Running with Passion

Memories of school day athletics for many are ones best left in the recess of the brain. But for our local school I think there will be quite a few happy memories stored away. The weather was perfect and the children came onto the field with a spring of excitement. They’ve been practicing their cross country run most days this term and Tuesday was the day for the whole school to compete against their fellow class mates.

Whilst waiting for their race to begin they cheered on the other year groups from their ‘Whanau’ (family) groups. Charlotte and Sophie are naturally in the same ‘Whanau’ group and were proudly wearing the colour blue for their group; Kahurangi.

There was a brief moment of tears from Sophie when she initially wondered where her teacher and class mates had gone, but she quickly dried her eyes and ran off with no hesitation when she spotted her year group heading to the start line.

She has loved practicing this term and enjoyed the competition. One of her class mates always piques her at the post, but she is a great sport about it and was full of congratulations for her new friend.

She was enthralled to come in second place! Charlotte also came in second, showing tremendous effort, strength and stamina. She started off at the back of the pack and kept going to come in second! Bravo!

Dan came down to cheer on the girls and was so thrilled to be there. He actually hasn’t been feeling well this week and Alice has come up in spots today (Thursday), after her temperature was high on Monday night… looks very much like chicken pox. Her appetite is low, but she’s getting plenty of nutrients and milk to drink from me! She certainly didn’t let a fever put her off her stride whilst supporting her big sisters… we had to work hard to keep her from joining in the race!