Open letter to Abby from Daddy, please read in 2024.....

Abby Lu,

I am getting ready to run a race this weekend. Its a race I've run several times, and a distance I am familiar with. This race is called the Cap 10K, and is held every year here in Austin. This is the 34^th annual running of the Cap 10. There is about 20K people that will run it. This year I hope to run this race in 55 mins. Last year, I ran it in 55 mins, and carried you crying and screaming across the finish line. Bad…bad idea…..

I’m not going to win any award with this time, and its surely an average, or even below average pace for the average runner. It is however, better than the time I ran when I was 27, and 29, and all through my 30s to now.

You see, the point to this race use to be to prove to myself that I could do it. Now, it’s an investment to be able to keep doing it. I made a pact with God and myself that I would be strong for you, and there for you through your years growing up. I am investing in that now. Doing the same time as last year means I’m not losing ground. It means I’m not getting slow, or old, or on the decline.

When I am 50, and you are 16, I want to be able to still run this race with you. Even though we had you later in life, I want to show that I can be as healthy and as strong as the fathers that are 10 years my junior. I don’t want to be your ‘old man’, and I don’t want to be sitting out of any sports with you when you’re in middle school or even high school. I want to commit to able to make 50, the new 30.

So I invest today, for us tomorrow. I know there are important things to being a parent, and maybe being able to play and be active is a lesser one of these things, but right now, it is something…and its one of the most tangible things I can grasp. We can invest financially for your future, we can invest time in your education, but I want to also invest in my ability to hold you, carry you, and even push you.

So with that said, be ready kiddo. Because the 47^th annual Cap 10 should be coming up soon. You’ll be 16, I’ll be 50….and everything I’ve done for the past 16 years is for this moment, when we can have a race together, and frankly, you better be ready…because I’m hoping to still be chiseling away on my time, down from that 55 mins..

So I’m going off this weekend to create another mile stone in my investment..Running this 34^th annual Cap 10K. I’m going to have some fun with some friends while doing it, and I enjoy it, but when I hit mile 5, and I’m starting to want to ease up, I won’t be kicking in the afterburners just because I want to for me, but because I want to for us.

Now, get your shoes, it’s time to go run.

Daddy