Thursday, October 22, 2009

What's Really Important

This year was a busy year of competitions for me! A few reflections on the experiences might be worth sharing:

Five Points of Life Half Marathon in Gainesville with Mike in February
-while I ran with Mike, it was a great time to visit both Mike and Jessica (and the doggies) and get away from snowy Michigan for a while. Thanks for your hospitality! Great memories of running through "The Swamp" aka the Florida Gator's home football stadium!

-training all through one of the coldest and snowiest winters in Michigan history for the Boston Marathon....brrr It really is true that over half the battle is getting to the starting line! While I didn't run my personal best time in Boston, I finished and have great memories of seeing Dave and Andy at the 21 mile mark. (I think they felt worse than I did at that point!) I hope to go back someday.

-running the 10k in Ann Arbor a month later as a "Recovery Race" and having a great time. I reconnected with a whole bunch of fellow runners who are strong Christians and are attempting to "glorify God in their bodies" through physical discipline and the joy of running.

-finishing third in my age group in the Waterloo Sprint Triathlon. A great course and beautiful finish through the woods. The best part was running faster than the year before!

-just finishing the Steelhead Half-Ironman. It was really hard! The weather conditions were brutal (hot, humid, windy) and the competition fierce; I loved the wild swim in Lake Michigan the best.

-back to Waterloo for the wild and crazy 10 leg "adventure triathlon" named aptly "The Battle of Waterloo"! Again hot and humid by race end.....I just can't seem to drink enough water/gatorade in these long races....maybe I need to try racing with a Camelbak! But a finish is a finish! "Never give up" is a great motto to live by.

- off to Chicago to join Tim as he competed in his first real triathlon. He and I both had good races, finishing high in our age groups. My highlight was again the run, completing it in a far faster time than ever before. I really like this distance (Olympic Distance - half of the Half Ironman), maybe I will run this one more often and leave the really long races to the kids :)

-up to Tawas to successfully defend my Half Ironman age group "title"! I seem to be bringing the warm weather with me wherever I go this year! Much warmer this year, especially on the run. The highlight was biking 56 miles faster than I ever have before and still having enough left "in the tank" to finish a Half-Marathon, all with a terrible cold!

- whew, last but not least, the Detroit Half Marathon with Tim. It was great to know that Tim was training hard, and hearing his 10K time, I knew he had enough speed to leave me behind. Sure enough, at about mile 4, going up the long hill on the Ambassador Bridge, Tim disappeared, and not over the side or behind yours truly.... I didn't see him again until after crossing the finish line! I found out later that he was slowing down while I was finishing pretty strong...if only the race was five miles longer, I could have caught him! I am really proud of Tim and his training success. Maybe we can run a Marathon together sometime! My highlight was the strong finish and the statistical machinations which made me realize I am actually a "better' runner than I was 2 years ago...even though I ran 39 seconds slower.

After the race, we found out that 3 men had died of heart attacks during the race. It was truly sad and sobering. All of the men had trained well and none knew of any heart problems before the race. Best guesses were a combination of the cold and dehydration, but we may never know for sure.

Made me think about what's REALLY important in my life, like loving God, growing closer to my wife and kids, and loving all those wonderful grandkids! Like serving the poor and needy and growing in living a virtuous life. Like really thanking God for the gifts He has poured out on me, especially the gift of life itself and the gift of knowing my Creator as Father, Saviour, and Holy Spirit. Like learning to have discipline and never giving up!

So, while I have lot's of fancy medals and plaques to remember this year's accomplishments, I will really treasure most the relationships that have grown while doing these races. And I am rededicating myself to those relationships in the coming years, since ALL OF YOU are what's really important.

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