Hunter had a cross country meet Wednesday afternoon and it didn’t go quite the way he was hoping it would – after the race he was not happy with himself.

As a mom (and runner) it is hard to see him so upset and down on himself  over a race that didn’t go according to his plan.

Tuesday after school and throughout the evening Hunter was talking about how difficult the course was going to be for the race Wednesday (they ran it last year).  I told him to quit psyching himself out.

When I got to the park for the meet, Hunter seemed in good spirits.  I watched the 7th girls, 7th boys, 8th girls and then it was time for Hunter’s race – 8th boys.

7th grade did 1 mile and 8th ran 2 miles (they did the same loop 2x).

Hunter started off slower than he has been running (behind boys he has been beating this year).  I ran to a few places to cheer for Hunter and the others.  When they started the 2nd loop I told Hunter it was time to start going.

The last time I saw him was a little less than 1/2 a mile from the end and then with about 200m to go – both times I told him to pick it up.

He ended up getting passed in the final few steps when he is normally the one passing others.

Hunter was not happy so I gave him some time to gather himself but once we got in the car to drive home (over an hour) we talked some about the race and his attitude.

He said he wouldn’t be able to stop beating himself up over how poorly he ran.  I asked him if he had been struggling while running.  NOPE.  He was worried about the hills and how difficult the course was so he wasn’t running his hardest.

I asked him if being so hard on himself would change the outcome of the race.  NOPE!

I told him that this was one of those things he just had to chalk up to lessons learned and move on.

He learned that he is much stronger than he thinks and he shouldn’t doubt is strength (or me when I tell him to go!!!).

We talked about the meet on Friday (crazy that they race just 2 days later but….) and the fact that it is a much flatter easier course so he can go out and run the way he knows he is capable of.

Mostly I told him that we can’t live in the past – we have to keep moving forward and not let past mistakes slow us down.

Hopefully Hunter is able to put a bad (it wasn’t really bad except in his mind) race behind him and move on!!

Do you beat yourself up for days or just take the lessons and move on?

Happy Friday!!

Kim