We went to an Iron Man race in Panama City; with over 2500 participants, that was one of the qualifying races for the Kona Iron man race in Hawaii. A variety of friends all decided at the same time a year ago to compete in their first race of this distance, 140.6miles. The race begins with swimming 2.4 miles in the ocean, a run up the beach and to your bike takes you immediately into the next leg of the event, cycling 112 miles and the race ends with running a marathon (26.2 miles). Now you may ask yourself what kind of person decides to participate in a race that is guaranteed to take over ten hours, involves the three sports of swimming, cycling and running consecutively the same day and costs $550 just to register. It is truly a special person that chooses to take on such a conquest a year in advance, and more importantly it takes a community to breathe life into their success. A friend, Stephanie L. is a single mother of three amazing children. Stephanie has a full time job in a doctor’s office of two other triathletes, one the doctor, the other his wife. As Stephanie began the dance of balancing work, training for the iron man distance race and family life, in stepped her amazing parents. It was her mother that drove into town most every alternating week while her daughter had custody of the kids, a good three and a half hour drive each way. She then grocery shopped, cooked the family meals, helped the kids with homework, did the laundry & helped pick the kids up from their numerous activities and provided the supportive parental role which enabled her daughter to get in the many hours of training. There is Stephanie’s father whom provides enough financially to enable her mother to be available for their grand children in this way. There of course is Stephanie’s terrific fiancée who has long since been successfully involved in the sport of triathlon and helped Stephanie get involved with a great coach who specialize a training plan specifically for her and optimize the use her time. Her fiancé Mike has bravely stepped into a relationship with Stephanie and her three children working to establish relationships with each of them, and he sees them as his children too verse mistaking them as only Stephanie’s. We can all imagine the importance of how these relationships play out many times throughout the weekly logistical nightmare of having three children involved in various activities.
Community arrived beyond Stephanie’s immediate family in the form of training companions. They have surrounded them making the training hour’s more than bearable and even social events. Emails circulated around discussing the weekend training plans which revolve around the many hours working out. Imagine a weekend where Saturday is a seven hour bike ride followed by a long run on Sunday morning of two and a half hours only to end with another easy bike ride inside on bike trainer. All these friends witnessed a marked increase in their triathlon successes too, the benefit of workouts designed by an experienced coach. That’s how friends joined together in forming a village that works for the benefit of something greater than just them; it works for the highest good for all. It is as though you can see the hand of God at work bringing people together as brothers and sisters uniting for a common goal.
So we went over to a Panama City to help Stephanie’s grandma watch those three wonderful kids through the weekend and its many events. Additionally, we went over to cheer on our many friends participating in the Iron Man triathlon. There we about thirty-three athletes that participated from our local area and two who qualified to attend the Kona Iron Man race in Hawaii. One was Stephanie and the other a friend Shannon. Now if you had been there at the race you would have seen Stephanie and Shannon running almost their entire marathon together. They set asside competing against each other and competed together with the challenge of completing the race. Not many people could have kept up their staggering pace of 3 hours and 45 minutes marathon at the end of an iron man triathlon, but they both were in great shape and together they qualified for Hawaii!
An interesting thing to note is that Stephanie and Mike have graciously stepped up in our local community too, as the race directors of the only two kid’s triathlons Red Hills in May and the new race that they hosted at the FSU outdoor pool in September this year. They took their love of triathlon’s and kid’s health, reached out into the local area bringing hundreds of children many whom participated in their first triathlon. Some of the proceeds were even donated to Lance Armstrong’s foundation Live Strong.
