October Wellness Reflection

I was not very athletic growing up and really had no desire to be. My older brother got involved in running cross country and track in middle school and later became a top athlete in high school and college. When the West Noble High School cross country team finished 5th at State my sophomore year, my brother’s senior year, I decided that I wanted to be a part of that team and started training. I struggled as an entry level runner my junior year in high school but my coachsaw that I was committed and pushed me to do my very best. While I never made varsity, I fell in love with cross country. In college I ran when I had the time, but did not get involved in races again until I graduated. I had become a Mechanical Engineer with a degree from Purdue University (I should have felt on top of the world), but I became discouraged with my career path and with other things in life, and cried out to God for help. Miraculously I got an answer. I felt led to go into teaching, a career I had never really considered. I picked up a job working at a Christian summer camp leading outdoor adventure trips in backpacking, bike road trips, and white water rafting. It was there that I gained the courage to try new challenges as well as confidence in my abilities. When I finally got settled in a teaching job at Triton Central High School on the southeast side of Indy, I quickly got involved in coaching cross country. I would frequently train with the team and got back into running 5K races. One day my older brother asked if I would run the Indy Mini‐Marathon with him. Frankly, any race with the word marathon in the title seemed far above my capacity, but it sounded like a challenge, so I decided with enough time to train I would at least give it a shot. At the time, it was a struggle balancing my duties as a teacher/coach and training for a half‐marathon, but I worked my way up to a 10 mile run two weeks before the race and felt confident that I could finish the race. I was able to finish my first attempt at a half‐marathon and thought that was definitely the farthest that I would ever run. I met my future wife a few years after that and our first date was to go for a run. I quickly found out that she was training for a full marathon. Using my keen math skills, I determined that was twice as long as a half‐marathon; twice as long as I had ever wanted to run. After she finished her full marathon we challenged each other to run the Chicago Marathon later that year. While that was our only marathon together to date, we have had many running and racing experiences together. My fondest memory of racing together is the Inaugural Star Wars Half‐Marathon at Disneyland. It was by far the most fun and exciting race I’ve ever run. Recently I have enjoyed getting our kids involved in racing. For the past few years we have been involved in the Lake Max Triathlon. This year was the most challenging for all of us because of the wind and rain. It is a joy to see them take an interest in fitness at their age and to train alongside of them. We hope to continue participating in the Lake Max Triathlon together as a family tradition. My next fitness adventure will be to complete the Dopey Challenge at Disney World. My wife and I are already training for this set of races that doesn’t take place until January. It starts with a 5K on Thursday, 10K on Friday, half‐marathon on Saturday, and a full marathon on Sunday. It’s pretty amazing to reflect on my physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing and to see how far I’ve come. I look forward to growing and becoming stronger through any challenge that lies ahead.