Meaningful Misery ... Purposeful Pain

There I was ... wading out into a murky lake, on a chilly morning in the foothills of Virginia ... with 174 of my favorite friends, and I thought to myself ... this is it people, this is what we trained for. Soon I and my friends would begin to swim in the murky lake, some faster than others, all in the same direction, all with the same purpose - to finish the race. After the 3/4 mile swim we would head up a hill to where our mountain bikes awaited us, ready for the 11 mile ride through tight twisty trails. All this fun would be followed up by a 4 mile trail run, and then ... the finish. All who choose to enter such misery must understand the meaning ... the sweet purpose of pain. That day was a physical picture of a spiritual reality ... we are in a race, there is pain involved, but there is purpose in the pain (more on this, in part 2, coming soon). This is a strange paradigm to embrace in our convenience driven culture, but it was embraced that day ... by 175 crazy people who ran the Charlottesville Xterra Triathlon. Many of whom probably didn't realize the depth of the spiritual picture they were painting with their looks of exhaustion, stumbling steps, broken breaths ... as they pressed through the pain ... with one purpose - to finish the race.

Two of those 174 people were men I have history with ... fellow race buddies, Spencer and Andruis (respectively below). We've done an adventure race together, and now a triathlon, and we've really developed a cool bond in the context of purposeful pain. (note: in picture below, Andruis is taller than both me and Spencer ... but we're standing on my running boards ... I always seem to find my way onto some sort of step when I'm around tall people)

Andruis lives in Washington D.C. and is working on his PhD in biocellulochemicalogiconucleic theory (or something like that). Spencer lives next to us in Wake Forest with his wife Jana, who is friends with my sweet Joanna. They are great. For Andruis and Spencer this was their first triathlon; the second for me (so I shared my wealth of knowledge given my vast prior experience). It was a day we won't soon forget ... and we're already looking forward to the next one.

Here are some of the interesting highlights from the experience:

* Picked up two hitchhikers, one out of gas, one just walking b/c he got his license temporarily taken away ... he told us all about it ... he talked a mile a minute.
* Stayed at a tent camping site at the KOA; this was a first for each of us. Question - how can they charge us 34 dollars for that?! We brought the tent! No wake up call, no continental breakfast, no way that's worth 34 bucks. Anyway ... oh, yea, there was a picnic table at the site, it makes sense now. But, really, I'm not complaining ... it was fun to camp out ... besides, that led to my next highlight, though I feel strange calling it a highlight ...
* We met this nice couple at the site next to us. They were unmarried, but on vacation together, which broke my heart because I know that's not God's plan for a relationship between a man and a woman. But we enjoyed talking with them, shared our beliefs and visions for serving God and hopefully demonstrated that Christians don't have to be boring, stiff weirdos. But after we had left their site and were winding down getting ready for bed I noticed that they too were getting in their tent. I noticed this b/c they had a lantern on ... inside the tent ... casting a silhouette on the side of the tent ... the side near us. So, I'm thinking ... these are educated people, both with college degrees ... they'll turn the light off. Time passed, I got more nervous, light still on. Looked like fairly normal get-ready-for-bed type stuff at first, ya know, fluff the pillow, set the alarm clock ... then the movements became more rhythmic ... I'll stop now. But I did make a mental note to self if I ever find myself in their situation ... turn the lantern off.
* Spencer's financial issues ... background: The first time we hung out w/ Spencer and Jana we went to Golden Corral to eat ... and Spencer "forgot his wallet" ... convenient. So we get to the race registration table Saturday afternoon (race was Sunday morning) and they inform him that he can't pay w/ a debit card til the morning ... back in the morning ... misunderstanding - can't pay w/ a debit card at all, and the race starts in like 45 minutes. None of us has a check or enough cash ... I end up explaining to the race director and promising to go to an ATM and bring the money back right after the race. Spencer raced. Thank you race director Ed.
* Ya have to have fun at these things ... so as I neared the Gatorade station w/ the volunteers I thought a cartwheel was in order ... it must get so boring just to watch everyone run by ... the camera man happened to catch the beginning of it ... it was a big hit. (I kept the picture pretty small b/c I have spandex on and ... yea, anyway)

It was a great experience, one that I look forward to having again before too long. Because there's nothing like the feeling of finishing the race.