There was much anticipation about Brett doing track this year. It was his first high school sport and he was so excited about it!
100M Personal Record: 15.406
200M Personal Record: 31.74
High Jump: 4ft 6in
The season had it's ups and falls, but he worked hard and enjoyed being a part of the team and all that involved. He loved riding the bus to the track meets and the routine of the events and practices. He tried some new things, too. Hurdles and high jump! The hurdles turned out to be not such a good fit. I think that the high jump would have been a good event for him if he had started practicing it earlier in the season!
Track is usually a Brett and Lydia sport, but this year all three partipated. We've tried to follow a one-sport-per-season-per-kid rule but with the move and practice happening after school, it almost seemed it would be more convenient for everyone to be in one spot. There were a few conflicts that came up between Reggie's baseball and track meets, but it mostly worked out.
That being said, the season was a season of extreme weather. April and May are never great in Minnesota, and this year was no exception. Out of 4 meets, one was canceled because it was a high of 38 degrees that day. The second meet was in the low 40's and barely tolerable. The 3rd meet was the best as far as weather goes, but Lydia wasn't feeling great and skipped one of her events (it turned out to be Covid). The 4th meet was divided between grades. It was over 90 degrees for the 8th grade meet. The 6th/7th grade meet was all set to be a go when our severe hail storm blew threw!
So there were not many highlights. Lydia only participated in one full meet. Reggie in two, and Brett in three. Brett loves to run relays and do the 100m. Reggie's favorite event is 200m and he also likes relays. Lydia likes distance running and does the 800m, 1600m, and she also likes shot put.
It was fun to have them all on the same team for the first time since t-ball! Hopefully next year we will have more highlights!
I'm on a mission to get the blog through the summer months before we are into full-blown winter sports season. So here we go with track!
Initially, it looked like the Special Olympics would be holding a modified track season, but plans fell through when our delegation was unable to fulfill all of the covid protocols. By this point, I was really looking for ANYTHING for Lydia in particular to do with some peers - since she had done online school the full year. So I signed her up for recreational track in a neighboring city. They were in need of a coach for Lydia's age group, so Bryan inquired about volunteering. During the conversation, he told the director about Brett and asked if he could also be a part of the team (it was supposed to be through 6th grade). The director allowed Brett to join as a "team captain".
While the Special Olympics has lots of events for athletes to participate in, unified partners (non-disabled peers such as Lydia) only compete in the relay. This year Lydia had the opportunity to try out and compete in many different track and field events. Since she had just trained for and run the Frozen 5K, she did not shy away from the longer-distance runs like many kids her age do. She enjoyed pushing herself in the 400m and 800m.
By the 3rd of four meets, she was ready to give the 1500m a go, and she competed in that one at the last two meets. Lydia does a great job of keeping some gas in the tank for the second half of the race, and that is where she would sometimes pass up her competition!
Brett loved trying all the different field events. He was a consistent 100m and 200m dash runner. I think his favorite was the relays. He tried the 4x400m relay, but since he did very little 400m training, the distance was a little too much. At the end of his leg of the race, he fell to the ground, exclaiming, "Long race! Long race!" After that, he stuck with the 4x100m relay!
In May, we trained and competed in the Special Olympics Virtual Summer Games. Brett was the only one who formally entered the competition, but Reggie, Lydia and I trained and competed along with him for the fun of it.
We held the official event over a weekend, recreating some of our favorite parts of the summer games. The entrance of the athletes during the opening ceremony is a special experience that can't be recreated in all it's fanfare, but we did our best with what we had. It included a special announcement, WWE-style entrance music, a handcrafted torch, the National Anthem, and a few curious looks from neighbors!
On to "Victory Village", which is generally a carnival-like atmosphere with games and free stuff, the kids set out our yard games and the refrigerator box became a food truck. We had badges and meal tickets and food. Because Brett is all about the food.
Then we "competed" in track and basketball events. It was fun for Brett to compete in the basketball events. Due to scheduling, in real life, he can only compete in track. Many of the basketball events were number of baskets out of 20. So, for example, he made 16 layups out of 20. He competed in the same track events as last year. We had everything measured out and marked with sidewalk chalk.
When the events were complete, I entered Brett's results into the SOMN website. They gathered results from athletes around the state, created ability-level divisions, and virtual medals were emailed to the athletes. They put together an overall celebration video and a highlight video for each sport (track, basketball, and gymnastics - no swimming this year). Brett is featured in the highlight video @ 1:08, but I highly watching the entire video. It will make any day better!
Here is the highlight video I created from our stay-at-home summer games.
It was announced this week that the Special Olympics will be doing virtual competition for bocce and softball. Better get on Amazon and order a bocce set! I'm crossing my fingers that flag football will be in real life.
We've been looking forward to the Special Olympics Summer Games since last summer. This event is such a highlight in our year, and this year was even better than last year with special guests, Lydia participating as a Unified Partner, and perfect weather!
My parents, brother and sister-in-law, and three of their kids came to cheer on Brett and Lydia. Brett tried out the long jump this year and placed 1st in his division.
Next was the 4x100 Unified Relay. Brett and another athlete on our team ran with Lydia and the coach. They placed 3rd in their division. At the Opening Ceremony, we were excited to represent our team and see Joe Mauer!
The next day, Brett competed in the 100M Run and 50M Dash and placed 4th and 1st respectively. Between events, we enjoyed watching basketball and swimming, climbing the rock wall, doing an escape room, and many other activities. What a special weekend!
