Dominic---our RUNNER!

Dominic is our epic middle child.  He has always had the confidence to be his own person and walk to the beat of his own drum (or perhaps I should say "cello" since that's his instrument of choice) :)  He's our only kid who played cello, our only kid who mastered robotics, and our only kid who chose a sport other than baseball...how dare he! :)  He did try baseball for a couple of years when he was little, but knew it was not going to be his passion. 

Well, he found his passion (and his new best friends) his Freshman year at a brand new school when he joined the Fall cross country team. We never knew he was a gifted long-distance runner.  I guess we should have known because even as a little guy he loved to run lap after untiring lap on the track near my parents' house whenever we would go visit them in the summer.  But the small Catholic school our kids used to attend never had a track or cross country team, so we just never realized what a runner Dominic could be.  That all changed when we changed schools.  JHS has great track and cross country programs, with the best coach I could possibly imagine.  Coach Karson loves running, loves his student athletes, and loves the Lord.  Doesn't get much better than that.  Coach has taught Dominic to believe in himself and to make running a life-long love to benefit both physical and mental health.  Honestly, Dominic's discovery of his love of running, along with the coach and the friends that came with it, was one of the greatest blessings God gave our family during that difficult transition of changing schools.  Proving once again that God is good, all the time!

I think I already posted about Dominic's XC season last year, but not yet about his Spring track season.  Dominic had an absolutely amazing track season.  He almost always got 1st place in the mile race, and usually placed within the top 3 in the 2 mile race (all of this as a FRESHMAN mind you!).  I think nearly every time he ran he improved his PR (personal record) by a few seconds.  His PR for the mile is a speedy 4:50!!! He was definitely on the path to make it to State this year, until the day before the District track meet when he broke his toe in PE class.  Who knew dodge ball could be dangerous?  That was rough, but he handled it well, and as soon as he healed he started training for the summer Governor's Cup half Marathon that he wanted to run with Coach Karson and his teammate Ranae.  He did AMAZING!!!  He got 1st place in his age group, and 14th place out of 177 participants of all ages!  He averaged a 7:16 minute mile for 13.1 miles, with a final time of 1 hour, 35 minutes, and 10 seconds.  UN--BE--LIEV--ABLE!!!

Here are some pictures of his EPIC track season and Governor's Cup race.  You can totally see his love of running (and a bit of a competitive spirit too).  I should shout out my huge thanks to Ranae's mom for taking the amazing photos too:

Only in Montana do runners have to wear thermal undershirts and gloves.

Nearly every race was FREEZING COLD!

Love this picture!

Shows what supportive friends Dominic has found.

So grateful to God for my great son and the joy he has found in running.

And here are the photos from the Governor's Cup Half Marathon:

This is Dominic with his Coach and his friend Ranae.
The race began early in the morning with a steady rainfall.

It looked miserable to me, but Dominic says the rain was actually nice :)

I have high hopes for this upcoming XC season due to such quality coaching, 

and teammates who not only love running but care about each other.

Totus Tuus,

~Maria