I'm a Runner - Chapter Five

Woohoo! My first race!

A friend asked me two days ago how come I am running. She said she wants to run. She does aerobics, but when she trys to run it just feels awful. Now thinking about that, I'd have to say that running just isn't for everyone. But certainly regular exercise is!

But that question made me think. Why am I doing this? Running, I mean. Keeping fit is certainly part of it. And then there is belonging to a strange group of people called runners. The ones I used to pity as I drove by and about whom I said, "I'm sure glad that's not me!" But then I went to my first mini-marathon to watch Laurie run. For me, definitely the race event was what triggered running and is what gives me inspiration to stretch for something more today. Faster, longer, stronger.

So, back to my first 5K race ever as a runner. My heart rate was 118 at the starting line. What an adrenaline rush! Off we went. Past the cheering crowds, over the bridge, past the Zoo, there's the one mile marker! Isn't it funny to run a 5K and count the miles? Past the first bands and the guy preaching salvation. Hang a right at one mile and note that people are passing me at a more steady rate now. Up the first hill. OK, it's not really a hill, but it is SLIGHTLY uphill, and that counts. Then a truly humbling moment.

At about 1.5 miles you turn right and onto a bridge where the half-marathon and 5K runners run along the same course separated by a ribbon line. This is when the front of the pack of half-marathoners are hitting the last 3/4 mile stretch. And suddenly I am running alongside top athletes. Well, that's technically true, although duration of our side by side running is about .634 seconds. I am amazed at their speed and admire them from a rapidly increasing distance. With that dose of reality I turn my attention to the second half of my race and the fact that my legs are starting to tell my brain that they aren't sure they want to go any further.

This is when the five year olds start passing me. And I haven't figured this one out yet, because I crossed the start line about a minute after the gun sounded, but this is also the point that I pass the guy on crutches. Seriously. I pray that he jumped into the race partway, because if it took me a mile and a half to catch a guy on crutches with a one minute lead...

Are you getting a picture here? After two miles a PR is out the window in my thinking, even though if it is your first race, you have a fairly good chance of making that goal. No, I'm thinking finish, finish, finish. I've never had my legs just lock up and quit before, but the possibility occurs to me. Truly I was nuts to try this! I grab a water cup and almost choke to death as I breathe instead of swallow. My first water station!

But the the guys and gals standing along the route start shouting encouragement. And I begin to think I'm gonna make it. And then it's the final quarter mile of the 5K race (again, the miles/kilometers thing) and I actually pick up the pace. The final 100 yards is the same finish as the half-marathon course and the crowd is cheering us on. Now despair turns to euphoria! I am out of breath, but that doesn't matter at all. I give up the timing chip, collect my medal, and chug down a water bottle. I collect the chips, cookies, banana, gatorade, apple, etc and join the other finishers exiting the course.

Laurie was still running the half-marathon, so I hurried to the finish line to cheer her on. Here's where something funny happened. I'm standing at the 1/4 mile to go mark and cheering. Suddenly in my periferal vision I notice a TV camera. Then I'm tapped on the shoulder and the reporter starts asking me questions. That evening on the news I'm in the report! The introduction to my interview is. "Tim Rickel had finished the race and was cheering runners on while waiting for his wife to finish." I found that a hilarious introduction in light of the fact that after running 10 miles my wife ran her final 5K of the race eight minutes faster than I ran my 5K! But the TV said I was waiting for her to finish too. I played that line over and over. :)

When I downloaded the results from the race I noticed that another runner had my exact finish time. It was a lady.

35093 Tim Rickel 35:27 11:26

16644 Laura Mowery 35:27 11:26


So I looked up her information. She was 99 years old! Now I had a goal. Train and train so that next year I could leave her in the dust! My time was better than hers the next year. But somehow, when you beat a 100 year old by a couple of minutes in a 5K, it seems like bragging rights go to the 100 year young person. Way to go Laura!

Are you getting the picture that you too could do this?

I think the great lie that the enemy of our souls has sold us is that somehow it is only special people who can accomplish great missional things for God are missionaries. It gives us a nice out. We "drive" by them and think, "I could never do that." When the truth is God has given us all unique abilities that He wants to see us use for him. We who have put our faith in Jesus are all to be missionaries in life. Ever see someone come back from a short-term mission trip? They love to talk about all that they did and saw and how the people responded. I'm convinced that is the type of enthusiasm God had in mind for his church most of the time. But somehow we seem to miss it more than enjoy it.

I'd love to hear your thinking on that in a comment...