So I just completed my 4th Soaring Wings Half
Marathon. As long as they have this race
and I live nearby I will continue to support their mission. This mission has a little bit of a personal
significance to me which I will share with you a bit later.
First I’ll recap this year’s race. I left my house in plenty of time to pick up
Scott and easily make it to the start line.
After driving the 15 minutes to Conway I realized I had forgotten my
Garmin. I must run with my Garmin as I’m
incredibly addicted to analyzing my races after the fact. I simply must be able to look back out how I did
during different parts of the race. It’s
an odd addiction, but one I know that isn’t peculiar to just me. So I turned around and headed home, texted
Scott to tell him to go on. I got stuck
behind a Blue Ford Truck in Conway that seemed to have misplaced its accelerator
pedal. I parked, jogged to the start
line, Scott saw me, I jumped in line and literally went from my walk up to the race to a run in the race in
one step. No standing around at all. Long story short, I got a PR by 10 minutes
finishing in 2:09:48 and running the entire race with Scott while enjoying most
of it with conversation.
This year’s race was a great race for me. I have now run the SWHalf four times with the
previous three not going as planned. In
2009, my first year and my first race distance longer than a 5K, I way over
hydrated and overGUed and finished just over my goal of 2:30. In 2011, my third year running Soaring Wings,
I trained poorly and got a much deserved 2:19 finish (though this was my SW PR
until this year). In 2010 I trained
really well, but things went terribly wrong the week leading up to the race and
I finished with a time of 2:34. That
year, the one with a 2:34 finish, my worst finish at Soaring Wings ever, was my
most rewarding.
First a quick little back story on me that you’ll need to
know. I’m a youth soccer coach. I never played soccer and didn’t know a thing
about it until I enrolled my son to play when he was four and I agreed to coach. He’s never quit and we are still doing
it. Over the years I’ve coached his
older sister’s team as well. I believe
in God and am a follower of Jesus Christ.
(What follows is an excerpt from thoughts I’ve previously shared on
FaceBook with friends)
As the 2010 Fall soccer season started my Soaring Wings
training was well underway and was going great. About our third practice a new girl joined the
team and it
was clear that her skills were a bit behind the other girls, I’m not even
sure she had ever played soccer. She also needed a bit more attention
than most of the other girls on the team. She was a sweet as can be, but
you could tell she was wired just a little bit different. I knew my work
was cut out for me with the new girl. If my team was going to be as
competitive as I wanted them to be I was going to have to find a way to get her
up to speed more quickly or find a way to hide her on the field.
I
didn’t know the whole picture, I didn’t get it.
About
3 games into the season I became aware that she was a Soaring Wings Ranch
kid. (If you don't know about Soaring Wings Ranch, go check them out. http://www.soaringwingsranch.com/ )
This explained a bit about why she appeared wired a little different. I
had shared with the team that I was going to be running the SW Half Marathon
and she was super excited and shared with me that she would be handing out the
medals at the end of the race and wanted to personally hand me mine. I
was excited to be able to "do this for her".
“Do
this for her”, like I’m so great. I still didn't get it.
As
the soccer season progressed we were not winning any games. I had become
frustrated and didn't know how to make us better. I had become convinced
that some of my “players” were holding us back.
Wow,
my thoughts were ugly. I really didn’t get it. I didn’t get what I was
here to do.
On
the flip side my Half Marathon training was going great, I posted one of my
best training runs for a half marathon at 2:05 and I was feeling great. I
was the lightest I’d ever been while running and poised to shoot for breaking
the 2 hour barrier.
I
thought I was awesome, I still didn’t get it.
The
Tuesday prior to the race I awoke with a fever and some sort of illness.
I was sick the entire week leading up to the race, not eating much and my energy
was drained. I could not believe my luck. I spent a lot of time in self
pity that week and not much time thinking about the girl waiting at the finish
line for me.
God
was like “Wake Up!”, I couldn’t hear him over my whining, I still wasn’t
getting it.
Race
day I decided to go on. I told myself, my friends, my family that I was
“doing” this race for her. How noble of me. Deep inside I still
knew I was doing it for me, I knew I was going for sub 2:00. As I started
the race I went out and ran the first mile on my own, blistering the pace I’d
been training with. Something happened at mile 1.5. I was
done. I had nothing left in me. I started to walk. I had time
to think. I thought about the girl at the finish line, about 1 Tim 4:8
(one of my favorites if you know me), about how I had trained for running good
but not trained for being good, I started to pray, repented of my selfishness,
and I started to run again.
I
still didn’t quite get it, but I was slowly beginning to get it.
I
crossed the finish line that day, searched for that young girl and she gave me
that medal. God didn’t give me that sub 2 half marathon that day.
In fact, I’m certain he made sure I was going to do my worst. But I know
he carried me to the finish for something bigger.
I
was slowly getting it.
Below
is a picture of her and me at the finish, this was the last time I’d see this
young girl. I don’t know the specifics, but she left the Ranch that week
and never made another practice or game. You never know the time frame
you’re going to have to impact someone's life. You never know when
that person will be taken out of your life, so you must do your best by them
each day. I still pray for her. The 2010 Soaring Wings Half Marathon will always
be my most rewarding as I learned more about who I need to be as a person that
day than I’ll ever learn from a race about who I am as a runner.
I
think I finally get it, and I hope I continue to live it.
 |
| Finish Line at Soaring Wings Half 2010 |
