M had a busy day today: a soccer game in the morning, soccer tryouts in the afternoon, and a 1-mile fun run. For those of you with younger kids, this seems like a pretty common thing for many sports. There’s a recreation league through the city or town, and then there are local clubs for kids to do more of the same sport. A lot of times they’re not all that well-advertised, so if you’ve got a child between, say, 4 and 8 who’s loving a rec sport, it’s a good idea to ask around about what else is available. It’s really kind of irritating, actually, because you can look around and suddenly you’ve got a 7-year-old who’s getting their butt kicked because a bunch of other kids are doing the same sport year-round. It is crazy how intense some of the sports are. So far, M’s only done the town rec soccer, and this year she’s trying the Niskayuna Soccer Club. Anyone the right age can play, but they do tryouts to place them in either an A team or a B team. If you’re placed on an A team, you can still choose to do B instead. A is more time, commitment, and money. Several of M’s friends are trying out as well, so we don’t know where any of them will end up. I think that we’re all just hoping that however the kids get placed, they each have a friend.
Meanwhile, M was determined to run in our local fun run because her gym teacher had promised that anyone who participated could skip out on laps at the next gym class. Of course she’ll end up doing more running this way, but think of the glory, sitting down and watching her classmates huff and puff by.
We’d hoped that it would be a family fun run, but J’s got a cold. She’s alternating between perky frolicking and moaning on the sofa, so it didn’t seem like a wise choice. Still, J enjoyed herself. Shop Rite, eager to win friends and influence people prior to their store opening a week from tomorrow, had a table piled up with craft supplies.
Not to be outdone, Price Chopper provided the yummy post-race snackage.
And yes, I’d fully intended to take photos of Cute W and M actually running. But I was too busy clapping and yelling to remember the camera.
The fun run was more well-attended and festive than I’d expected, by far. And I’m glad that M’s gym teacher got her motivated, because I think we’ll all be in for the fun run or even the 5K next year.
