Strider

Not putting much effort into this entry....it's late on a Thursday with a blizzard on the way pulling scheduling nightmares along with it.  April snowstorm is not unheard of, but not something one expects to deal with when one sits down in January to construct April schedules.

It's track season.  Nearly a year ago I became a lover of track and field while watching my two eldest daughters compete in a variety of events.  They are jumping over stuff, throwing things, and running around once again this spring, and once again loving it.  Unfortunately our weather has prevented the start of outdoor track season.  Fortunately our school completed construction on a sparkling new athletic field house last month, so our track team has been able to practice, and host meets, on our indoor track.  Tonight was our third home meet of the spring.

Only one daughter competed tonight, and her jumping events were quite delayed by participants being in other events or by races on the track taking precedence over long jumpers using the track for their approaches to the pit.  So I had plenty of idle time to watch lots of kids I don't know run in circles around the track.

The human body is fascinating.  We are all constructed from the same basic blueprint, yet the way that basic plan functions is so wildly varied.  Ten kids running the same race have at least five different strides.  The leaders' gaits are smooth, effortless, like they have marshmallows on their feet the way each foot softly bounces off the track from stride to stride.  The runners in the middle of the pack are more forced with their movements, as if each successful step results from a concentrated effort to not screw up.  The final runners are painful to watch, with limbs flailing and bodies jouncing as they struggle to not only keep pace with the kids ahead but to even stay in their own lane.

Same goes for jumpers, high jumpers in particular.  Each jumper takes essentially the same approach to the bar with the same number of steps and arches their body in the same shape......yet some leave the ground as if gravity has them in a choke hold while others simply float as high as needed to clear the bar.

I begrudge no athlete their natural ability, nor am I poking fun at those who have yet to master control of their own body.  I am simply amazed at how differently the humans function in an event they are all doing as one.  Or something like that.  More than anything I needed to find a way to use the word "jounce".

And #The100DayProject rolls on......