Balls

Sunday I went to the Rock N Roll marathon San Antonio. I have never attended a race , but I have a few friends that run these races all the time and tell me about all the emotions you go through. “You cry, you laugh, you sing, you yell, you dance.”

Ten minutes on premises I see Christine Chapa and Chris Godfrey. I stopped and chatted with them and start to see people I know like, Elizabeth Anderson, Amber Rodriguez, Simon Ponder and Stephen Chavez. They are all moving fast with no problems.

I get to the finish line area and I’m standing on Montana St. taking pictures of people and cheering for the runners. I see a few clowns dressed humorously as they speed by. I also keep noticing the reactions on people’s faces. Some were laughing, some singing/dancing, some were yelling or asking for encouragement for someone next to them having a hard time. Some were enjoying the crowds’ applause and receiving high-fives from spectators. Some were so focused, I would yell their name and they just kept going either singing/talking to themselves or just attentively looking forward.

On the other hand I saw some people crying out of pure agony! So much pain and hurt, but they just pushed through. Mostly the guys would stop and rest or be out of breath/cramp up, but you could really tell they were in pain and had just run 26.1 miles!

I was wondering, if I was to train, could I do this? Really I was thinking “do I have the balls to pull this off?!” Just then I see a gentleman pedaling a specially designed wheelchair doing a half marathon! This gentleman was not paralyzed; he just didn’t have the use of his arms. So at sometime in his life he had to make a physical and metal decision that he wanted to enter this race on his own. I looked on in disbelief. A little while later a lady came up on the full marathon side in a wheelchair. Remember that she has to go up this hill. With every push of the wheels with her arms up she would come back down. Sometimes she went up two feet sometimes she went up six inches, sometimes she went sideways, but she didn’t stop until she got to the top!

After seeing this display of determination my eyes were a little misty. I was thinking this is the way life is, whether it is with God or not. In life people are going to be rushing by, passing you up, bumping into you, and distracting you. It’s up to you and only you to be determined and be willing push yourself!

If you say you suck well then you will collapse and people run over you! If you don’t train, consume the wrong things, read the wrong messages and live a life of excess you will fail. On the other hand if you train, consume the right things, live a life of purpose, and have the right people around encouraging you, you can do anything you want!