I laced up my spikes and was doing a little bit of light stretching and jogging to stay warm as I finished watching the 60m hurtle finals, which was the event right before my race. I was talking with the other girls on my team that were running the 1600m run along with me, and it was soon discovered that there were two heats of the mile, and come to find out, I was running in the first heat... alone. All three of my other teammates were running in the second heat, and I was going to be running without having them next to me. I had already planned on sticking with my teammates in the race, we planned to pull each other along, and when I found out I was no longer running with them, my heart began to beat faster and panic filled my mind. It was not until one of my teammates, Alison, leaned over and said to me, "It's all for a reason", that I took a deep breath, tried to calm myself down, and sent up a prayer to the Father. I prayed that God's will would be done in the race; that I would remind myself to sacrifice for the Lord; that I would reflect a Christ-like character despite the outcome of the race, good or bad; and I prayed that God would be glorified through my race.
As I headed out onto the track, and stepped up to the line, I felt my legs quiver a bit, and when the gun went off, I just ran. There were probably about ten girls in my race, and I was in about seventh place for the first two-three laps, and it wasn't until about the halfway point, lap four, that my thoughts and fears began to drift away, and my only focus became to move up; to go with the pack ahead of me. There were four girls ahead of me through laps five and six, and by lap seven, I was able to get around two of them. As I headed down the straight away to begin my last lap, I heard the bell sound, signaling the last lap of the race, and then all of a sudden I heard a shouts from my teammates telling me to go! to kick it! and all of a sudden, the power of Christ filled me through the wonderful blessing of running, and I kicked it. I soared around the front runner and began to lead the race. One of my teammates said it was as if the sound of the final lap bell was like a gun, and I was the bullet launching out of it. As I ran my final lap, I heard the shouts, claps, chants and screams of almost every single boy and girl from the SAU track team. They were encouraging me with every single step that I took, and in that moment, I realized something so incredibly important and special... I realized that I am BEYOND blessed.
I cannot explain, in words, the feeling of having an entire team cheer me on. The love that I felt was so powerful; it was truly the love of a family. For awhile, I had been questioning what God's purpose was for me at SAU. I was feeling a little homesick, a little scared and a little unsure of the future, but yesterday, all of those doubts and fears went away. I felt at home. I felt the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit right by my side, and I felt relief. I doubted myself, and the gift of running that God has blessed me with when I found out that I was going to be running alone, without my teammates, but through my doubt and fear, Christ prevailed and revealed His glorious presence to me. Alison was right all along... there truly was a reason for it all, and the funny thing is, it was so much more than just the running. God used that race to prove His faithfulness to me, to show me how blessed I truly am, and to show me how much of an honor and privilege it is to be able to be a part of the SAU track family. Although it was 2 seconds off from a PR, yesterday was the most exhilarating and powerful race of my life, and I am so thankful for the opportunity I was blessed with. God never ceases to amaze me with the wonderful and mysterious ways that He works and reveals His glory to us. I am so thankful for His presence in my life and for where He has placed me. I am truly blessed beyond belief.
I love this. What a great memory to have. :)
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