Lion's Sports Day

Friday was Lion's first sports day!  It's not an all day event for the younger grades.  They were joining the whole school for their running races up until morning tea and then they were doing some combined activities for the younger grades until lunch then back to their classrooms for the afternoon.

After hearing from a few friends with prep kids that their kids had no idea what to do when they had their race I talked with Lion a little about what you are actually supposed to do in a race, what the lines on the field were for, when to start running and more importantly when to STOP running.  Come on, you've seen the kids that keep running past the time keepers, past the screaming parents, going and going until they hit a solid object.  That was not going to be my boy, he was going to know what to do.  I needn't have worried about that, they had practice races the day before and they run the year 1, 2 and 3 races first so the little preppies can see what's going on.  Lion had his form perfected.

Lion is the one in in the running pose in the white shirt in lane 2

The race started well, they all ran fairly much as a line for the first 10m.  After that there was one or two who spread further ahead and one or two who fell behind... Lion was one of the ones falling behind... it's in his genes.

Lion on the left, still in lane 2, and A running ahead.

By the last 20m (for Lion) the pack had about 15m of spread between first and last.  The first kid crossed the line, the second, the third, on it went, his friend, A, crossed the line, there was one kid left running.  He looked up and realised he wasn't going to win...

"Now folks, keep your eye on the boy in lane 6...

No, no, I mean the one in lane 5...

Yes, yes, lane 5, he's running and like he's being chased by something...

Okay, he's in lane 3 now...

Like he's being chased by a crocodile, I think...

No, now he's in lane 2, keep your eyes on him...

Is it crocodiles that they say you should run zigzag so they can't catch you?..

Actually I've got no idea which lane he's in anymore...

Or maybe a dachshund, I bet they have trouble turning corners...

Sorry, lane 3 it is, he's in lane....

Oh forget it, he's the only one on the track, if you can't see him you'd better get your eyes checked!

That's right people, Lion's philosophy is "if you've got no chance of winning anymore then you might as well have fun with the race".  He had everyone laughing.  I've always been a little worried that he would turn out to be the class clown... I don't have to worry about that anymore, I think he's aiming more for "school clown".

After that tiring effort the kids were gathered together to walk back to the seating area together so I went over and grabbed a quick photo of my little champion.

I was so proud of him.  I am proud of him for joining in happily and having fun.  Now to figure out where the balance is between "it's just for fun" and "win at all costs" because this kid is right at the fun end... he looked like he was out for a jog... on a very crooked path.  Although his real running style is rather entertaining too... he looks like he's going to hit the ground in a heap at any moment, but it works for him and when he does pull it out he can get quite a bit of speed happening... if he could be bothered.

He did have some more members to his cheer squad.  I was at the end so I could get some good photos and on the sidelines was Nanna and Dragon and Monkey.  We made sure we got a photo to remind us that Nanna came all the way up to visit us for Lion's first sports day...

Dragon didn't want to get in this photo, he was in a bit of a mood by this point.  He wanted to race and couldn't understand why it was just for school kids.  Nanna used her experience with 5 kids, 14 grand kids and 16bazillion great grand kids to know that he just needed to race someone, anyone... so as we were walking home she raced with him... I'd love to say it was the most entertaining running race I've ever seen... but the bar has been set pretty high now.

A and Lion after their race.

CUTE!