Skip to main content

Family Fun at the Utah Summer Games

My wife took a couple of our kids to the track and field events of the Utah Summer Games last year. She couldn't get away this year, so I volunteered to take the kids, and, on somewhat of a dare, I registered for and competed in 3 events.

So I figured that if I was going to not look ridiculous, I'd better start training.

It was my son Jacob's first time jumping over a hurdle, let alone competing in a hurdling event, and he was very nervous. It turns out, though, that he's something of a natural in the

An Olympian I'll never be, but I'm well on my way to being much more fit than I've been in about 2 decades.

hurdles, winning the silver medal in his race. He has as one of his goals now to be a hurdler extraordinaire. When faced with attempting new things, he has a lot more courage than I do.

The rest of us, including son Cache and daughter Mauriana, competed in the mid-distance events. Without visiting with each other, we all happened to sign up for the same running events--the 200-, 400-, and 800-meter races. That made it easier to train together, and we all benefited from it.

Each of the kids competed in the long jump, which I chickened out of, because (1) I hadn't practiced enough before we left, and (2) it was scheduled before my running events, which I didn't want to miss by virtue of a long-jumping injury. (For the real story, please refer back to paragraph 3 above.)

I did set three goals, however, as to the times I wanted to run in my races. In all three cases, my race times were faster than my goals, and I actually medalled in two of the events (in both medal events I happened to come in well behind my same-aged and much-more-fit cousin). An Olympian I'll never be, but I'm well on my way to being much more fit than I've been in about 2 decades. On the way home from Cedar City, I established 3 new goals. Next year, a little older, I plan to do a little better.

I don't know now why I didn't compete in track and field as a high-schooler. Now, however, I can't wait to get out to the track. Our family has now committed that for the rest of the summer, in addition to our morning canyon runs, we'll spend 2 or 3 early mornings at the high school track, not only getting ourselves in better shape, but also bringing ourselves closer together as a family.

Each member of our family has also made a commitment that next year we'll compete in the Utah Summer Games together. We hope to see you there, too.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Urban Koda7/10/2008 09:10:00 AM

    This sounds like a pretty fun event... Where do you get more information and get registered for this? I'm thinking it would be fun to get a couple of my tribe involved next year.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Frank Staheli7/10/2008 09:21:00 AM

    You can check it out here.

    For my track and field events, I also thought it was good to look at the results of the prior year, so that I knew what I had to strive for to not look silly!

    ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Urban Koda7/10/2008 09:41:00 AM

    Definitely something I think I need to add to my race schedule next year! Maybe I'll give the triathlon and some of the track events a go.

    THANKS!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for commenting. If you have a Google/Blogger account, to be apprised of ongoing comment activity on this article, please click the "Subscribe" link below.

Popular posts from this blog

School Vouchers: "The Bramble Memo"

$429 million? What? Where? The legislative fiscal analyst for the State of Utah calculated the costs to the public schools over the next 13 years if school vouchers are implemented. It said the costs would be $5.5M in the first year, and $71M in the 13th year. Suddenly, the number I have started seeing thrown around was $429 million, the total costs for vouchers over 13 years. Where did that number come from? Enter the mysterious "Bramble Memo". In the past few days several of us (Jeremy, Utah Taxpayer, Craig, Sara, Urban Koda, Jesse, and me) have (sometimes?) enjoyed a lively discussion about school vouchers in Utah . Jeremy clarified to me the costs of the venture by linking to a copy of the Utah Legislative Fiscal Analyst's Impartial Analysis (LFA) of the costs of Vouchers , found on "The Senate Site". In my previous voucher article, I quoted some of Lavar Webb's article from last Sunday's Deseret News, wherein he stated that those total costs ...
66 comments
Read more

The Inhumanity of Bob Lonsberry: Waterboarding, Concentration Camps, and the the Bataan Death March

KNRS 570 radio talk show host Bob Lonsberry advocated waterboarding and other forms of torture during his show on April 21, 2009. More grotesquely, he was beaming with pride about his advocacy campaign. It's difficult to imagine then, that, by the same rationale, had Lonsberry been a German at the time of Hitler, or a Japanese during the Bataan Death March, that he would not have advocated torture of Jews in the concentration camps or the bayoneting and shooting of American soldiers on the Bataan trail. Torture, Torture, Everywhere! Nearly 80,000 American soldiers were captured by the Japanese in the To contemplate a discussion about whether or not torture is legal or whether it even works, it is first required to come to the conclusion that 'I am a child of God, but my adversary is a monkey'. Phillipines in 1942 and forced to march with no food and very little water for six days. If a man stumbled, if he didn't respond quickly to a command, or if he tried to get wat...
50 comments
Read more

Amazing Grace: Why Do So Many Mormons Not Get It?

Note on Comments for This Post: Somehow, blogger is displaying about 3 fewer comments than have actually been entered. I have added 3 comments, so that the last relevant ones will be shown. In addition, I have closed comments on this article. Please click on this link to continue commenting on the original article . Sorry for the inconvenience. In large part because of the many childish and tyrannical things we do to each other (and to ourselves), life sometimes seems to suck. God, however, did not intend it to be that way. Unfortunately, our worst tormentor is often ourselves. We Mormons mentally flagellate ourselves on a regular basis. God especially did not intend it to be this way. Instead, he hopes that we will look upward and see the Amazing Grace that he gives to us. We're so busy with the seeming enjoyment of miring ourselves in guilt, however, that we seldom even notice that his grace is at our fingertips. Amazing grace How sweet the sound That saved a wretch l...
44 comments
Read more