Danielle's Track (and No Field)

Run, Danielle, run!

Yep, she has embarked on her fourth sport in athletics: Track & Field! She intentionally tried out for hurdles and long jump, but she ended up being assigned to two events (that she did not try out for) that built upon her success during Cross Country season -- the "long distance" track events: 1600 meters (1 mile / 4 laps) and 2400 meters (1.5 miles / 6 laps). She was happy to run the races with her buddy, Kayla -- they definitely kept each other going! 

And at the last minute (literally, 1 hour before the track meet), Danielle was added to a relay team, too. They practiced the baton handoff for the first time while waiting for the event to begin! Beginners luck: success!

I think Danielle has yet to think of herself as "a runner", as she mostly just enjoys hanging out with her friends and being part of a team!

As for her results, she did pretty good -- a place ribbon for her 3 events.

The entire track meet lasted about 4 hours! (We had no idea.) Plus, this first one was a bit of a circus, as the PA system at the stadium was not working, so we had no idea what events were coming up. But there are 3 more meets in the season, so looking forward to how the next one goes!

UPDATE: Results from second meet below...with a bit of a story!

2400M Starting Line

The girl in 4th place actually only completed 5 laps, instead of 6! She was behind Danielle and Kayla the entire race, but apparently the guy signaling laps lost count (the lead girl lapped everyone, plus there was 7th and 8th grade girls running, so it was a lot to keep track of!) The counter actually signaled to Danielle last lap too, but Danielle knew it wasn't correct so she kept going...oh well. Danielle still bettered her time by 3 seconds from last meet, and said it felt easier this time around. Progress.

A new event - Danielle was added last minute and did great!

NOTE: Danielle was also in the 4 x 200M relay again, however, the baton got dropped from person 1 to person 2 outside the passing lane (or something), so it never made it to Danielle. She was ready though!

Final times from all 4 meets (NOTE: the 4th meet was cut short due to lightning, so Danielle missed out running the 4x200 relay...not sure why they did not use the make-up date to finish the remaining events...):