High School Track Regionals

Last weekend, Nina competed in the Regional track meet for her high school.  The meet was rescheduled twice due to weather, but thankfully, the day of the meet was cool but sunny.  Leading up to the meet, we had over a week of freezing cold temps, snow, and freezing rain.  Since the meet was going to be held outdoors (but had to happen within a certain window of time), the twice rescheduling ended up being the best option for the athletes in the long run.  

 

Regionals was held at a school in Richmond, so we drove down that morning, and once we started to get close, Nina was all nervous jitters.  This was obviously her first time attending Regionals, and she really wanted to do well for her team.  She qualified in four events, but she didn’t have high expectations for two of them.

 

One of the events that was super new to her was long jump.  She only long jumped in the last half of the track season, but it seems to be a good event to add to her repertoire, so we were happy to see her learning something new.

Also new this year were the relays.  She’s run a 200m dash in competition before, but she had not run a 200m or 400m relay.  Her 200m relay team was pretty strong, so they were hopeful to qualify for states (which they did).  Nina has run the lead leg in this event during the regular meets, so she ran the lead leg again at Regionals.  

It was a pretty frantic pace at the beginning of the meet for her.  As soon as the meet started, she had to long jump, then she went straight to her hurdles race, then over to the high jump pit to start preparing for jumps when they called the 200m relay team to check in.

  

While the lower entry height female high jumpers started jumping, she was running her 200m, but thankfully the high jump officials paused the jumps so she was able to change her spikes and get over to the high jump pit in time to start at her entry height.  She ended up winning the high jump competition which was really cool for her since she hadn’t jumped competitively since March 2020 and has had very little high jump practice since it’s an event that has been very limited because of Covid restrictions.  The same was probably true of the other girls as well as Nina didn’t have to jump her highest to win the regional competition, but I’m guessing it’s going to be a different story at states.  

She ran the 400m relay at the last event of the meet and was quite exhausted afterwards.  Her 200m relay team qualified for states, and Nina qualified for states in high jump. Several of her teammates also qualified for states, and their team took an overall 2nd place finish at Regionals.  Being a part of the high school “indoor” track team and getting the opportunity to compete at Regionals ended up being such a great experience for her. States is on Tuesday, 3/2, at Liberty University in Lynchburg.  

Next year, Independence High School moves up at least 1 or 2 classes in relationship to competition with other schools, so the competition is going to keep getting bigger, but as a freshman, we couldn’t have been happier for her experience this year.  It has given her a connection to her high school, enabled her to make new friends, and has, by far, been her highlight since Covid restrictions hit.

   

Snow Days

Last week we had a few pretty snow days.  The first snow had more accumulation than the second, but it definitely wasn’t as pretty.  It was enough to build a couple snowmen, play in, chase Cayenne around and throw some snowballs for her to catch (and some at me too) and, of course, get the girls out of school for a day or two.

    

  

  

   

The second snow was very short lived but beautiful.  It started snowing on Sunday morning and was done around lunch time (also melting from the roads quickly), but the flakes were enormous!  I intended just to walk outside and look around with my camera, but it was so pretty out that I decided to walk down the street to the park and take a look there as well.  It was certainly a beautiful and peaceful morning!

  

   

  

 

 

 

19th Anniversary

On January 19th, Mark and I celebrated our 19th anniversary.  As with all things since Covid, any celebrating was limited to what we could do at home, so we made a great dinner and enjoyed a nice bottle of wine.  We made homemade Bang Bang shrimp for an appetizer then had grilled Ahi tuna steaks with steamed broccoli and coconut rice and finished things off with Barefoot Contessa’s recipe for the very decadent Caramel Sea Salt Brownies.  It was a delicious meal!

 

  

On anniversary fell on a Tuesday, so the Friday that followed we had our day date hike to celebrate.  My mom came over to stay with the girls while they were on virtual school, and Mark, Cayenne, and I drove out to the Shenandoah National Park to hike Mary’s Rock.

 

We had hiked Mary’s Rock once before about five years ago, but we went in July, so this experience of the hike was nothing at all like our first.  It was a somewhat “nice” day for winter when we left our house, but by the time we got up in elevation to the base of the mountain, it was freezing and super windy!  Also, we didn’t have any snow at home, but most of the trail was snow and/or ice covered.  

   

One thing that is nice about hiking in winter is the foliage on the trees often blocks small views on the way up to the summit, but that’s not the case in winter.  As we hiked up the ridge to the top, we saw great views most of the way.

 

   

There were a few stretches where the trail was not ice/snow covered, and on those stretches with the sun shining on us, we actually got quite hot.

   

But once we reached the top, the cold air and wind were back.  We had originally thought we’d eat our lunch at the top, but seeing how cold and windy it was up there, we decided to make our way back down a bit before stopping to eat.

 

We ate lunch in cool little rock cut-out with a nice view of the valley, then make our way back to the car.

  

We finished things off with a stop at Old Bust Head Brewery for a beer and a sit outside under a heat lamp, then it was back home after that.  

   

It was a great day date, and regardless of it being winter, we really both enjoy the chance to get out and hike, so it was a  fun way for us to celebrate our anniversary.  Cayenne was exhausted when we got home.  The poor thing loves coming with us on hikes, and she is the best hiking dog.  She’s off leash but stays with us or comes right back when we call her, but she is so anxious in the car.  She was probably tired even before we started from her anxiety of being in the car for over and hour, but she loves being out there with us, and we love bringing her!