Daniellas Run

We've run Daniella's Run 5K twice before. We noticed that it was not held last spring and we missed it.

So we were thrilled when Daniella's Run suddenly popped up again. Instead of being a stand-alone run, it was part of the  Live Strong, Live Long run at Gulf Stream Park this past Saturday.

A highlights was that Hunter F came along with Kate and David: his family was off doing the Disney Half Marathon.

The weather was perfect. It was very cool running the last mile around the horse racing track. On the flip side, the track was mushy and at first, we didn't know to stay on the narrow strip of hard packed-dirt. Instead, we slogged through with our feet gathering a heavy cake of mud with each step.  Since none of us were running for time, it didn't matter. As they say, it's all good.

As background, this run has some emotional significance to us.   Daniella Folleco was a girl who went to school with my kids. We know the family. She had cancer and died. She was, and her mom is, a delight despite this terrible bad luck. The run commemorates her and to me, reminds me how incredibly lucky we are to be healthy and all together. Daniella's Mom was there thanking people for showing up. Other parents from the school were there running fund-raising booths. It made me think of this old simple ditty:

The world is so full of wonderful things,
I think we should be as happy as kings.
(I just googled this: it was written by Robert Louis Stevenson who also wrote Treasure Island and Kidnapped)