Saturday Night I ran my first 5K race..The Full Moon. It was a lot of fun..Runners of all kinds showed up to run along Riverside.

This is the first race that I have participated in and I was a bit nervous. Once the race started all the nerves stopped. It was fun running alongside 1,500 runners.

Along Riverside I was pretty far back in the pack and I actually was passing people and people were passing me. As I got about to the 1/2 way point in the race, I noticed the leaders of the race starting back towards the finish. They were traveling very fast.

The winning time for the 3.2 mile course believe it or not was just over 15 minutes...Lightning fast. The odd thing was that their were a few runners that were among the top runners. About a half mile left in the race they slowed down and started walking...I couldn't figure out why you would run that hard and that fast and then stop and walk.

I was bound determined to keep running the whole time. Mission accomplished. I wanted to finish. It didn't matter how long it was going to take..I was going to run the whole way.

I think what helped me finish and the same principle will help you finish and will help your kids finish.

Whatever you do or whatever you want to accomplish surround yourself with encouragers. I had many encouragers while training and while running the race. This really helped me believe in myself and believe that I could accomplish what I had come to accomplish.

I see this principle put into practice by many at school. Parents being encouragers and standing beside their children. However, I am seeing more and more parents standing on the sidelines and just standing.no encouragement. If anything it is criticism and frustration.

Kids need your encouragement each and every day. Remember to help them finish what they start, and the way to do that is to be an encourager.