The death of Maurice Sendrak definitely stood out recently to me. I love the book Where the Wild Things Are. It makes me think of my own children and all the children I encounter. I like to remember what it was like to live in a world of imagination where monsters sometimes existed. I kind of feel like a chapter just closed on my child hood with his passing. But at least I have the children in my life to experience it through fresh new eyes.
This week was a mixed bag. I finally have come to be able to get the girls to listen when things are coming to an end. Yep, the 5k is just a couple of days away and as always my heart is beating a million miles a minute as we approach. What will I forget to bring, what do I need to do still, will I ever get sleep in the next few days? I was recovering from running the Nut Job event at Fredrick Running festival which is a combination of a twilight 5k and then the half marathon the next morning. Boy oh Boy, you really do have to be a nut job to finish both in less than 24 hours! UGH. I had huge blood blisters and achy legs as I walked into practice Monday. Sometimes my girls are so sympathetic. Today was one of those days. Then again, when they see both your feet wrapped and you walking like your legs are made of wood, it's hard to not feel badly.
Our final lesson-we were a day ahead of the schedule, is about tuning into the right message. And thankfully I was prepared for this one. I have to work on the timing of it a little better. the girls like this lesson but I think it is hard to fit it in and give them all a chance to say something. I might go to having them write their answers on an index card and shuffling them up and reading them off for everyone. That seems to have worked in the past so maybe i will attempt that in future lessons.
I did manage to squeeze in some running. Actually, I ended up giving the girls almost a full 30 minutes of running and then add in cool down and warm up they probably got close to 45 minutes. I just had to do a quick wrap up at the end of the day.
And then Thursday-my final time to coach them technically before the season ending 5k. I took the girls out to stretch their legs for a bit, a long bit of stretching and question answering. Then the decorating of the 5k shirts. But lets back up a bit here.
I know every coach struggles with the craziness. What do you do when your patience is short and the girls can tell that one or two specific girls are really grating on your nerves that day? I have no clue yet but I am taking extra efforts to just take deep breaths and remain calm. Trying to use positive statements to encourage the good behavior than the negative statements that makes the girl feel badly.
Such is life I guess.
The girls were wonderful though. One girl didn't get a shirt in the pile. I always always count everything when I get it and this season I was complacent. Super fail. So I gave the girl my shirt for decorating and got a new one from the director! PS-the people who organize my districts Girls on the Run truly Rock. Seriously, they all amaze me with all the hard work and effort they put into making sure the girls and coaches succeed.
So I guess I leave you to ponder whether or not I succeed in getting all my girls to show up for the event, to finish the event, for me to not lose my mind, and/or forget something (including my own daughter!) on saturday morning.
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