{"id":2447,"date":"2012-09-18T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-18T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/09\/the-agony-of-defeat.html"},"modified":"2012-09-18T23:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-18T23:00:00","slug":"the-agony-of-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/09\/the-agony-of-defeat.html","title":{"rendered":"The agony of defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So my second oldest had his only home Cross Country meet. \u00a0My Mom and the family came out, being the only chance they would have to cheer him on. \u00a0Coming off his triumphant performance on Saturday<\/a>, he was gearing toward beating that time and moving up in the team standings. \u00a0Alas, on Monday the first whiffs that something might go wrong were noticed. \u00a0He was hit with an horrible case of allergies, and could barely breath. \u00a0We had to rush medications to him at school. He ended up missing his only practice this week before the game. \u00a0He woke up today still fighting the allergies and having a difficult time breathing.<\/p>\n

Still, he was ready to go. \u00a0Pumped up, he was committed to blowing away his time and wowing everyone again. \u00a0Then the start of the race, and everything fell apart. It being a home meet, the entire team was psyched and ready to go. \u00a0Within the first hundred yards, several who were never even near him were ahead of him. \u00a0I could sense the panic. \u00a0With the strain on his\u00a0respiratory\u00a0system, he tried to catch up, but the harder he tried, the worse it got. \u00a0Then in the middle of the race, in an area called the Wetlands, in a desperate attempt to make up time, he slipped and twisted his ankle. <\/p>\n

Rather than stop, he kept pushing along. \u00a0Compensating for the pain, he began to run unevenly, and this simply added to the difficulties in pacing himself and breathing. \u00a0By the last half mile, when he was now near the back of the race, and all but a handful of his teammates were breaking their own personal bests (including his time), he was barely able to make it. \u00a0Our oldest son was ready to go and run beside him to cheer him on, but I had to stop him (that\u2019s called pacing, and it\u2019s not allowed). \u00a0At a couple points,\u00a0holding\u00a0his side and limping, we really thought he wasn\u2019t going to finish.<\/p>\n

But finish he did. \u00a0As he rounded the last turn, heading into the final 100 yards, one of the kids on the other team began to pass him. \u00a0Now this young fellow was not, obviously, at the top of his team\u2019s roster. \u00a0But he clearly saw a chance to pass someone, and my boy was the target. \u00a0I figured there wasn\u2019t anything left for him to prevent being passed. \u00a0I was wrong. \u00a0Somewhere, somehow, through the pain and breathing troubles, my boy pulled something out of the ether and gave one of the best sprints of all his competitions, the crowd was on its feet and he pulled it off in the last inches. \u00a0So I was proud of him, even if the pain and his\u00a0disappointment\u00a0eliminated any cheerfulness on his part.<\/p>\n

So given that our footballer had a less than stellar performance last Wednesday (and is now former MVP, currently second string because of it), and our oldest stumbled on Saturday, and our third\u00a0competitor\u00a0rounded out with a crushing collapse today, I think we\u2019ll be taking the upcoming long weekend to encourage, inspire, and just try to have fun to take away the agonies of their defeats. \u00a0We\u2019ll be going to the county fair, playing games, eating pumpkin donuts and drinking apple cider and watching more horror movies and maybe even starting some Halloween specials (we always start with an old VCR tape of Disney\u2019s\u00a0Halloween Haunts<\/a><\/i>,* with three old shorts centered around spooky or Halloween subjects). \u00a0Because of the need to have oodles of family fun, blogging will be\u00a0sparse\u00a0till next Monday. \u00a0So all you millions of fans our there, just try to get by until I am back to dispense my enlightened insights on the groveling masses. TTFN<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
My oldest, youngest, and Mom are all ready to cheer him on<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Just back from football practice, our third son is getting into the act<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Alas, but the storm clouds moving in brought allergies and ominous \u00a0foreboding<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Our oldest, ready to run out and lend an encouraging hand as those autumn clouds \u00a0hover menacingly overhead<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

*We actually have the rarer version, with the song and video for \u2018Grim Grinning Ghosts<\/i>\u2018 before the first short. . \u00a0Cool stuff!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So my second oldest had his only home Cross Country meet. \u00a0My Mom and the family came out, being the only chance they would have to cheer him on. \u00a0Coming off his triumphant performance on Saturday, he was gearing toward beating that time and moving up in the team standings. \u00a0Alas, on Monday the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe agony of defeat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So my second oldest had his only home Cross Country meet.  My Mom and the family came out, being the only chance they would have to cheer him\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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