Yesterday, April 27th, I had the honor of attending the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon to watch "Team Kasen" finish the full marathon (26.2 miles) relay. Now the relay is just that, each team has five runners who each run for their set distance, to accomplish the full distance.
As you all know I am a new Grandma of a precious baby boy named Kasen! He is without a doubt a true blessing from above! You see Kasen's Mom is a very talented runner and attends college on a cross country scholarship. A ten mile run was nothing for this young lady! However, while she carried our little grandson she scaled her running down, but basically kept at it at a smaller degree. A few weeks after Kasen arrived she began exercising and two weeks ago had began running 6 miles which would be the distance of her leg in the relay.
We made the trip to Oklahoma City on Saturday as to get a good nights rest as they needed to be at the race by to 5:00 A.M. The meeting place was at the Oklahoma City a Memorial site where prayer was held and there was 168 seconds of silence to remember the lives that were lost in this tragic event. You can imagine the people as there were 26,200 runners including all the runners from the full marathon down to the children's run.
All week we had heard how bad the weather was expected to be so it came as no surprise that when we got up Sunday morning the radar was lit up and there were severe storms heading right towards us. The race was to start at 6 A.M. However it was delayed. Now my Mom and I had went along as the team drivers and head cheerleaders so we were watching it unfold on television at this point. The regulations of the race is that the race has to begin no later than 8:01. After the second one hour storm delay the start was pushed right up to the breaking point.
If any of you watch the news, you know how it is filled with doom and gloom and literally leaves you with a grim outlook on life. Not the case yesterday! I was shocked to hear Linda Cavanaugh report that several church's were being utilized to get the runners out of the elements and that they were on their knees praying for the storms to pass. As we watched the weatherman and the track of the storm it became apparent that it was going to be nip and tuck for the storms to clear the area by the deadline. Now the race officials were monitoring the situation and had stated they could wiggle some room for a little extra time but that would be about all they could do! The storms rolled by and the city granted the extra time for the streets to be closed and the race kicked off at 8:30! Imagine the relief and cheers from the runners who represented 48 states and 9 different countries. Their journeys
to the race was not in vain.
Lisa, Taylor's Mom, was lined up at the starting line with shoulder to shoulder people. It took well over 20 minutes for all the runners to cross the starting line where she began her 6 mile stretch.
Lisa only started running a few years back and this was the first time she had ran this far
competitively. She handed off to my a Dad, Paul, who is a veteran runner. He has ran in countless road races over the years and in the last few years lead a group at his church in the Run a For God training program. He is 65 years young and has had to slow down on his running due to injuries and maybe age has a little to do with it LOL! But, this doesn't stop him! I wish I could have been at the point where he handed off to my Brother! What a priceless picture that would have been!
Darron, my brother, started running a few years back. I remember the time they were here visiting at my parents in Woodward and he went for a run and asked to be picked up in Mooreland which is about fourteen miles away! Darron's leg of this race was 6 miles however he missed his hand off point by quite a ways and had to run back to his next team member who was Trevor, Taylor's brother.
Trevor does not train to run. He is a natural and his 3 mile run is a walk in the park where he hands off to his big sister Taylor. Taylor has the final 6 mile run where the team will finally cross the finish
line and claim the right to say they did it! We are finished!
My Mom and I had found our place at the finish line and anxiously awaited the arrival of "Team Kasen". As we kept a close watch for Taylor coming down the stretch we witnessed some of the most heart warming finishes and yip, you guessed it I spilt several tears watching these people reach their destination.
There was the firefighters dressed in full gear, military people dressed in desert camouflage... One carrying a backpack weighing 168 pounds, A pound for each life lost.
There was the lady runner carrying her friend on her back the full half marathon (13.1miles) so that she too could experience the thrill of victory.
There were the people in wheel chairs crossing the finish line who had nothing but their arms to get them through to the finish line!
As I sat there and watched this all unfold I found myself standing by a lady who was also anxiously awaiting the arrival of her son and his buddy who are seniors in High School. They were running the full marathon. Their first! As I talked to her she shared with me that her son had became very sick two years ago with a heart condition. She said he was unable to function and had came to a place that the doctors didn't give much hope. That's when he heard a voice telling him to read the Bible front to back and so he did. During this time he improved and regained his life. It was such an honor to watch a complete miracle cross the finish line side by side with his running buddy, holding hands as they crossed celebrating the victory. His mom also shared that he has received a calling to the ministry and will be attending college to become a youth director in the fall following graduation. She thanked me for letting her tell his story and with that she was gone. I had felt guilty for skipping church, but felt better after hearing her story and realizing I wasn't there by mistake. There was a reason.
A short time later Mom and I see some familiar faces coming towards us, there was Taylor with her team mates Darron, Lisa, and my Dad as they ran the final stretch together. They had joined her at the end of her journey and All of them were wearing a smile as they knew they had reached their final destination and that they claim the right to say We did it! The victory is ours!
I couldn't help but to think about the whole story of this race and compare it with our everyday lives. We all have our own story about how we got to where we are. We have all had set backs that slowed us down or injuries that kept us from performing our duties as Christians. There are times when it has taken the strength of our friends and family to carry us through a situation. There are times we have sat in life's wheelchair and only used part of ourselves. There are times it seems we carry the weight of the world on our backs and we lug it around letting it weigh us down. But, we can never quit putting one foot in front of the other.
You see It doesn't matter if you have been "training" for years or if you have only started your
"training". Being a Christian is all about believing and having faith that someday we will be ready to run our final race. It doesn't matter how many times we have stumbled or had to crawl to get there. It's in reaching those pearly gates where we can all celebrate the victory and shout together We
did it! We have crossed the finish line!
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