5th and 1st Times Two

What a day of racing it was for both Heather and Megan. Both placed 5th overall in their races and came in 1st for their teams. Mom didn't get to watch either daughter but thanks to other family members, both had their own fan clubs cheering them on. Meanwhile back in Fairbanks on a beautiful fall day, I was watching the clock and couldn't wait until Daddy and Kristin would call me.

Near Yakima, Washington, Heather was racing at the Apple Ridge Invitational hosted by Central Washington University. Daddy and Jean drove up to watch the event. The following pictures were taken by Jean and from what I understand Michael spent some time in helping with the effort to get these sent to me tonight. (Much appreciated Michael, Jean and Daddy!) Here's Heather on her first lap of the 4K race.




Heather coming in for the finish. (The finisher's last name right behind Heather happens to be "Fairbanks.") Daddy told me that temperatures were in the low 90's. I can't even imagine running fast in hot weather as "one-speed" mom does have even a slower speed in hot temperatures!

A happy finisher with her grandfather.....

The course is run through an apple orchard and spectators/racers were not to pick any apples. Just look at the apples!

I think race results can be found at....or at least try on the CWU website.
http://www.wildcatsports.com/statistics/crosscountry/2009/cwu091209w.htm

Poppop and Jean gave Heather a box of apples to bring back to us but we will see if they actually make it from the dorm to my house. :) How cool that Heather raced near Pendleton (if you call near 2-2.5 hours...), thanks so much for watching and cheering her on!

Megan's Race.....Several hours later, Megan started her 5K race in Palmer with her own fan club; Kristin, Gary and Dave. Kristin called me when Megan was on her 2nd lap and gave me my own broadcast for the remainder of the race. At the point of the race when Kristin called, Megan was in 15th place and then towards the end of the race had at one point worked her way up to 4th but right at the finish her good friend Hannah Boyer caught her by less than .3 of a second! Megan once again broke a personal best finishing in 19:26.

Megan's results can be found at the following site..you have to scroll down to the Girls Varisty 4A. http://www.athletic.net/crosscountry/Results/Meet2.aspx?Meet=19197

So there you have it, both girls came in 5th overall and 1st for their teams. Amazing!!!

Steve's Pad

So at some point this summer, Steve got tired of the mud in front of our house and when I was out of town, he apparently had a concrete guy come and give a quote for some work. I came home from ANC last Friday night (after spending some quality time with my siblings & families at the Alaska Acoustical Camp Instructor concert one night and a Dowland Bach event another night) to find the last load of concrete being delivered.

Additional earthwork will be required to get the drainage just right but hey, that gives Steve an excuse to rent a cool toy. He did mention to me that other night that Daddy got an excellent deal on his tractor...I think there is some envy going on!

Tonight the lament was that sooner or later, there will be an oil stain on the pad and oh what a sad moment that will be.

:)

Megan Wins!

The weather has been absolutely wonderful since Friday. Clear blue sky and temperatures reaching the mid to high 70's in the afternoons. Of course it doesn't last too long and once the sun starts to set, it chills off quickly. Heather's classes started on Thursday but she was off in Hawaii for the Hawaii Pacific University Cross Country Invitational. I don't have much information yet on her race to report but meanwhile, back in Delta the girls varsity race was getting ready to start. I drove down with some other Lathrop moms' and we made it just in time to the start somewhere in the back fields of Delta.

My good camera that has the "sports" mode is broken and will be out of commission all of the cross country running season so my picture taking abilities will be sorely lacking this season. Megan's coach took this picture of her leading the race coming up the hill.

Megan coming in for her first win of her High School career and another PR!

Megan's time of 19:41 moves her to #5 on the all-time Lathrop list and #3 on the sophomore list. As West Valley's varsity girls were away for a race, Megan was commenting after the race, that it was hard to push herself running alone.

from the Fairbanks Daily News Miner: Lathrop takes Delta Invitational

Sophomore Megan Edic claimed the first race of her high school career to lead Lathrop High School to a team win Saturday afternoon at the Delta Invitational. Edic set a personal best and broke 20 minutes for the first time with a mark of 19:41. She is now the fifth-fastest cross country runner all-time for Lathrop. North Pole senior Christi Schmitz took second in 19:52.
Rounding out the top five were Jessica Wright of North Pole in 20:44, Lizzy Bennett of Monroe Catholic in 21:11 and Kim Fitzgerald of Lathrop in 21:16.

Stay tuned for next week when Megan races in Palmer and Heather races at Central Washington University.

Both Girls Compete

It's 9am on a very foggy Sat morning in Hawaii...oops Fairbanks and Heather is off racing a 3K.(Heather will be racing in Hawaii next weekend!) Oh and by the way, you can't see her in the picture below - she's hidden behind the woman in the pink top. This morning from our house, it appeared to be turning into a wonderful blue-sky crisp fall morning; however, at Birch Hill the fog was thick and when the start gun went off....it took a while for the runners to come out of the fog even though I was standing near the start.

Heather in 3rd place.

and still in 3rd.....

coming into the finish in 3rd place overall but officially 2nd place in 11:56 (3K.)

I kept saying that the fog would burn off by the time of the High School girls race but as you can see below, the fog remained. Megan in 8th place at this point.

Photo taken at same spot, 2nd lap. Megan has moved into 5th place at this point.

Megan now in 4th place.......

Megan finished in 4th place in a time of 20:56 (5K.)

Let the 2009-2010 Racing Season Begin!

The cross country running season has begun. Heather with the Alaska Nanooks and Megan leading the Lathrop Malemutes. Here's what happens when you do triple workouts in one day and finally get to come home! Megan had gone swimming at 6:30am, running at 3:30pm, and strength training at 6pm. The cat was actually sound asleep by Megan's head until I decided to take a picture. She's supposed to be doing homework, notice the backpack really did make it to the couch.

Heather's first collegiate race was on August 27th and the Daily News Miner did a nice article on the upcoming race including introduction of the Nanooks team. Each team member had their individual photo with the caption showing name, year in college and hometown. Out of the 12 women on the team; five are international (Germany, Estonia, and Norway); six from Alaska and one from Montana.

The race was between the Nanooks and the Central Washington University Wildcats. Heather had a good first race, placing 4th in the race and officially 3rd (the 2nd place finisher had to red-shirt the race and run as "open" due to NCAA eligibility still being worked.) I am still having camera issues and had borrowed a camera; however, I don't have them yet. Here's the picture that was published on the front sports page in the August 28th edition showing the pack that Heather was in for the 1st lap....the two leaders had broken away:

2009 Fishing Trip

Well this year it was mainly just Steve and I on our fishing trip which was probably for the best as the weather was the worst we had seen in Seward. We departed Fairbanks on July 17 and made it to Seward late Saturday afternoon. It rained and rained hard everyday; the wind was horrific! We couldn't get past Fox Island until the very last day. Even the charters weren't leaving Resurrection Bay. In fact, one day we were blown off the water (we made it about 2 miles out of the harbor and had to turn around.) Needless to say, it wasn't really picture taking weather but we were successful with catching silvers. We hoped the fishing would stay somewhat decent for the possibility of Michael and Gary joining us later in the week.

On Wednesday night, July 22, we left our wet camp and headed to the Kenai River to join Matthew and Michael for King fishing. When we got to about Moose Pass, we started to see sun between the cloudy skies. We even saw fresh snow on some of the mountains! By the time we got to Soldotna, it was sunny and warm and most of all dry!!

Thursday morning was our guided trip on the Kenai. The river was very high with all of the rain and snow melt on the Peninsula.

The 'bros'...photo op taken for Poppop.

Steve hanging out waiting for action.

Michael taking a break from fishing and obviously not from his Blackberry.

We were skunked on the Kenai this trip. Not even any hits. We only saw one King on a line and some reds caught that day.

We headed back to Seward Thursday late afternoon with Michael joining us later in the evening. And to our surprise, Gary did make it....of course it was like 1AM in the morning but luckily, Michael left the camper open and Gary was able to crawl in and grab some shut-eye.

The next morning, our day started with Gary (being the positive one) saying he was glad Michael was on board so they could have a competition as to who wouldn't catch any fish. But....it is true!!!!!! Gary does catch fish.......he was on that pole for any kind of movement and boy did he pull the fish in. Only later did we learn he had brought banana chips on board.....and then well, we still caught fish and even Michael too. If you don't know about banana's and fishing boats, here's a hint, "don't bring banana's on board." Banana weights though are cool, aren't they Gary?

Our trip then had us headed to Homer where once again we enjoyed spending time with family and of course some great meals prepared by Irene and Nanna. Halibut fishing was fair the first couple of days and then we nothing for two days except......

what is it?

another skate.....the 3rd one this week! The 2nd one for me. Catching a skate is like snagging the ocean floor and then slowly pulling up tires from the bottom. Thanks Steve for reeling it in.

We headed back to Fairbanks on Saturday, August 1st. Here's what met us on the north side of Healy.....smoke, smoke and a red sun.

And so, while others continue to fish, our fishing is over for the season. The freezer is full and we prepare for winter. Well, not Steve, he's in Boise for two weeks enjoying 100 plus degree weather! and I am here in the smoke hoping it will blow away before Matthew and Irene arrive next week.

School Board Recognition

Correction on the robin piece below......Michael had a family of robins as well and even got to hold a fledging. (Sorry Michael :) )

I have been very remiss in my blog but here it goes...... The following picture was taken on May 23, 2009, in the heat of the day on our deck. I actually missed the shot when it was pegged out greater than 120 degrees but here's my proof that it can get over 115 degrees on my deck in Fairbanks, Alaska.


On June 1st, the Alaska State girls championship 4X800 relay team was recognized by the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District (as well as other champions from the Fairbanks area.) Here's the Lathrop coach talking about the Lathrop champion winners.

Megan receiving her certificate from Leslie Hajdukovich, (School Broad President and family friend.) The girls have been known to hang out at the Hajdukovich residence. :)

The Alaska State Championship 4X800 relay team.........

Making the rounds.......

Outside the Borough Admin Bldg........

This picture was taken at the end of June, showing our last robin in the nest. Later I found out that not only did we have a robin nest by Aunt Kristin did as well and so did Aunt Irene.