last run...

it's no secret at our house that Mally is not a fan of cross country, but she is good at it and it is good "training" in the off season!  She does it for us and this year has tried to have a positive attitude about it!  This year cross country season started earlier and we were signed up to be mom and dad for a BIG search...the 300th!  We soon figured out that our search weekend was going to be the final meet... her final meet since she is an eighth grader and she is a qualifying runner for the team since she is usually coming in 2nd for our team, and usually in top 10-15 overall.  She had told us it was okay that we were missing, she understood.  Friday though, it hit her and she was upset... dad has never missed a race!  All night friday we discussed it between us and then Flynn talked to Father and pointed out the irony that we would be giving the family commitment talk on sunday morning and two hours later he would be missing her BIGGEST race!  He said that if all went on schedule, flynn could slip out watch her race and rush back...missing lunch, a meeting and some small stuff...
He got there and she had no idea that he was coming, she ran over and jumped in his arms and was so excited!  (it made a couple of moms near him cry!-and I am pretty sure he was crying too!)  She was challenged by one of her coaches to not let dad down with the sacrifice he made!  She ran her hardest!  SMILING as she ran!  She finished 9th!  Team placed 2nd!  Proud dad and the SEARCH team was all so excited when he returned!