What you are seeing here is a prayer come true. Though I have been running during my daughter Michelle's life I have never, that I know of, tried to push her to run. She found her talents and interests to be in many other areas. If you are just reading about her, and have not read earlier entries in the blog section of the website, she is tremendously gifted in the dance realm. I have loved to watch her perform from the age of 2 to dancing on the Boston Celtic's dance squad. Asking or forcing her to run with me just never became an option. When her and her boyfriend, Peter, came to my website designing rescue things began to change. I had hired someone to design a website to bring to the world info about my up coming Alaska to Florida run. After months of trying to work together, him and I parted company and I was left right back where I started--with no website and no knowledge to create one. That story will be told in a future entry. But, in helping me out Michelle, got to read the articles that were written about my previous run. I then started sensing a growing interest in running. A few months ago I did tell her that I would love to have the 2 of us crossing the Florida finish line together. I wasn't talking about running the whole thing, just the last stretch to the end. Soon I started hearing about a trainer she had started working with and 3 weeks ago she let me know that she had gone from running on the tread mill to attempting to run on the roads. What you see in the pictures above are, with 3 weeks road training, my daughter and I together for the first time ever at a road race. We went to one of my favorite races. The Canal Diggers 5k in Worcester, Ma. I knew it to be a fairly flat course and had one of the best post race atmospheres I'd experienced. We met my normal 1 1/2 hours early and right from the start you could see this was the place for us to be for her first race. In the entries that you will read after this one you will get to experience the day we had. A long time ago I listened to a speaker's thoughts about your relationship with your kids. The speaker said that as parents we want to freeze our children in time every time they do something cute or special. I agree with that as I experienced that myself as Michelle grew. But, the speaker went on to say that the best times you'll ever have with your children (if you can be a real parent and a real friend to them) will come when they are 25-35-45 years old and you can enjoy each other's time together and company with each other. I have been fortunate that through BOTH Michelle and my efforts we are experiencing just what that speaker described. We have an unbelievable friendship (I haven't let go of the over protective father thing however) and now we are sharing a world I could only pray for in the past. We are seen toasting to father/daughter/friendship/completion of her 1st race/our 1st race together/and the thanks I have for taking that speaker's words and believing in them. We circled the course side by side and held and raised our hands as we crossed the finish line together. "Thank You" Canal Diggers for setting THE stage for a wonderful NEW stage in our lives.