Cross country-European Championship

We traveled to Baumholder Army base in Baumholder Germany on Saturday for the European Championship Meet for cross country. 12 or so schools were running, most of them schools on Army bases all around Europe. A couple of funny observations: the base looked exactly like the bases Jake was stationed at in the US-same beige/ugly barracks-different continent! Also, most everyone was American-makes sense since they are all US Army folk, but it was surreal, just like being at a meet in Michigan! Unfortunately the weather was just like MI too!  In spite of the prediction of 64 and sunny, the temp never rose above 45, with fog and a stiff wind blowing across the golf course where the meet was being held. And we were dressed for 64 and sunny. When I went to the portojohn after a couple of hours, I realized that my hands were so frozen that I couldn't unbutton my jeans! Yikes! The course was very hilly and times tended to be a bit slow. Danny had hoped to break 20, but ended up with a 20:40, a bit off his PR. He was pretty disappointed, but since he was running varsity, his score pushed his team into second place in the division! The girls team took first, with his teammates Kayla and Sophia taking first and second in the meet and making the all European team! Kayla also broke the course record--her fourth course record this year! Our day was long and not particularly thrilling, the drive each way was about 3:15, and on the way home we hit an accident that added 40 minutes. The  last meet, a big tournament for the international schools called ISST's, is in Zurich this year. We will not be attending so we were happy to travel to cheer on our Danny! Check out the photos!

Alex, Danny, Hidde, PJ and Issiah, with Sydney photobombing!

Coach Stephanie, the team, and Coach Matt

Poland, Holland, America, France, America!