This past weekend I competed in a powerlifting meet, and my
wife ran her first Spartan race. We drove for over 9 hours, got sunburns, got
sore, and got far too little sleep - But by golly we did it.
Was it hard? You better believe it.
In the mythology of Hercules, one of his first tasks as a
hero was to kill a giant lion and wear its skin back into the village. What
does Hercules have to do with this weekend? I’ll tell you.
Even though this was the smallest powerlifting competition I
had been too, I was able to get the best total (1325 lbs @ 198 lbs) I’ve had in
over a year. I’m not where I was before my injury, but God still blessed me
with enough health to get back in the game. After injuring my hip 9 months ago,
I couldn’t have imagined being able to total 1300 again. Shoot, I’m lucky that
I can walk.
I’ll be real honest for a second; I was nervous the whole
time. Each squat, bench, and deadlift attempt starred at me with piercing red
eyes. Even though it was an inanimate block of weight, I saw it as an
aggressive beast waiting to humble me into a corner. I’ve missed plenty of
lifts, and I’ve been hurt many times, but to have it happen again after I’ve
already traveled the road to recovery was a petrifying thought. But you know
what they say, “If God is for us who can be against?”
The morning after my competition was my wife’s turn to fight
her own monster. No, hers wasn’t hundreds of pounds being dragged to the floor
by gravity, but it was something that I know I couldn’t have accomplished. She
ran a Spartan race, which is essentially a 4+ mile obstacle course that spits
you out covered in mud and begging for mercy.
My wife, our woman writer Wednesday author, impressed me so
much. She overcame fears like Sampson overcomes an army with a jaw bone.
The race started, and
I watched her sprint ahead of the pack. However, after the first turn into the
woods I didn’t see her again for another 4 miles. By then she was drenched in
water and had a hint of mud coloring her skin. Nevertheless, I saw a beautiful
smile painted across her face: Spartan: 0 Erica: 1.
A fear of heights will make this race nearly impossible,
that is, unless you have the courage of Daniel to climb into the lion’s den and
conquer that obstacle. At least 4 obstacles take you off the ground, and she
attacked each of them with willing ferocity.
She crossed the finish line with only a smidgen of skin not
covered in mud, and she claimed her medal as a completer of the Spartan Race.
We both accomplished something other than a new tan this weekend;
we conquered fears. Although they were different, the monster that lives inside
of us is all the same. It’s a giant lion that terrorizes our village, and only
you can skin it and wear its pelt as the victorious hero.
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