Date/Location:
| April 22, 2017 – Grass Valley, CA |
Distances:
| 5km |
Time:
| Anna 24:12 PR! (34:33, 2015) Ariel 42:55 (PR 38:29, 2015) |
Place:
| Anna: 1st Female & First Place 10-15yrs Ariel: 1st Place, 0-9yrs |
Teammates:
| Robin & Troy Soares, Elizabeth Katsura, Lauren Langhofer |
10, 9, 8, …3, 2, 1, go! Everyone starts going. I go straight, run around a cone and go up a hill. This hill is a long one. It gets flat and then we go downhill. I get to a metal bridge and cross it. Then I get to a wooden bridge and cross it. Then we run on this big grassy lane. There is the 1 Mile marker. And then, I get to the canal. After running on the canal for a little bit, Elizabeth from our track group catches up. We start running together on the canal. We get to an Aid station and we get water. I start walking to drink my water and Elizabeth does that too. She asks me “do you want to run now?” and I say “yes!”. We start running. We get to the turn around. We see this girl with earphones on and she misses the turn. Volunteers try to stop her but she cannot hear them. Elizabeth says “oh, well”. Then we go up a hill which takes us above the canal. Elizabeth says “I cannot wait until we see the smiley face!”. That's were the course no longer has hills! We see people in front of us. A teenage boy is trying to encourage his friend. His friend doesn't seem to go faster and runs behind. We pass both boys. Then we hear my mom cheering. Then we see her. She says we are almost to the finish. We exit the canal and go down this grassy hill. We go down a road to trail. 
Soon we hear people cheering. I tell Elizabeth that we'll sprint when get close to the finish. Those boys are right behind us. We sprint but they sprint too. I start going faster. I hear one of them say “we're going to get beat by a 10 year old!”. They slightly beat us. I tell them “I'm actually 8.”. They said “we almost got beat by an 8 year old!”. Ps. I was 1st place in my age group. My whole family got first place in our age group! 
ANNA Mom and I line up near the front. Mom tells me not to go out too fast. I see 3 three boys there about my age and I hope to pass them all. 5,4,3,2,1,GO! I take off but not too fast. I run around the cone and start running back and I pass one boy. Then I start running up a big hill and I pass another boy. I run down a hill and pass third boy. I am running close behind my dad and he says ‘how did you get up here so fast?’’ We run over some bridges and on some trails. When we get on the grass straight away, out of the corner of my eye I see something yellow fall to the ground. Then I feel one of my braids coming apart. I realize that the yellow thing was my hairband. I take out my other braid and make my hair into a ponytail. I run up some sand and keep running up the trail. Finally, I get to the canal. I run by a aid station and get some water. 
Soon my mom catches me and we start running together. Mom is running fast but I am able to stay with her. We run along the canal, come to a cone and run around it. We run up on a trail above the canal. We run downhill and uphill. Mom keeps asking me “where is the smiley face?”. The smiley face means no more hills. I remember where it is from last year. I’m too out of breath to answer her. Soon we see it! I run down to the aid station and try to grab some water but cannot. We keep running down the canal and see people running towards us because there is an out an back section. Then we turn off the canal and start running down the 
long hill to the finish line. Mom says “go for it…running downhill is your specialty!”. So, I sprint down the hill, turn on a small trail and see the finish! I sprint as hard as I can to the finish line. I point to God as I run through. Thank you God for helping me! I am the first female and first in my age group! 