The Burr Family: DVAL Cross Country Championships

Last Saturday was a busy day. Calissa had her league soccer tournament that day and the boys had their DVAL Cross Country Championships. Here are the boys as we were heading out the door for the day.

The Championship was held at Hidden Valley Park this year in Martinez. When we got to the park the coach greeted us with a flag that she had had made. Pretty cool, huh?

Conner was running Frosh/Soph because of his injured hip. His race was the 2nd of the day after the Frosh/Soph Girls. As he came around the first time, he was doing pretty good.

After running about 1.25 miles out where we couldn't see him, he showed up (in 4th place for CHS) looking like he was hurting. He only had the final big hill and a little bit left to the finish (maybe .2 miles).

We hurried to the finish line to get pictures of him finished and he didn't come, and didn't come, and didn't come. Finally Travis ran back to the other side of the hill to see if he could find him. I ran over too, and with tears streaming down his face, he came limping into view. His hip got hurt much worse going up that big hill at the end. As he hobbled towards the finish line, our CHS families and teammates cheered him on. Tears were streaming down more than just his face as he finished the race.

He went straight over to the medical personnel who were there. They gave him ice and then we brought him back over to our seats to eat something, take some Motrin, and ice his hip. We were so proud of him for finishing the race and know that he has 3 more years to compete!
He finished with a time of 17:16 for 2 miles which is an 8:37 pace (which is faster than I can run, uninjured)!

The last race of the day was the boy's varsity race. This is the only time during the season that the whole league runs together. Usually it's just half of the boys and half of the girls who run at the same time. I don't know about how nervous Parker was, but I was super nervous for him (as was his coach)! He had won all the league races this year and really wanted to come in first for league this year. As they came around for the first time Parker was leading the pack.

Another pass around the hill, and he was still in first.

Here's a group of fans coming to observe in the spot where they show up again (after a couple of miles).

Waiting for them to show up on this bridge seems like a long wait, but when they came into view, Parker was still in first.

Up and over the big hill, around the bottom of the hill and Parker showed up to the finish line!

One last final sprint and he ended up beating the next runner by an amazing 8 seconds!
He finished with a time of 16:17 which is a 5:25 pace.

(There was a drone-thingy about the finish line ... not sure why, but it was kind of cool?)

Getting a big hug from his coach!

After that race was over, we all gathered for the league awards. We had 2 girls (Faith & Kiyomi) place in the top 10 for JV, one boy (Evan) made Honorable Mention, and Parker getting first place and winning league MVP. Here's the DVAL commissioner congratulating him on his run.