Photo Every Day 2024

What a day we had today in Columbus, OH watching Piper run in the State Cross Country meet! I would like to extend a heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone who prayed for Piper, or who offered a note or word of encouragement. She really appreciated it.

What an incredible accomplishment it was for her to make it to the State meet at all-let alone as a Freshman! I am constantly amazed by her incredible work ethic and positive attitude. She is an amazing young lady.

Unfortunately, today did not turn out the way she had hoped.

It was not a great course for spectators, so I did not get a lot of great photos today, but I did see that she got somewhat boxed in at the start.

As you can see, there was quite an impressive field… Literally thousands of young ladies competed throughout the year for a spot on this line, but only 183 managed to toe the line. Piper was one among 183 State qualifying runners.

When she first ran by us, she was already stuck in a group that she did not want to be in. It was pretty tight, and runners were jockeying for position. She wanted to be several dozen positions ahead of where she was, but she had never run a race quite like this before, and she couldn’t figure out how to get into the group that she wanted to be running in. Once a pace is set, it can be so hard to find a new gear and a faster speed.

I next saw her just before the halfway point of the race. Not to take anything away from the girls surrounding her, but these were girls that she had consistently run faster than throughout the season. I could already see in Piper’s face that this was not turning into the race that she had envisioned.

It is hard to describe, or to sufficiently explain the thoughts that can begin to consume your mind when you are not having the day that you wanted to have. It can be incredibly difficult to recover well. At just over 2 miles into the race, Piper was beginning to mentally fall apart.

There was nowhere else on the course that I could really get to that would allow me to see her well, so I decided to head to the stadium to try to get a good vantage point of the finish line. Throughout the year Piper has excelled in finishing strong. That has been her superpower. She runs well for 95% of the race, and then runs super well for the last 5%. I was hoping for that same kind of finish today. I’m sure that she was, too. Unfortunately, that is just not the way that it happened today.

I began counting the girls who were coming across the finish line. First, second, third, fourth, fifth… I knew that it would be a miracle if she were in the top 20. I wasn’t really expecting that (though I was willing to be surprised), but I was hoping to see her sneak her way into the top 40. Nope. 50? No. By the time that I counted 60 runners, I began to worry. I knew that something was wrong. I stopped looking through the camera and started just scouring any inch of the course I could see. Where is she? How is she doing? Is she okay?!

Then I saw her. She did not look at all like I have seen her all year long. She was done. Toast. Defeated.

I could see from a distance that she was not just spent physically, but emotionally, as well. I have watched her pass dozens of runners in the finish line shoot throughout the year. Not today. Today I watched as dozens of strong young ladies ran right by poor Piper, who had nothing left to give.

I could see she was crying. She was wrecked. (So was I.) This was NOT the day that she had dreamed of, prepared for, and trained so hard for. This was a nightmare. She was crying, and struggling forward, getting passed by so many girls that she had beaten all season long.

With tear-filled eyes, she crossed the finish line… and collapsed. While she had hoped to PR on a course that was much easier than last week’s course, the reality is that she ran her third slowest run of the year… 30 seconds slower than the previous week (which was a much more difficult course).

So what happened? I honestly don’t know. She doesn’t know, either. It was just a bad day to have a bad day, but a bad day is what she had.

(To be fair, I would personally LOVE to consistently run a 5k at the pace she ran today, but that is not the point. The point is that she is so much faster than she ran today, but she simply couldn’t access that kind of speed today.)

I made my way quickly over to the exit for the runners to find Piper and give her a hug, and to tell her that it’s okay. She was bawling. She was so disappointed in herself, and felt like she had let everyone down. (I don’t really know who everyone is, but I understand how she was feeling.) Jodi and I gave her a hug, and moved her to a less congested area. She just laid down on the ground and cried. I don’t blame her. I know it was incredibly disappointing to work so hard to get to this point, and then not perform at the level that you know you are capable of.

It was a bittersweet day. It was amazing that she even made it to State, but I know she wanted to do better (and was capable of doing better) than she did. Nevertheless, throughout this process I have been praying that God would give her strength to run well (and He did!), that she would crush her goals (though it turns out that she was crushed by her goals), and that she would honor and point to Jesus every step of the way. The irony of today is that I think sometimes we can honor and point to Jesus even more powerfully in our failure than we can in our success. He is worthy of praise when we win, and He is worthy of praise when we lose.

I know that today was disappointing for Piper, but I really believe that today will be a day that she will look back on as the fuel that set her on fire. She will be back to State. She is way too talented, too dedicated of a runner to not be back. She will be stronger. She will be faster. She will be determined to run the best race of her life on this course… and I can’t wait to see it happen!

Even in the midst of the disappointment, she wiped the tears from her eyes and posed in front of the Ohio High School Athletic Association sign with a smile. Not many runners make it this far. She did… and she’ll be back. She is a truly incredible young lady.