A Bad Meet

The first Little Jogger had her first ever track meet today, and it was a disaster of epic porpoises. She was supposed to run in the 4x100 relay, the 800 m run, and to throw the discus. The coach is trying to get all the girls to try lots of different events, so he just assigned them to do a handful of events each. That was fine for most of the girls, who just went out and gave it a whack. But it was hard on the first Little Jogger, who likes to go into things prepared. She hadn't thrown the discus at all until yesterday.

Added to that, the meet was somewhat disorganized. Even an organized track meet is disorganized, with different events going on at once, but this one was a disorganized disorganized track meet. The first Little Jogger hates that. She really likes to know what's going on at all times.

Added to that, it was extremely windy. The discus pit was upwind from the track, so we couldn't hear the announcements down there. So the Little Jogger missed her relay. She found out about that right before she started her 800m run, which put her on the edge. Then she started off poorly on the run, and on the backstretch of the second lap (running into the wind) she just quit. She was so upset. All she could do was cry, and all I could do was hold her.

So, now what is she going to do? I'm really afraid that she's going to give up. That's her style. If she can't do it well, she doesn't want to do it at all. I'd like to see her give it another try. I think that she'll feel better if she gets back up on that horse and gives it a ride. If she can go out and have a good meet, she can forget about this disaster. We'll see.

This is one of those times when it's hard to be a parent. I don't want to see the Little Jogger hurt, but I'm not sure how to protect her.