State Track and Field Meet

I couldn’t think of anywhere I would rather be and yet I haven’t mentioned anything about the state track and field meet which was a week ago yesterday. It was a practically perfect day from start to finish, a beautiful 70ish day (appreciated even more so since we had had weeks of rain)and two of our married kids and their families came to cheer their brothers on. We were up early Saturday morning so we could be at Ft. Lewis for the first event, the shot put, which both Clark and Phil participated in. They were not in the same heat and both came in 4th place whichmeant a ribbon, not a medal. And that was it for Clark. He had two events on Sunday but some years ago we stopped having them participate on Sunday. When Clark started Special Olympics about 25 years ago he was in middle school. His large team would leave Seattle by bus on Friday afternoon, stay in the barracks Friday and Saturday nights, participate in events Saturday and Sunday and return to Seattle late Sunday afternoon. Phil started a few years after Clark. We would drive down to watch them participate. After a few years they no longer went down on a bus and did not spent the night in the barracks. It was just too much for coaches and chaperones. It became the responsibility of parents or caregivers to get the athletes there each day. Since we did not feel good about Sunday participation they stopped going and only participate on Saturday. Phil had two more events on Saturday, the 200m dash and the 4x100 relay, but he only got ribbons. This is one of the few years Clark did not take medals to church the next day for show and tell. As tradition dictates we went to Taco Bell after the meet.