The Little Runner

Jessica Peters can be a very determined young girl.

Last year at her school cross country, she made the entire distance, but had to walk for long periods of the race, and had some trouble with her asthma. While a bit disappointed in herself, she was more than anything else sure she could do better.

This year, in the lead up, she did plenty of practice with her class during school time, where they would run around the school.

Today was the race, and, above all of the expectations of both Helen and myself, she ran a great race. Helen was there to see her, and said she only had to stop to walk on a couple of occasions, and apart from that she kept plodding along.
So well in fact, that she ended up coming fifth in her age group, and as a result she will be heading off to the District Carnival to compete in a few weeks. She was so proud of herself, and couldn't wait to call me at work this afternoon when she got home to tell me about it.

What a champion! She obviously didn't get this off her father, but the fact that Helen was a good short-course runner when she was at school may perhaps go part way to explaining it.

My cross country career was not as successful, as this little exchange on Facebook shows.