It was a beautiful day for the end of October in Iowa, a great day for running and for watching those who ran! Our Tanzanian son ran like the wind, achieved his goal, and was the 9th fastest in the state. His coaches' goal was for him to be in the top 15. His personal goal was to bring home a medal by being one of the top 10. We are all so proud that he ran well under a lot of pressure. He was representing his country, his adoptive school, and his team. He humbly accepted our praise and congratulations ........... and mourned for his worthy competitor from a neighboring school who finished just out of the medals. Wow.
WOW! Congratulations!!! I'm so proud of my brothers!
ReplyDeleteI think that was my favorite part of the whole day: "But I feel really bad for him, he is my friend and I feel bad that he didn't have a good race!" :-) What a great kid....and what a proud day for your family!
ReplyDeleteToday I was lucky to work with the IRIS/YES kids when they volunteered at the Northeast Iowa Food Bank. One of the staff members with the group pointed out Dennis and told me about his Cross Country success. Later, when I had the chance to visit with him, I said, "You will have a very unique honor, you'll be the only person in your home town to ever win at the state level in Iowa Cross Country." He replied, "No, we had a girl go to state too". (I was puzzled at first - how could his home town have produced another Iowa Cross Country runner??)
ReplyDeleteMy point - he has already adopted you and your town as his hometown. Outstanding. Dennis and all of the kids that helped us today were a pleasure, pure joy to be around. Thanks for helping them (and me) to have this experience.