Who Are The Winners At The Middle School Cross Country Meet?

Last fall I wrote about my daughter's middle school cross country experiences...
(see here to read that.)
And I wrote more about cross country two years ago...
(see here to read that.)

This year I'm loving middle school cross country even more.  I'm trying to sort out exactly why I enjoy it so much.

It is not because my daughter wins the races...or is even competitive, really.  She normally finishes near the back of the pack.  Today she came in 32nd place among what I would guess to be about 40 8th grade girl runners.

It isn't because her team is winning every meet.  I don't know the official totals from today's meet, but I would guess the River View Middle School team was 3rd out of 3 teams.

It isn't because I'm reliving my glory days through her....I never ran cross country or track when I was in school.  In fact, I hated to run and tried very hard to avoid it.

I think I like that it doesn't matter if she wins.  Or if her team wins.  There is no score board, and I would guess that 99% of the people leave the meet with no idea which team won.

It is totally cool that so many kids are there running the best they can.  Some are super fast, some not so fast.  In fact, I've been surprised by how many not so fast kids are running in these races.  It's really cool.

I know there is sort of a backlash in some circles against the "participation trophy" philosophy in some youth sports programs.  "What's the point of recognizing everybody and not just the winners?" they would argue.  "They're being rewarded just for showing up."  I would argue that every kid out there...every kid that makes it to the starting line is a winner.  Let's cheer as loud as we can for the kids that finish 1st, 5th, 15th or 50th (like my daughter).  Let's make them all feel like winners.

It is not at all unlike the handful of 5k races I've been in.  Certainly there are always super fast athletes that make the 3.1 miles seem like nothing more than a warm up.  Then there are the countless others, like me, for which the starting line is the victory and the finishing time is merely a minor detail in the story.

I hope my daughter keeps running.  And keeps cheering for other runners.  And keeps feeling like the winner that she is.