might have mentioned, Axel came down with the cold on Friday and Phoenix on Monday and Rubix Monday/Tuesday. He had to leave practice on Wednesday and we make him stay home from school on Thursday to rest. This actually allowed Rubix and I to finish his costume, carve a pumpkin and hang out on Thursday afternoon/evening. It was a really nice treat!
I made him pick out the Steph Curry outfit that he planned on wearing. He really disliked the leggings Steph wears and hence his expression of, "I don't want to wear them!"
On Friday morning I went for a doctor's appointment and found out as I was walking out that Axel's friend Irvy was sick and no longer able to host the Halloween party. I ended up changing my plans and headed to Costco to purchase food for Axel and his friends. I then rushed home and squeezed in a run before heading to the lower school where I volunteered for Rubix's Halloween party.
Craft time!
Axel had a late start for school, hence why I received a phone call at 9 am telling me about the change in plans. I also did not get to see him dressed up, but he sent me this selfie based on my plead to have a picture for the blog and the scrap book. I have no idea what or who he is suppose to be. He told me it is a character from a video game, but that is as much as I know.
I was able to clean the house, mostly, and set up the food and house for his friends. Axel threw the food in the oven and on the stove about 30 minutes before his friends arrived. Christine came at 5 pm just after he got home from practice and the rest of the crew came closer to 6 pm. I had to leave to take P to swim practice, but Keith got home just before 6 pm. Keith took Rubix and some of Axel's friends trick or treating. They were nice enough to join Rubix.
Rubix's pumpkin lit up when Phoenix and I got home at 8:30pm.
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Rubix had planned to swim the 500, but decided to skip it because he wasn't feeling 100% yet and he had a soccer game against a tough component. Rubix enjoyed the food and carnival games and came home with fun prices.
We are in Folsom this weekend and then Morgan Hill the following weekend. Axel has CCS on November 15th and then we have our pre-Thanksgiving Friendsgiving the following weekend and if all goes well we will be in Clovis at the state cross country meet right after Thanksgiving. Please check back after Thanksgiving for likely a big November update! Until then..... God bless you all!
