Getting a little Intense at Europeans!

Rain, rain, go away!  Come again another day!

First day of European track finals were awesome.  Sam made it into all the finals- 110m hurdles, 300m hurdles and the mens 4x400m.

They got first in their heat with the 4x400m and were second overall. 

I was a little mad at this because I knew that they would end up medaling and since Sam was only the sub in for the first day would not get a medal despite helping get them to the finals!  I think I ranted about that one for a little while!  Especially since he had run it all year long.  Even when he wasn't officially in the race, the same guy would drop out every time and Sam would run it in his place- every time!  I was super unhappy that the other guy would get  a medal in the end even with all that supreme lack of effort!  See things were getting a little intense even on the first day.

Second day we noticed that Sam and his "girlfriend" were avoiding each other.  I asked him if they had broken up and he said, "apparently."  He didn't even know if they had for sure and why! Turns out it just has to do with Sam being too boy and not knowing anything about girl!  He rarely talks to anyone during meets of any kind.  He likes to focus and be in his head- think Michael Phelps with earphones on the entire meet.  Girl didn't understand that much, but dealt with it, because he would give her a smile or a laugh every once in awhile.  But since this was a two day event with a night in a hotel, I guess she figured there would be time to be a girlfriend.  Boy was she wrong!  At dinner, Sam decided to go talk to another girl (I know **GASP**) and then when it was time to eat, he looked around and saw her surrounded by people.  He wasn't, as he told us, going to go push people out of the way to sit beside her so instead he sat down with the girl he had been talking with.  Yah, my son doesn't understand anything about girls- poor guy!  So day two started with a confused and sad Sam.  Sam was able to run his races before even more intensity started. 

He got 5th in the 300m hurdles and 7th in the 110m hurdles. 

Then the heavens open and poured a monsoon down 

on us.  The teams all went to wait in the gym while hail started along with the puddles of water coming from the sky.  We went to the commissary and when we came out the standing water on the ground was above our ankles and there was no sign of the sheets of rain letting up.  There were MP's out and cars flooded in the middle of the street.  

The MP's directed us to park in the farthest parking lot away from the high school gym, because there was too much water at the corner you needed to turn to go up to the gym, but the gym being uphill was definitely the better option for parking! So we pretended to head to the parking lot and then made for the corner.  Thankfully, we made it through the standing water at the corner and up the hill.  It was still quite the sprint to the gym.  My pants were completely sopping wet by the time I made it inside.  I looked like a drowned rat.  They still hadn't decided anything.  So I waited until they came back with the final decision to cancel the rest of Europeans.  There were some pretty upset people in that gym!

I ran back out into the pouring rain and got the family and we all sat around and waited until they had decided who won what.  They ended up using the best times of the year, including first day trials as the deciding factor on who got 1st, 2nd and 3rd.  The 4x400m boys team got a silver medal in the end and Sam got to be one of the medalies,  because the other kid hadn't run it any other time that year and because the semi-final run was their fastest time of the year.   So Sam went home with a silver medal, 5th, 7th, a monsoon and a broken heart all in his first year of running track.