Twilight Athletics

This afternoon, after school, Sabina's school has organised Twilight Athletics at the local track. The track is impressive, as is the organisation. Children and teachers are seated in the grass area on the oval (inside the running track), while parents are watching from the stands (outside the running track).

The afternoon commences with an official opening ceremony which includes a parade of all the athletes. The athletes have been grouped into four teams: green, gold, red and blue. Sabina is in the Gold team.

Once the games are declared open, children are called up to the running track and to the long jump. Finally, I see that the Prep children are being prepared for a run.

Parents, of course, are supposed to stay in the stands, and be good spectators. But of course, "rules" per se never meant much to me, and the coach in me takes over. I run out to the group of prep children. Sabina is overjoyed to see me. But to me, this is not about mother and daughter joy. This is about strategy, tactics and running the race.

I squat down, hold her hand and say "now listen little girl. I want you to run like a leopard. Will you run like the leopard for me? Will you? Will YOU run like the LEOPARD?" Sabina nods with some uncertainty. The other children turn around and look at me with awe. "I am going to run like the leopard", says one girl. "Me too", says another. All of a sudden I am surrounded by 20 or so preps all wanting to run like the leopard. Wow. This is so cool.

I continue my little speel to Sabina about running like the leopard, until I feel she is sufficiently pumped. "I'll be at the finish line", I call out, and head to the other end of the track.

I see her line up, the starter's gun fires, and the girls are running. I can see Sabina stretching her legs and putting on some serious speed. But I also see her looking around. "Go Sabina! You go GIRL! Go Gold!", I cheer. "Go! Go! Go!". Eight girls bound across the finish line. It's clear to me that Sabina didn't come first. Maybe third? Maybe fourth? Then I see a man run up to her and hand her the red ribbon. Wow. Second. She did run like the leopard!

The games continue, and at the end Gold team comes second. Sabina is so proud, she thinks her team came first.

Training track

Sabina has just started primary school, and on Friday they are having Twilight Athletics.

Being an advocate of all things sporty, I cannot let her go unprepared. So we turn the driveway into a training track. We mark the start, we mark the finish.

We do a practice run. Sabina shows a lot of speed, but she is looking around so much that half of it is lost. And, she slows right down a metre from the finish line.

"Sabina", I kneel down to be at her level. "You're going to run fast. No looking around. Don't slow down before the finish line. Run like the leopard. Can you run like the leopard for me?" She nods.

We give it another go. Better.

Then we practice starts. "Ready, set, GO!", then "Ready, set, BANG!", just in case they have a starter's gun. Then a longer distance. I spur her on. "Mama, my legs hurt".

"Ok, time for some long jump."

We have a rest while I draw up the start of the long jump. She takes a run up, then smiles sideways at me as she takes the take off line in mid stride.

"Excellent", I say.

"Mama, now let's do it together!"

Valentines Day

I return from my horse riding, and I am greeted by a chocolate heart in a red wrapper hanging on the door. Hmmm ...

After my chocolate is consumed with delight together with my coffee we head off in the car towards Noojee. Then onwards to Toorongo falls. We park the car and proceed on foot. Sabina runs merrily up the path, stopping every now and then to see the water rushing over the rocks. After about 1km or so we arrive at the falls.


The waterfall is beautiful, especially after the recent rains. The water spreads out at the top and cascades down over the rocks like angel hair. We sit spellbound while Sabina eats a snack.

Then we continue on to another rapid. Sabina bounces along the path with renewed vigour. The rapid itself is pretty enough, but the platform jutting out into the river is really cool. It sits right over the middle of the river, with a rapid underneath, and it's made out of a metal mesh, so that you can actually see the water gushing below your feet.

We walk down another path back to the car, flicking off the odd leech. We try to avoid telling Sabina about the leeches, but when we do a full body scan at the car we have to fess up that they are not just mosquitos.