The Journal of Dr. Richard L. Sleight

     October 2006 EDITION 

Weight change in October, 198 to 195.5  

 
Nathanael Gets
His First Win
 
He needed to run against District 4 schools (SW Washington schools) to get his first outright win, but Nathanael did it in dominating fashion.  BCS was ranked 8th in the State and Kalama was ranked 3rd.  BCS defeated Kalama and tied Northwest Christian on points (but earned 2nd by one second, due to the sixth place runner tie breaker).  But Nathanael blew away the field.  The race on October 12th was run at Millersylvania State Park south of Olympia. There were over 80 runners in the race.

In the opening sprint, Nathanael took the lead.  Then the runners entered a narrow trail and we did not see them again for about fifteen minutes. I waited where the course exited the dense woods and crossed the Park entrance road. I expected Nate to be near the front of the lead pack, preparing to start his typical ferocious kick to the finish line.  Nobody within 30 yards of him can beat him when he turns it loose in the last 400 to 800 yards.  I waited with my camera at the ready.

Then I heard Rachel Huey, the BCS Junior High Coach, yell "Go Nathanael!" and I knew he was in that lead group.  The biker, who was acting as a trail guide, came into view and then Nate burst out into the sunlight.  I was snapping pictures until he passed me, and yelled at him to kick it in.  When I tuned back to get a shot of Luke Bergman, our #2 runner, nobody was there.  Nathanael had left the other top runners far behind.  And he didn't let up.  He had a bicycle to catch.  Nancy's video of his finish showed him sprinting all the way.  Nobody in first place wants to give that up in the final half mile.  His final time was 17:10, his lifetime best and 22 seconds ahead of the second place runner.  I learned after the race that Nate had fallen to 4th in the middle mile (of a 3.1 mile race) but had regained the lead with over a mile to go.  I can imagine that running a wooded trail course was incredibly exciting and didn't give him any chance to be distracted.    

The final Emerald City League meet before the League/District 2 Championships was Wednesday, October 18th.  All season long Nathanael had finished 3rd behind Sophomore Alex Johnson of Seattle Academy and Junior Oliver Wood of Bush.  With his break-out race of the previous week, Nate was sure he could move up.
 
He did not take the early lead this time but ran with the lead pack for the first mile.  Then he took off in the woods and hills of Lower Woodland Park (where I had my best races 33 years ago).   By the middle of the race, Nate had moved into 2nd place with Oliver Wood on his tail.  It was the reverse of the early season races.  Nathanael finished in 17:37, eleven seconds ahead of Wood. (See finish photo left.)   BCS won the race by only three points over rival Bush.

So the stage was set for the Emerald City League/District 2 Championships on October 27th.  BCS had won every league meet this season but both Bush and University Prep had been narrowing the gap with each successive race.  Only the top two teams in the league would advance to the State Championships in Pasco on November 4th.

In the District 2 Championships the pack of Nathanael, Oliver Wood of Bush, Alden Keefe-Sampson of Northwest and Hale Shaw of University Prep was the race to watch.  Alex Johnson had the race won easily.  But who would take second?  For three miles Sleight, Wood, and  Keefe-Sampson were right together.  Hale Shaw is a fabulous runner.  He was sick last year but still made it to State (where Nathanael beat him handily).  He was injured early this year and had only recently shown signs of his ability seen in Track season.  Hale tried to run with Johnson but could not keep up that pace.  The group with Nathanael finally caught up and passed him.  With 800m to go (see photo right) I said to Nathanael as he went by, "Time to go."  And he did.  He didn't even need his top gear this time.  He took 2nd place out of the 49 runners from the seven league schools (exactly what I had done in my own seven school Division championship race at the same age in 1972.)   

The BCS boys came through with a satisfying victory with Nathanael 2nd, and the "BCS Train" of Andrew Van Ness 10th, Luke Bergman 11th, Martin Geier 12th, and Kyle Fremd 18th.  Freshman "Big Jon" Fouquier (a tiny fellow) took 21st and tall senior Charles Blum took 24th.  (Charles' dad Bill is one of my best friends.)  Bush was 2nd and will race BCS again on November 4th in Pasco in a 16 team race.

I will ride the team bus on Friday, November 3rd, to Pasco and the school is paying for all my meals and a hotel room.  Nancy will drive brother Randy and the girls over early Saturday .  If you can't wait until the November edition, you can see the results at www.Bellevue1.net/BCSXC/ by November 6th.

Jeannie Beth Finishes Her First Cross Country Season
 
Jeannie finished 13th out of 75 girls in the Cascade Middle School League Championships run at Seward Park on October 17th.  That was good enough for 2nd on the BCS team.  Her time of 10:41 earned her a pile of Halloween candy she'd convinced me to promise her if she broke 11:00. 

She convinced me also that she will be able to run well next year when she joins the high  school girls  varsity team.

She also showed that she has another special (perhaps genetic) running asset.  She has the "Sleight Kick."  Nathanael has the killer kick I had. Even sister Annie was a great finisher.

J. B. has a goal of breaking 23:00 next fall in the 5K.  That's better than Annie's best and would have qualified her for State this year. It'll mean serious summer training ― but she can do it.

On a final running note for October, Nancy even managed to get into the act.  At the Millersylvania race she ran in the Junior High 1.65 mile race which was also an "Open" race.  Well done Nancy!  (And if she'd trained at all she might have finished better than last place.)

October Parties
 
Nathanael and his date Alison Bachmann (who I knew as a shot putter on the Track team) went to the BCS Tolo as Beauty and the Beast.  (When Alison called here to ask if Nate would be her date, he was anything but suave.  He shouted his giddy acceptance to her invitation and jumped up and down.)   

On Halloween Jeannie used Annie's Princess Leia costume from Annie's first Tolo. She made a very perfect Princess.

Hooked on a Genre
 
In earlier years I would have said I  had Science Fiction almost exclusively as my genre of choice.  In recent years though, it has been British Naval fiction, mostly of the Napoleonic era. And I have discovered a delightful new series.  I can heartily recommend author Jay Worrall's Sails on the Horizon and its sequel Any Approaching Enemy.  Unlike the Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures by Dewey Lambdin, the Worrall books are PG rated.  The hero, Captain Charles Edgemont, is as likeable and noble as Horatio Hornblower, and his bride, wed in the first book, the Quaker Penny Brown, is an amazing character.  Finally the issues of faith can find a real hearing in a manner that is a natural occurrence within the stories.   These books make the long commute fly by.

Quote from September

"No matter how fond we desire something or someone, there is always a just reason that we do not attain our wishes.  We must trust that things may turn out for the best, though the pangs of our heart blind us to admitting the truth of it."

Anne Beauman in The King's Commission