The Way

This past weekend I found myself in Panama City Beach, Florida spectating and supporting my buddy, Dave MacNeill, as he competed and completed the Ironman Florida Triathlon. Dave and I work together at LifeWay and over the past couple of years have become pretty good friends. Dave is an Ironman. He has been an Ironman for a number of years and you may recall that back in the Spring, I completed my first triathlon, much to the encouragement of Dave. An Ironman Triathlon consists of these three sports and distances: Swimming -2.4 miles Biking - 112 miles Running - 26.2 miles All of those miles add up to 140.6 miles and a pretty tired body evidently. I had a blast spectating and supporting this triathlon. I really did. I found myself encouraging and supporting people that I have never seen before and quite possibly, never will see again. But that did not really matter to me. What mattered is that they competed to the best of their ability and I wanted to help them do that by ...

A few months I was presented with a challenge from a co-worker about training for and completing a triathlon. I had toyed with the idea a few times; told Sondra a time or two that I will do a triathlon someday; and then on occassion thought, "That's crazy!  I will run but triathlons sound crazy." Consider me crazy. Some of you do already anyway. I started getting in the pool, got some goggles and earplugs and a short pair of running shorts and swam. Three strokes, breath; three strokes, breath; sounded easy enough but I found it a little overwhelming and challenging. But I am competitive and kept after it. I swam a few hundred meters; spit out water, coughed, gasped numerous times and tried it again later in the week. A quarter mile became and half-mile became a mile became a mile and half. I was considered a somewhat controlled flailer. I always thanked the lifeguard at the Y for not letting me drown. They thought I was kidding and laughed. I do not joke about getting...