Hershey's Track Meet - Sarah's the one to beat!

A big contender of the area Hershey's Track Meet, Sarah showed up just in time for her first heat in one of her events, the 50-meter. Why? She had been throwing up all night prior to the meet and wasn't sure she had the strength to compete. She also had another ailment - she had broken her left foot in gymnastics two and half weeks earlier. However, Sarah ran 4 heats of the 50 and the 100-meter races - winning each of them, hands down, to get to the finals.(above semi-final in the 100.) Before the finals in those races, she entered the standing long jump and made it to the finals - she jumped 69 inches and took 1st - with a broken foot!! Soon she was called to the finals in the 50 and the 100. I could see the "juice" slipping from her - she was beginning to look a little gray even after a morning in the May sun. She went to the starting line for the 50, soon the gun went off and Sarah came racing to the finish. She took 1st!! - ahead of the others but not by a lot. Her face was ghost-white as she finished. She came up to me, slightly hobbling, "Mom, I don't feel good." "I can tell." I said to her, holding her. "I have to go back for the final in the hundred right now." "Are you okay? Do you want to finish?" I asked. "Yah," she said as Jed took her hand and walked to the line with her. I watched, with butterflies flitting about in my belly, as my determined daughter took her lane and got ready for the gun. Off the girls went. I could tell it was going to be close. I could see the look on Sarah's face through the camera lens, a look of struggle mixed with perseverance. Sarah and another girl were battling it out to get to the line first. It looked like a tie, it was so close but they called the other girl as the first place winner. Sarah took 2nd in the hundred. As she walked away from the recorders tent, she congratulated the girl as the girl turned to her friends and said, "I beat Sarah!" Obviously, she was the one to beat. :-) We're all so proud of Sarah!! She will go to Regionals to compete in those events - 50-meter, 100-meter and long jump. Way to go Sarah!!