I have one of the top 7th graders in the state running for me. I thought I was nervous when I ran, I'm dying right now getting ready for a huge meet today. He'll be running against a couple hundred local kids at 2 miles. He had been racing 1,500 over the summer. I've been pointing him towards our district meet in October, but it is hard to not want him to just win every race. I also recognize he probably needs me the least, I have twenty five other runners to worry about as well.

This kid is amazing and coachable. We discussed a strategy for the race, I explained about being patient at the start with 150 runners all heading for the same turn. At 1/4 mile he was in 30th place out of 150. At the 1/2 mile mark he was in 1st, by the end of the race, which was dropped to 1.2 miles, he was 30 seconds clear of the field and just cruising along. I'm going to start running him against 8th grade for the last couple meets before our district meet to get him some extra work.