On the Run With Special Olympics

A few weeks ago I wrote about my son's first Special Olympics event, and this Saturday marked his second. This time it was a track meet, and a much bigger deal than the earlier bocce tournament. There were police motorcycles with sirens accompanying a torch around the track, a torch relay and lighting, march onto the field for the teams, and generally much more pomp and circumstance.

The other big difference was that my son went off with his team, rather than sitting with me as he did between bocce bouts. I think this probably made it more fun for him, and definitely more fun for me, because I could just sit back on the bleachers and watch races without constant teen wrangling. Later, I heard that he spent a lot of time whining about how bored he was, which made me especially glad to have been out of earshot. Don't know if it bugged the volunteers, but it would have bugged me.

From my bleacher perch, I couldn't see him do his long jump and baseball throw, but I did have a great view of the 25-meter dash race that he won first place in. That he ran at all was a relief, because at the practice last week, he was not so much racing as moseying. His school aide assured me that he does, in fact, run just fine in gym, and I think she made him practice some, because when the "go!" moment came, he did buckle down and race, just nosing out another runner at the finish line.

Afterward, he allowed as how he had a good time, and since none of the volunteers gave us the stink-eye on the way out, I'm going to assume he wasn't too much trouble. I'd like to see him get as enthused about these competitions as the adult athletes in his group obviously are, but maybe it's too soon. It's new still, and new is hard. But he just needs to be brave in the attempt.