You have to understand some things
about me; one is that I am seldom impressed and certainly very rarely in awe of
someone else. The second thing is that
although I am extremely competitive in most everything I do I have no such desire
to compete in the athletic sense. I was
the girl in grade school who would ask the teacher can I skip recess and read
instead so that I would not have to go through the humiliation of not being
picked for dodge ball. The only time I
had some semblance of physical skill was when in high school I joined the
Karate club. That was because it was
about fighting and I was always ready and able to fight. So I grew up knowing my limitations relating
to any sporting activity. Even now as I
continue to pursue doing CrossFit I know my limitations. I know that even though I can get better, I
won’t ever really get to the point where I can be considered an athlete or a
competitor. I got sucked into competing
in the ‘Baby Games (beginners competition) about 7 months ago because
apparently I had a momentary loss of sanity.
Of course I came in last; there go those limitations again. Now this is not to say that I don’t enjoy the
workouts or that I don’t try to do my best and even make improvements along the
way because I do all of that. I’m just a
realist. Which brings me to this
dilemma, I am in AWE; I’m in awe of my husband and he has caused a warp in my
thinking.
He has just shown me that
there are no limitations or obstacles that cannot be conquered if you have the
will and the fortitude to defeat them.
My husband was on a quest, a quest to do well enough in the 400 meter
race at the State Senior Olympics so that he can qualify to run in the
nationals next year or so that is what he told me. Here are the
obstacles one by one. First – he hadn’t
run in over 25 years, second – he had to have surgery just when he was supposed
to start training. Third – as soon as he
was able to recover from the surgery and start training he developed Plantar Fasciitis
(an extremely painful foot condition), fourth – even with the foot situation he
continued to train and then pulled a hamstring and then fifth – he pulled
another hamstring. Needless to say his
training time was nowhere near enough to have a real chance at the race. Then sixth – about a week and a half before
the race he gets a terrible allergy condition that derailed his remaining
training time. I lived through all these
issues with him. Every Sunday when we
went out to the track for his time trials I watched him in pain and agony. I watched him come home to ice his foot or
ice and massage his legs just so he could walk.
And yet he pushed forward every week, putting his body through
torture. I watched him load the bar and
lift heavier and heavier weights every time he went to the CrossFit gym; I
watched him push himself to levels I have not seen from him before. Then of course he
would come home and do the ice and massage routine so that he could simply just function.
All during this time I would silently
worry and ask myself, why is this so important to him, why can’t he just
realize his limitations? I did once
comment to him that maybe God is telling him something with all these
injuries. At the time I did not
understand the fire in him; I didn’t understand his need to push his body
beyond his limitations, to push towards greatness just for the sake of
accomplishment.
In all our conversations
about the upcoming race and there were many, he always told me that he just wanted
to do well and of course qualify for the nationals. Qualifying meant that he had to be at least 4th
place. He laboriously studied the times of the
previous state races and the previous times of the regionals very carefully and
deduced that he had a chance at 4th.
At least that's what he told me. It seemed a reasonable plan; after all he still had so many obstacles
(limitations) to overcome but 4th may be a possibility.
What I did
not understand at that time was that my husband was a “Champion”. The Heart of a champion does not accept
anything other than victory, anything other than absolute defeat of an
obstacle. There are no excuses, no
limitations; there is only the drive to Win.
It is ironic that what I have always known and practiced in other facets
of my life I did not make that connection in how it relates to physical
accomplishments. It took my husband
defeating all his obstacles to drive home this lesson. He Won! The beauty of his run was the
culmination of all his pain, struggle, determination and his unrelenting
pursuit of victory. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A8IQacyquo&feature=youtu.be. He is my hero and I
need to ride his Backdraft; I need to embrace that tenacious spirit.
No comments:
Post a Comment