Wednesday, February 24, 2016

this is amazing

A week after my worst race ever, I went to Louisiana to one of my favorite races, River Cities. I went with my friend Monica. This is the second year we have done this trip. This year I was going in to compete against her. I always enjoy a friendly competition. However, this was not really fair, because a week later she was doing a half ironman, so she was not going into this race to compete.
When we got to transistion, we were set up next to one another. Ha, this will be fun, because now we can see where the other person is. I saw another friend of ours there and asked what age group she was in. Bummer, she is in the 45-49 age group too. No way am I beating Lesley. She is a fantastic runner. I only wish to be half as fast as she is.

When we started, Monica knew I was trying to beat her. She was out of the water 23 seconds ahead of me and was grabbing her bike as I was getting to mine. This was wonderful. I knew exactly how far ahead of me she was. It also meant I knew I had to sell out on the bike to either catch her or close the gap. I had another goal on the bike and that was to not be passed by my friend Wade. He passed me last year about half way through the bike. As I pulled into transition I knew I had not caught Monica but I didn't know if I had made up any time until I saw her racking her bike. My bike time was 12 seconds faster than hers. She got out of transition before me on the run. I could see Monica almost the whole run. I would spot a shadow and count to see if she was pulling away from me. Somehow she kept the same distance in front of me. The other great thing about the run is that there are a couple of fingers. Every time I saw her I would ask her to slow down so I could catch her.The funny thing is she was hearing me say "Don't slow down." So she wasn't. In fact, towards the end she had a bigger kick left in her than I did. Her run time was 29 seconds faster than me. She ended up beating me by a minute exactly. It was such a fun race because there were so many friends there doing it.
Just a week ago I was miserable doing a triathlon and this week I was having the time of my life. It reminds me of the verse "Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9 Sometimes things do not go the way we want or plan. It is easy to get discouraged during those times. But that is not the life God wants us to have. He is with us wherever we go. The good times along with the bad. His timing is perfect. Life isn't always easy. No one ever said it would be. But there is a peace that we can live in if we live it in the loving arms of our heavenly Father.