Kinsale St. Patrick's Day 4-Miler

Yesterday, after arriving home from OU around 3:30, Ben and I changed into our running clothes and headed out at 4:00 for a four mile race that we had already signed up for before Maria qualified for the spelling bee.  If she had moved on to Round 5 after the lunch break, we would not have made it back in time to race, but it would have been so worth it if she had made it that far!

I had been a little nervous about this race for several reasons.  The main reason was that I was worried about getting back in time to get there and get a good parking place so we didn't have to walk a long way to the car.  But I was also concerned about eating out for the 24 hours before the race, about not being in complete control of what and when I ate and drank in the hours before the race, and I was also worried that my legs would not be ready after sitting in the car for two hours prior.  I wanted to beat my 4 mile PR from last year, which was 39'24" with an average of 9'51" per mile.  Ben kept telling me I could easily beat it with all of the training I have been doing for my half marathon.  I was skeptical, as I have not had much success at keeping miles under 9'51" when I run around here, and never have strung together 4 miles at that pace.

The weather was perfect - a little cold while we were standing around waiting for the race to start, but a cool 50 degrees with a light breeze was perfect once we got running.  There were 1100 people registered for this race, and boy was it crowded.  I started a little behind the 10'00" pacers, and easily passed them in the first mile.  I just ran what felt good, and then looked at my watch and realized I was running about 9'40".  It was then that I decided to keep all of my miles under 9'51" which would mean that I would be able to beat my time from last year.  After the first 1.5 miles, the course heads onto the cart path of a golf course, which makes passing people a little more difficult.  But I just kept my pace, and when I got behind people that slowed me down, I found a way to pass them.  I got passed, too, but I did more passing then getting passed.  When we headed into the last mile, I knew I was going to be able to do it.  All of my miles had been well under 9'51" and I still felt pretty good.  When I was heading for the finish line, I saw Ben and DMC-er Brandon B. cheering me on, and that inspired me to sprint to the finish line.  I have never had enough energy to sprint to the finish line.  I felt so good after hits race I was starting to wonder if maybe I could have gone faster.

But I can't complain.  I ran a great race - I was shocked at how fast I ran and how good I felt during most of it.  My final time was 38'13", a pace of 9'34".  Over a minute better than last year's time.  I came in 429/981 runners.  This training is definitely paying off.

Ben also had an incredible race.  He wanted to beat his time from last year as well, and ended up coming in 9th place out of 981 runners!  His time was 25'37" which is an average of 6'25".  He also beat last year's time by over a minute.  Definitely a great day for us!

Regional Spelling Bee

Maria has been working very hard to learn the 1150 words given to her to study for the Regional Spelling Bee which was yesterday at OU.  These were the same words she had to learn to make it up to this point, but she had taken a much needed break for a few weeks after qualifying for this bee and has been going over the words a lot in the last two weeks.  They give the kids the origin of the words as well, and they learn different rules for spelling words form those different places, which can help them in competition as well.  Tuesday night we finally watched "Akeela and the Bee," which is about a girl from Los Angeles who overcomes obstacles to even compete in spelling bees and ends up winning the National Bee. Maria had to go through two spelling bees at Fairbanks Middle School to be the school champion, and then take an online test to qualify for the regional bee.  Only 70 out of 450 spellers passed that test. So she was competing with some really good spellers, and she was as ready as she was going to be.

The bee was at OU yesterday, with registration starting at 8:30 and the bee beginning at 10:00.  We decided to head down to Athens after school Friday and stayed in a Hampton Inn, and that way we didn't have to get up extremely early on Saturday morning (Athens is a 2-hour drive), and Maria was able to attend the bowling party for the spellers on Friday night.  Saturday morning, we got to Walter Hall a few minutes early, since we weren't sure about parking and thought we might have to walk from somewhere else on campus.  But we were early enough that parking wasn't a problem.  It turned out being early worked to our advantage - we were able to secure a spot to watch in the second row when many parents ended up having to stand - there were a lot of people there.  The bad news was that we were in our seats at 8:30 and the bee didn't start until 10:00.  Maria spent the time looking over her words and Sam played on his ipod.  I wish I could say the time flew by but it didn't, although we were so lucky that Sam was so patient all day and didn't really complain at all, I thought all that sitting around watching the other spellers wasn't good for Maria's nerves.

Finally the bee started.  All 69 contestants were seated in rows facing the audience - sorted alphabetically by school name.  Then a row of five kids would stand, walk to the mike, and spell the word given to them.  The difference in the kids was amazing.  It was for grades 5-8, so some boys were hardly bigger than Sam, and some 8th grade boys were almost twice their size.  There were also a couple of boys who seemed to be at least slightly autistic (Maria had to sit by one of them), and many nationalities were represented, although the majority of kids were white.  There were some kids who had been trained to ask every question they were allowed of the reader before attempting to spell the word.  Seriously, the first round words were easy (Maria's was "karma"), and these kids still asked for definition, country of origin, and alternate pronunciations, sometimes more than once.  It was annoying, and I was happy to see Maria make it farther than some of those kids.  I understand if it was a difficult word, but many of those first round words were not.  So after the first round, maybe 5 or 6 kids missed their word, but the majority of kids were still in it.  Round two started, and the words were harder, although still not too bad.  Maria's word was "mascara," but some were harder than that.  So much of the spelling bee is luck - some words are just easier that others, even if they're in the same round, and some kids didn't seem to have much of a chance.

After Round 2 there were about 50 kids left, the bee had been going on for over an hour and they took the first break.  Maria came up to us, in a great mood, and her first words to me were, "This is so exciting!"  So the nerves that we could see before the bee started were gone and she was just happy to still be a part of it.  To me, that attitude was important and made the experience a good one for her, no matter what happened next.

After the break, Round 3 commenced and the audience was noticeably thinner, as the kids who had been eliminated and their parents left.  Maria's third round word was "insipid."  That wasn't on the study sheets (after Round 2 any word was fair game).  I could tell she wasn't certain how to spell it as she asked for the country of origin (Latin - which I thought might help since she's taking an online Latin class "for fun"), definition, and for the word to be pronounced again.  She started off "I-N," then pause, and I'm sending her "Say s, say s" thoughts, and then she decides on "S-I-P-I-D."  Pause as the moderator gives a slight nod (they ding a bell when you're wrong, when you're right there is silence while the audience tries to decided if the word was spelled correctly before they applaud) and Maria breathed a sigh of relief and heads back to her seat.  Later she told me she guessed as she had never heard that word before.

Round 3 was rough - it was down to 25 kids - about half were eliminate during that round.  When Round 4 began, the gloves were off and most of the words were very difficult - many I had never even heard of, although the occasional easy word slipped through.  Maria's word was "veracity."  She asked for definition, country of origin, for the word to be pronounced again, but in the end spelled "voracity." She had never heard of "veracity," and so she went with the word she knew.  And then we heard the sound of the dreaded bell, and she had to go sit in the back with the other kids who had missed a word in Round 3 or 4. She was very disappointed, of course, but we are so proud of her for making it that far.  There were 21 kids left when she got eliminated, and only 15 kids left at the end of Round 4.  These students represented 33 counties in Ohio, and to make it to the final third was a pretty big accomplishment.


 Luckily for us, they took a lunch break at the end of the round so Maria didn't have to watch too much of the bee of which she was no longer a part.  We picked up her certificate and left, as Ben and I had an evening race in Dublin that we had signed up for before she qualified for the bee.  In the car, we were able to laugh about things that had happened, and although Maria was disappointed, she was also able to laugh and talk about it.  We stopped for lunch at Pizza Hut (Maria's choice), and then left Athens behind.  Maybe the next time one of our kids has to go to a college campus for a competition, it could be at Miami.