(Drew is the guy in the shades- He said it was for the sun- I said it coevered up the pain he was in.  This was taken at the finish line.)

Saturday I spent the day in Marion Indiana- yeah I know what is in Marion- what was there was the Regional Meet for the NAIA College Cross Country Teams.  My son, Drew, is a freshman at Cornerstone and was of course running in this meet.  Cornerstone is a very good team when they are healthy-  but this past two weeks they have seen 4 of their top 7 runners get some major injuries that should have sidelined them from running (Drew included); but this team knew this was their year!  Cornerstone has never been to Nationals and this was their best year if they were going to make it- but they needed their top 3 to run.

Derek is their number one runner- his injury- just a stress fracture in his FOOT!  Drew is number two- his injury- and IT Band that doesn’t allow your leg to fully extend and it causes shooting pain up your legs when pressure is applied- and Wes who has been dealing with many injuries that have actually had in him a cast until two days before regionals.  So that gives you an ideal as to the pain these guys are in.  They had to come in second to go to Nationals.

These guys with the power of God behind them all ran in the race and dropped their times by some as much as 32 seconds (that is alot in running) .  As each of them came across the finish line they collaped on the ground in agony- some crying from the pain and others unable to walk because of it.  They gutted this race out and God has blessed them with taking second and allowing them to go to Nationals in Kentucky.  How cool it was to watch the determination on their faces while at the same time seeing the shear pain they each were in.  I was never more proud of a young group of guys who ran for the team and not them selves.  Hard to watch as a mom knowing your kid is hurting but still fun to watch at the same time.

If your interested go to their website and read the article about the race- it tells it all. http://www.cornerstone.edu/athletics/mens_cross_country/

This entry was posted on Monday, November 6th, 2006 at 9:29 am and is filed under Thoughts to Think On.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.