RACE DAY

By noon today, all the gear was put away, the body markings had been washed off, the wet clothes were in the washer and we were on our way to lunch. It was hard to think that all the work for the last 10 months was over. I don’t want this to be over this quickly, I even tucked my finishing medal in my pocket to take with me as assurance that today actually happened.


After months of training, I completed my 1st Sprint Triathlon today. I had started training hoping to finish, then it became a goal to finish in less than 2 hours. In the last few weeks I had set a personal goal to finish in 1:45. I was feeling good about what my body was able to do.

I held back tears as I made the final turn back into the park towards the finish line. I held it together and as I crossed the line there was a large digital clock showing my un-official time as 1:19, I could hardly believe my eyes. They hung a medal around the neck of everyone as they crossed the line. It was more about finishing then about winning. I gathered up my gear, packed it back into my bag and headed for the car. I stopped to read the official results that were being posted as people finished. I found my name and saw that I had finished 148th out of 300+ finishers. I was 4th in my age group with a time of 1:07:16. I almost fainted when I read that I have finished in just over 67minutes.

Over the last couple of weeks I have had more than one moment of panic when I thought about what I was planning on doing. But it would be for only a moment because I knew I am ready. I trained hard physically and mentally for this challenge. I have kept the triathlon in perspective and balanced my life around it. I have handled the disruptions in training and the setbacks from illness and injury.

I didn’t get to this point by saying what I couldn’t do. I didn’t get to this point by watching someone else do all the work. I didn’t get to this point by only talking about it. I had to set the goal, have the faith to reach the goal and put in the hours and sweat to get to this point.

When I started working out for the very 1st time I made the following notation in my journal: Hopefully this will work for me so that I 1) get in shape, 2) get my attitude in a better shape, 3) get motivated about other things.

I can honestly say that because of the last 20 months of working out I have achieved all of these. I have dropped 25 lbs and can maintain it, I look at life as an opportunity and not a challenge and I am motivated in many areas including one of my hearts desires to complete a triathlon.

Psalm 71:7-8