I received an email from Todd (editor of MileSplit IL) asking if my daughters would be interested in writing a blog through the end of the track season. Todd was the second person to ask this question. Before I asked them, I knew they would have no interest in this. They like zero attention on them. They get this from their mother; the same place they get their determination, drive, desire, competitiveness, humbleness, brains, and looks. I replied to Todd with this answer, jokingly adding that I would have jumped on this if I were in their shoes. Todd jokingly replied that a blog from the parent’s perspective might be interesting. I’m game.
It has gone WAY too fast; but, then again, I’m not the one doing the running. It started in the fall of 2009 with very uncertain expectations. Our Wilmette middle school did not have any sort of running program for my daughters to find any early mojo, unlike their teammate, sophomore Mimi Smith, who ran a 5:05 mile as an eighth grader. So, after a summer of running the same speeds as the upperclassman leading the workouts, the cross country season got under way. I had a selfish early goal for my daughters; be in the top eight (out of 200 girls on the New Trier team) in early September to be part of the varsity group the coach took down to Peoria to run an invite at Detweiller Park. Having grown up in Peoria, it would be a great excuse to go visit my parents and give them the opportunity to see their twin granddaughters run. The season began with the Katherine Legge Invite in Hinsdale. After all the races were run, Courtney and Jessica had the two fastest times of all the New Trier runners. It was an eye opener for us; and the date when the “addiction” began for the parents.
The last three and a half years has brought many wonderful moments including trips to Portland, San Diego, and multiple journeys to Peoria and Charleston. It has also meant multiple friendships with teammate’s parents, competitor’s parents and even coaches from other schools. It has also meant countless hours combing thru the running sites reading articles and also checking to see what the competition is doing. You know you are an addict when you get a text from your wife while at work, while you are in the middle of doing something productive, and I suddenly blurt out an expletive. My admin looks at me and says, “What?” to which I reply, “Emma Fisher just dropped a 10:34 3,200 and we’re still in February!” to which my assistant rolls her eyes, and I drop everything to start combing the sites for the next hour looking to get my “fix”. Not being a high school runner, (more on that in a future blog) I have also been introduced to new running terms over the years: threshold, strides, distance double, stress reaction and ferritin (the enemy).
Like a lot of proud parents, I love watching my daughters compete. It is hard for me knowing they will be at different schools next year but I know we’ll be doing everything we can to try to catch their college meets live. But for now, we will just try to enjoy this last season of track. It hasn’t gotten off to the smoothest of starts. After running with discomfort all November, Courtney took six weeks off from running to let her body recover. In January, when the pain had not gone away, the visit to the specialist was in order and the news of a stress fracture was revealed in the MRI. Luckily by this point it was healing nicely, but it still came with instructions not to run until late February. So, here we are in early March and Courtney has a total of six running miles under her belt in 2013. Jess, on the other hand is feeling good. Both girls are hoping to end their high school running career on a high note. Stay tuned for more ramblings of a dedicated dad of an awesome sport.