Days with the Dorans

  Memorial Day has equaled the Bayshore 10k for us lately and it was great to be back at it! Personally I was NOT looking so forward to running because I'm still dealing with the nonsense of covid! I ran better than I thought- gave myself permission to walk and just listen to my body. Imagine my SHOCK when the leaders started coming back and I saw JOEY IN THE TOP TEN!!!! I couldn't believe it and that definitely fueled me some!! At that point I was texting and running but I didn't care. I was SO excited for our boy! Joey ended up finishing SEVENTH OVERALL!!! And this is a big race! It's a BQ for the marathoners and those wanting to do the olympics too! As I posted out- Joe came in 7th (I did not!)  You can see video I took of Joe on the course and video Jeff got at the finish HERE ! Below are just some fun photos to remember this AWESOME day!!

  So Joe did have ONE last Meet (county or conference- I don't even remember). Jeff was on Sean duty and I was cleared from Covid so Ali and I were able to go and cheer on Joe one last time (sob!!!). He did well as he always does and I was so proud of him! It's funny how he grew to love running so much! I know he's really going to miss it! We were just talking about how things seemed to reverse for Joe. He started out loving band and then not so much senior year and he started out not liking running (even at all) and ended up falling in love with it. Life is funny like that! Goes to show you just never know and it's good to stick with things! Here are some pictures we took at that final run! My Runners.

The City Meet is always a fun one! I usually recognize runners from the other WL schools and they run under the lights at WLC! So when I tested positive for Covid, I was PISSED! I had a feeling that one of my students (who can't keep her mask up and who I work very closely with each day) gave it to me. I had like 7 kids out and one girl was still there and awful at masking! Her family was positive too but for some reason they sent her to school- and here I was. Ali got Covid too (but not from me and I didn't get it from her) so she couldn't run either. Such a bummer! Like I mentioned, the City Meet is a fun one and there was tailgating and fun and I was left out and missed my baby's LAST City Meet. I think I may have cried. So Jeff had direction to facetime with me during Joe's races so I could watch him which was cool and I was screaming into my phone as if I were there! It felt good to sit up and watch Joe! Thank God for technology!! And because I wasn't there...

We made it home from Chicago in time to see Joe run!! WLN came in third and Joe was 20th overall (top 18 got medals... grrrr..) So proud of him. I could seriously watch this kid run all day every day! I love it so much! HERE is a video from the day! Love that JD and Abby came down to cheer on their cuz- of course Nana and Papa were there to cheer him on as well! I think they love watching him ALMOST as much as I do! Next up.... REGIONALS!!

  So prior to all the Covid nonsense, I had signed up to run the Detroit Freepress International Half Marathon. When it was cancelled I was given the choice to run it remotely, or defer and be able to run it the next time they race it in person. Since I have no idea what will happen, I decided to run it remote! I was really bummed because I REALLY wanted to run over the bridge, so we found a bridge to run over in our hometown. Not quite the same but it worked. It was a beautiful morning for a run. We ran the airline train and I ran dirt trails and paved. It was relatively flat too. I wasn't sure how I would run it but I did decide to do a Galloway. I had a timer on my watch and I eventually got into a good groove and felt really good. I ran with my friend Dave (a XC running dad/ friend) and his two friends (now my friends). None of us stuck together though- I was second in the pack. One of the husbands was waiting with water at one of our turn-arounds which was so fun. I didn't...

So proud of him!

  Well~ here we are! Another day where my favorite runner, ran. I just need to put it here to document that it happened!

It was the last cross country meet of the season and it was Joey's last opportunity to try to break 18 minutes! He had a great season despite not training as much as he should. There were over a hundred kids in his race and he started out I'd say near the middle but just like last year, he kept picking and picking and ended up in 4th place and... HE BROKE 18!! The weather was crummy and he didn't look great but clearly he was running well. I can't imagine running one mile in under six minutes, let alone 3 of them. The top 50 or so got medals but the top five got shirts which was really cool. Joe's friends came up to congratulate him and I think that made him feel really good! He finished with a time of 17:53 and everyone was so happy for him. I think that this may finally be the moment where he decides to train (at least I hope it is).  Joey still won't really run on his own but he has said he wants to do indoor track and regular track this year (...