I've only run in the Gasparilla three times. This year made the third. What's special to me is that I've always run it with my dad. The first time was when I was 7 years old, then again at 20 and this year at 30. My dad is 60 this year and decided two days prior that he wanted to run the 5k with me. This is a man that battled cancer and won! He stays active and takes great care of himself, but hasn't kept up with running because it bothers his knees. You would never know he was 60 by looking at him and on race day, you would never have known he hasn't been running lately!
We ran the 5k and we had a ball. The first mile we had to dodge people walking and blocking the path of the runners but we had fun with it. It was such a great day with him and those are the memories I'll cherish always. He kept pace with me the whole time and we finished at just over 31 minutes. I think that's a pretty good time for myself, but it's an even better time for him since he hadn't trained at all.
He was tired and sore after we finished but he told me that he's going to train for next year and wants to run it again with me. He says we have to shoot for 27 minutes or less! Ok Dad, it's a date!
