Trekking to Rogue River

Today was Jordan's final cross country race of the year, districts. It was at the Valley of the Rogue Park in Rogue River, a little over two hours from home. Thanks to some flexibility and understanding on the part of my boss, I was able to take the day off to be there, so Jeannette, MelodyJoy and I drove over.

One great thing about going to Rogue River was that we got to visit our friends Dan and Sandi. Dan teaches at Rogue River High School. Dan and I graduated from Western Baptist College together, Jeannette and Sandi were freshmen together there, Jeannette was in their wedding and Sandi was in ours. But our latest connection is that they traveled to China this summer to bring Jenna home.

It was great to get the girls together. Jenna seems to be doing wonderfully . . . she's almost as big as Melody already even though she's much younger.


We only had about an hour with them before we had to get over to the meet. And, of course, if there's a camera and a Melody, there will be pictures taken . . .


MJ insisted on giving Jordan some encouragement at the starting line . . .


And the following picture is one of my favorites from the whole season. Corey, John and Jordan were waiting for the race instructions, just relaxing and having a good time.

It was a perfect race day. Sunny skies, temperatures in the upper 50s or low 60s, a fairly flat course. Jordan thought he would break 19 minutes, especially after he was told that he'd covered the first two miles in just 12 minutes. Well, it turned out that he didn't quite get a PR, finishing in 19 minutes 26 seconds. He came in 28th, which put him in the top half of the field.

Corey finished first for Hosanna in 19:06, which was his PR by a couple seconds. John was about a half minute behind Jordan, which was pretty good considering that he had been sick with the flu all week.

From there, it was to Sonic for lunch, then on to the mall in Medford to find basketball shoes for Jordan. He doesn't say that he's glad the season is over, but he is glad to have a break. Basketball practice starts a week from Monday. It's always somethin'.