19:21 New Haven Meet

Today was the New Haven Invitational Cross Country meet, another huge race. Held at a place in Fort Wayne called "The Plex," it was so big that again they had two varsity races, one for so-called small schools and another for big high schools. The definition of "small" is open to interpretation as Jordan was told that some of the schools have 400 or more in each grade. In this first picture, Jordan is running alongside a Leo High competitor and Leo has about 200 kids per class. I'm pretty sure that Blackhawk Christian had to have been the smallest school or close to it.

Jordan got off to his usual slow start. With our vast long distance running experience, Jeannette and I are pretty sure we're right in telling him that he should go out faster but he insists he needs to pace himself. I'm bringing a cattle prod to the next meet to help him get out quicker.

As the race went on, though, he starting picking off the competition, moving his way up the pack. In this second picture, Jordan is in the middle of this pack of runners, third from the left.

It was a beautiful course with two stretches through the woods and the weather was great for running, perhaps in the upper 70s and with low humidity. When all was said and done, Jordan recorded a 19:21. His PR last year was 19:11 and so this was his second best time ever. He only has two races left this season, one on Tuesday and another next Saturday.