Levi continues to improve in leaps and bounds (no pun intended) in his running career. His track season, which included triple jump, mile and 2 mile was full of Personal Records, School Records (for Freshman) and even a State record! It is so fun to watch him push himself, continually breaking past mental barriers to new levels.

But almost more fun than watching Levi was watching Rock watch Levi. For those of you who know him, you know my husband doesn’t show his emotions much. He plays things pretty close to the chest and excitement, especially public excitement is not an emotion I’ve seen much in our 21 years of marriage. So it was really fun for me to watch Rock enjoy Levi’s successes. The high light of the season was when Levi won a 2 mile race, beating out his top competitors to become the fastest Freshman 2 miler in the state of Idaho! And who better to tell this story, than his # 1 fan, his Dad:

Levi had a track meet last Saturday. Going into the week, we thought he’d probably be doing the triple jump and 800 on Thursday, the mile on Friday and the two mile on Saturday. Up to now, he’s managed to do the best in the two mile, so the coaches decided to double down on that, and have him rest up and just do the two mile on Saturday. That made life easier for us busy parents, so we made sure to be there Saturday for the race.

I had talked with Levi beforehand about what his strategy might be. For context, at this point, he was ranked 5th on the team in the two mile. Another freshman, Drew, had the fastest time, at just under 10 minutes. Even though Levi has had great times, he’s been a little frustrated this season because Drew did a good job training in the off season, and really passed him by in track. Between Drew and Levi there was a senior, a junior, and a sophomore who all had better two mile times. Besides the five runners from Levi’s school, there was one from another school that was expected to be way ahead of Drew and a few others seeded ahead of Levi, so that he was expected to finish 9th.

Going into the race, Levi had already qualified, barely, to go to districts in the two mile, so he didn’t have the pressure of doing that. Normally, I recommend that he really work at pacing himself in the first half, so he can have negative splits, feel strong at the finish, and do well. But occasionally, it’s good to ignore pacing and just latch on to someone faster than you and see how it goes. He had decided to do this Saturday with Jack, the senior who had a time 5 seconds faster than Levi’s. So when I told him at the starting line to pace himself and have fun, he just said “I’m not going to pace myself”.

And for that first mile, he didn’t. The first lap was a little fast. And the next three were as well, so that he came across the mile marker at 4:59, a solid 10-15 seconds faster than he’s ever run the first mile. Only a few seconds slower than his best mile time. Definitely too fast, I thought. But he was following his strategy. He was right with Jack, and Zangel, the sophomore, had fallen back after trying to surge too hard in lap 3.

Given the pace, I expected he’d struggle with the second mile. Instead, in laps 5 and 6 he gained even more ground. Jack fell back, and it became clear that Levi had chosen someone else to latch onto. Meanwhile, Drew was holding onto the leader, and they were probably 30 meters ahead of Levi, with Branden, the junior, between them. Lap 7 is always the slowest, and that was the case here as well. But again, Levi gained ground, if only a little. As the group started their last lap, Drew had pulled ahead of the leader, Branden was only a couple steps behind them, and Levi was still keeping up, but maybe 20 meters back. On the back stretch Branden pushed hard and took the lead. It turned out to be a little too soon, though. As they rounded the last corner, Drew began his kick and surged past Branden.

And from behind, Levi just kept pushing on the gas. In the last stretch, he passed all of the other school’s runners, Branden, and then with just 20 meters left, kicked past Drew and won the race. With a second mile time of 4:55, and a total time of 9:54. A huge, 22 second improvement over his previous record time. His last lap was 10 seconds faster than any other lap he ran.

All of which is amazing. But it got better when we started looking at the Idaho rankings. His time is now the best freshman two mile time in the state of Idaho. It’s also the best two mile time for his team, of course. He’s ranked 14th for all grades in his district, which means he’s got a fighting shot at going to state in the event (top ten in the district get to go to state). And if the distance runners on his team stay where they’re at, relative to each other, he could be the #2 runner on the team next year in cross country.

It also means his team is going to be really solid next year – they’ve got a strong, deep lineup, with two amazing freshman, two equally strong juniors, and plenty of other runners who are close behind them.

And my voice has been hoarse for the last week from all the yelling I did…

Levi didn’t end up going to State-too many older kids faster than this freshmen of ours. lol. But he is great at cheering on his teammates and went to both days of the State competitions to cheer them on. He really feels the pains and triumphs of his team in a way that shows very mature empathy. Can’t wait to see what this kid will do next year!

The bulk of our main day in Charleston included Magnolia plantation just outside of Charleston along the St. Lawrence River. It was a rice plantation before and during the Civil war, but after the war, when they could no longer keep slaves, the owner turned it into a beautifully landscaped garden of sorts for his wife and let visitors pay to ride the river boat up to its shore and tour the plantation. We wandered through the gardens and over the bridges and ponds and then took a tour of the “Big” house and a tour of the slave quarters.

Here was the long beautiful drive into the plantation.

I knew that we might get to see some alligators in the swampy ponds and marshes on the plantation and no sooner had we stepped onto the first bridge when we saw one. I would have walked right by him if it hadn’t been for two ladies who pointed him out to me.

As we wondered along the garden paths we came across this wonderful little sitting place. Apparently the owner of the plantation, who was also a minister, would sit here in this spot to commune with God and write his sermons.

They actually have a plaque there with a picture of the same spot from the 1800’s taken of the owner and his daughter.

Alligator #2 Can you see him?

We came across this beautiful crane hunting for food. It was mesmerizing to watch how still and quiet he was. I understand now why Eastern philosophy uses the crane so much to embody stillness and peace.

Alligator #3 Can you see him?

I never really got a great picture of the house. And they wouldn’t let us take pictures inside it. So here’s an internet picture of the front.

The last thing we did on the plantation was take a tour of the slave quarters. We had a fabulous guide who was more story teller than tour guide. She captivated us with the history of slavery on a rice plantation. Even after the slaves were freed, one family stayed on and worked the gardens for generations. Here’s a picture of an original slave hut.

As time went by, the huts became much more liveable. They have four there on the plantation, each one showing the progression over time.

We woke up at 5 the next morning to catch a 7:30 flight home. Everything was going fine until we’d been sitting on the airplane for about 10 minutes and the captain came on the intercom to tell us that he saw hydrolic fluid leaking from the airplane and he was going to keep us there for a bit longer to get some mechanics in to fix it. Thirty minutes later he came back on to say that because we were at a small airport with only contracted mechanics, he hadn’t been able to get anyone to come fix the problem. He wasn’t ready to cancel the flight yet, but told us we could remain on board or get off the plane if we needed to. Thirty minutes after that, he got on and told us that it had been an hour which meant he had to cancel the flight and that we all had to get off and find new flights home. Thus began our 2 hour wait in line to find a new flight home. When we finally made it to the counter there were no more flights to Boise. So we decided to get a flight home the next morning and stay one more night in Charleston, courtesy of United Airlines. We got a shuttle to the hotel and headed out for another night on the town!

We went to Riverfront Park, home to the Charleston Naval Base Memorial and the beautifully restored historic homes once occupied by naval officers. My pictures again don’t do this park justice, but here are a few.

We had dinner at a restaurant along the river and ate dinner while watching the huge cargo ships passing by on the Cooper River.

We got ice cream for dessert and then walked back to our hotel. And THAT was the end of our trip. The next day the flight went as planned and we arrived home to the still as yet winter brown hills and bare trees of Boise and I was a little sad. I loved the lush green and romantic history of the South and was a little jealous of those people who call it home.