Gideon's 1st Cross Country Meet

 So the Parks and Rec department supports a city running club and puts on elementary cross country meets for the schools and clubs in the area.  So Gideon decided he wanted to participate, so Wednesday after school we drove out to Patterson Lake for the cross country meet.

 Patterson Lake is a man made lake with a little beach and recreation and camping areas.  The kids enjoyed exploring it a little bit before the meet started. 

 Gideon found some older boys who were veterans of the local club and asked them some questions, they were nice enough to give him tips and pointers. 

 Finally it was time to warm up.  Even though we got here too late to officially join the local running club, they welcomed him in.

 And to the starting line.  They ran the 1st and 2nd graders first and then the older kids afterward.  I think Gideon's age group only ran between 1/2 & 3/4 of a mile, but they really enjoyed it.

 Except for one little thing.  Gideon fell right off the starting line.  And then of course, got trampled and tripped over.  I didn't even realize I got a picture of the fall until later last night when I was looking at the pictures.  He banged up his knees and elbows and was really screaming and crying.  I ran out onto the road and asked if he wanted to stop.  He cried that he wanted to run, so he took off running dead last. 

 Funny kid, ran the whole way holding his shorts up so that they wouldn't get stuck in his blood.

 Anyway, he didn't finish dead last, but he was definitely toward at the end.  Anyway, he was our little champion for gutting it out and finishing even though he was pretty busted up.

 When we got home, he wouldn't let me really touch it or clean it up very well, so it wasn't until around 9pm that I realized how bad the actual cut was. From looking at it, I figured it probably needed stitches, but with the urgent care closed I really didn't feel like taking him to the ER, so we waited until this morning before school.

 Unfortunately, by this morning we had missed our window for stitches because the edges of the wound were already showing signs of healing.  She said it definitely could have benefitted from stitches but it will still heal okay.  It will just take longer and he'll have a pretty gnarly scar.  (Which Gideon thinks is pretty cool actually.)  So they cleaned it up and wrapped it really well.  (Which is what we'll have to do for a while to make sure it doesn't get dirty and infected.) But overall it was a successful event and I'm so glad he was such a tough kid and got up and finished the race.