Physical Condition
Apparently my physical condition is important to God. In 1997, God told me to enter 3 events in the Senior Olympics. I mentioned to God that I used to be good at Table Tennis but He told me to do cycling, racquetball and racewalking. I had to buy a real road bike and I started learning how to ride it. I attended racewalking classes and learned how to racewalk. I ran into a friend that I had played racquetball with 10 years earlier and started practicing. My racquetball racquet was the best available 10 years ago. When I went to my first Senior Olympics a few months later, everyone told me after they beat me that I needed a new racquet, as now the new ones were several inches longer. For the next 7 years, I participated in Senior Olympics in Tulsa, Bartlesville and Stillwater (just cycling). Also I racewalked in the 15K (9.3 miles) Tulsa run. I have never been a competitive threat to anyone in any of these sports. I did discover that I was faster than some people in racewalking. I went to nationals twice in racewalking and as one friend encouraged me that I was ranked 24 in the nation (out of 25 people). I have gotten where I could be faster than some in cycling but not most. I have persisted because I am being obedient to God. In 2002, I racedwalked my first Marathon (26.2 miles) and just like in the Tulsa Run, I was faster than some super slow runners (sort of a motivation - fun to pass people).
After 7 years, God used the entry in a Triathlon in January of 04 to encourage me to start running. The following is a story how God visited me in an unusual way during my 4th Marathon on November 20, 2004. It was the Oklahoma Marathon in Tulsa.
The Visit
This was to be my first Marathon to run (it is a lot easier to racewalk 26.2 miles). Around mile 7 1/2, a man dressed in non-sports clothes and appearing slightly overweight, started running along side me for a few hundred yards. He asked me several questions about Marathons and the only question I remember was when he asked how long I had been training and I remember responding, "all year" (as I had been working on learning how to run correctly all year, sorta).
When he stopped running along side me, he intimated that he would see me again. He showed up around mile 9 1/2 and I remember thinking that there were no parking lots close by and wondered how he got there so easily. After running along side me for a short distance, he stopped and indicated he would see me again. This time I expected to see him again.
Around mile 11, I got the most awful abdominal pain. The man showed up again around mile 12. I was wearing a fuel belt and I told him I only had a short distance to the turn around (1 1/2 miles) and asked him if he would hold my fuel belt for me until I came back that way (hoping that would give me relief). I was in such pain that I remember thinking that, if he left with the fuel belt, I would buy another one. I passed the turn around, visited a porta-potty hoping that would give me relief and ran back still in pain. I encountered him on the course around mile 15 holding my fuel belt. I thanked him for holding my fuel belt and he told me he had put some water in the 7 oz bottles that I had emptied of sports drink previously (to my regret I poured them out later). I told him I was still in pain and that I was going to visit the small park restroom (2 people size) up ahead. As I sat in the back part of the restroom in pain, thinking that it was only a couple of miles back to my car and I could quit, a man I couldn't see walked in singing a beautiful hymn. He had an awsome rich voice that filled the whole cinder block restroom and I was trying to hear the words of a very familiar hymn (the acoustics were terible). Finally I made out the words "He was bruised for my transgressions" just before the voice went out the door and disappeared. I remember thinking that if Jesus went through that much pain for me, that I could walk the last 11 miles. I still finished 20 minutes ahead of the previous year.
Later I though about how that man had run along side me in street shoes and was never out of breath. How he appeared at places that were not near parking lots. I don't know if he was an angel or just a man sent by God. I don't even know if that was him singing. I do know that I became under conviction about telling him that I had been preparing to run the Marathon all year, because I had also prepared for and competed in 2 triathlons, several bike time trials, a few swim meets and some racquetball tournaments and a few shorter runs in 2004. One thing I definitely know is that God never intervened in my behalf in any of these other sports. I entered 2005 determined to focus just on improving my running.
Why Better Condition Now
At the University of Texas I had been on the wrestling team and in my early 20's I was drafted into the Army and after basic training I was in the best shape in my life, and I was still smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day. When God started getting me in better physical condition, I was at the heavest weight in my life and I would have told you that the best shape I was ever in was when I got out of basic training for the Army.
Today, I can run faster and farther than ever in my life. My weight is over 80 pounds less than when I started, even less than when I got out of basic training. My waking heart rate is the low 40s which is normal for an athlete. Thanks to God's encouragement and sometimes pushing me, my body is in better physical condition than any time in my life.
In 2008, I finished my twelfth and fastest Marthon in Tiberias, Israel.
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