Sussex County Fairgrounds, Augusta, NJ; May 9-15, 2022
Praise God! My ole ranch truck, loaded to the gills, made it to NJ and back to Wichita with no issues! I wish I ran half as good as my ole truck.
This event name is sort of a misnomer: They had a 6-Day race that started Monday morning, May 9. The 3-day (72 hrs.) started Thursday, the 48-hr., which I was running, started Friday. They also had a 24-hr., 12-hr., and 6-hr., in addition to 100-mile, 100-Km, 50-Km, and marathon (26.2-mi.) races. And, because you were allowed to start your event any day from Tuesday on, there was a race-start every morning at 9:00 a.m. That’s why I got there Tuesday afternoon: to set-up and hopefully have a Runners’ Church service every morning at 8:30 (before each race-start).
Race administration was a bit less supportive of the R.C. mission to “bring church to where the runners are”, and definitely had a “separation of church and race” worldview. I fully understand it’s their race; they put it on, and they set the rules. So, I endeavored to support them by volunteering and encouraging all runners from the time I arrived. In this area, I think I “done good”. As you’ll learn, there were other areas I need to improve on, but in the area of supporting the race and my fellow runners, I walked away feeling I did my best, thanks to He who gives me strength.
As I said, I got to the fairgrounds Tuesday afternoon, and was able to park my truck about 50 feet from some prime real estate right on the race course. If I’d taken any pictures of my truck, you could better appreciate how great of a blessing this was—I had ullottuv stuff to unload. And two things about “pictures”: Thing 1) I definitely need to do a better job of planning on how get more photos/videos of these events, made especially difficult if I’m by myself; Thing 2) I need to remember the little things, such as bringing my camera cable! Ugh. My camera eats up battery power and I only have two batteries. If I’d have brought my charger, or even just the cable, I could have charged my batteries. Unfortunately, my camera was useless by about day 2. I did get a couple people to snap a couple pics and email them to me. However, the RC website needs more photos and videos of the Runners’ Church ministry “ministering to the person in front of me”. This is one area I need to improve upon.
Anyway, after I got set-up and chatted with a few 6-dayers I knew or knew of, I tried to let people know about the Runners’ Church service I planned to have at 8:30 a.m. every morning. I had a message prepared and waited in front of the Runners’ Church tent from 8:00 a.m. to just before “kick-off”, and then went down to cheer on the next wave of racers starting up their various events. Basically, every morning went like this: I didn’t have any signage up, and just waited for people to respond, to come and worship before (or during) their event. I didn’t “push” or holler out at folks; I just waited there and prayed. I have since debated this approach, and it was at least in part in response to not wanting to “push the envelope” with the race folks or to “offend” anyone. But, after some prayerful reconsideration, I feel like I gave up too early, that I need to be bold for the Lord, and not “bury His treasure”, or be a slothful worker, or to fear man. If the Lord be for me, who can be against me, right?
Finally, Friday morning rolled around, and I was pawin’ at the ground to get this party started. I had planned how I wanted to manage my 48-hr. race, and had envisioned in my mind what I needed to do to have a “good day” at the races; to be an overcomer, and to hit that wall and have the endurance to push through the hard miles. I quoted Eric Lidell from the film, Chariots of Fire, “To run anything less than my best is not to bring glory to God.” I wanted to run well for the Lord who strengthens me, but also, to hopefully give Runners’ Church a bigger “microphone” so to speak. I mean, if a 62-year-old cancer survivor can win outright, I hoped to parlay that into some “splash” for the ministry. That was my motivation for wanting to press the throttle and compete, not for my glory, but for His and the Runners’ Church ministry.
It got hot that Friday, up to 86◦F or so I think—hot enough to bake your biscuits quick—but I intentionally ran pretty (comfortably) hard during that 1st day. John Geesler—an old friend who’s got an international multi-day resume of records—advised me to back off the throttle, saying something like, “All that ‘money’ you put in the bank on Friday don’t pay interest on Saturday and Sunday.” Sage advice from a great guy and very accomplished runner.
I understood and appreciated his advice, but I kept a fairly steady pace and made super-efficient use of my aid station breaks, never looking at the screen that showed my mile-by-mile progress. That was intentional. And then somewhere around midnight, when things were just starting to get “dicey”, as I cruised over the timing mat, a race volunteer from the “café” called out my mileage of 77 miles, way less than what I thought I had. This was disappointing to say the least, and it really took the wind out of my sails.
I continued on into the wee hours, albeit more slowly, deciding where I could break for a shower and nap. I only had stomach issues once: I had waited to 1:00 a.m., I recall, to down a Black Rifle triple espresso mocha. I had quit taking Vespas and Perpetuem long enough for high-sugar mocha not to “interfere” and cause the G.I. distress by the time I got to 1:00 a.m. I grabbed my salt tabs, and down my mocha. Does anyone see a problem here? Concentrated coffee + concentrated salt = a hurl-time in someone’s immediate future. And sure enough, it did. Fortunately, I found a trashcan and didn’t spew on anyone’s “front lawn” as “the avenue” (a 200m out & back was lined with RVs up one side and tents down the other. Whew! Thank You, Lord. Not happy to vent a $4 triple espresso mocha overboard, but my stomach was fine afterwards and I actually ran pretty strong till I decided to take my break at mi. 95 and around 3:00 a.m., comfortably in 1st place.
The bummer was that I was off the track from 3:00 until about 8:00 a.m., and still never really slept! I should’ve stayed up and run. In the meantime, I’d also been passed. So, I ran pretty strong and cleared 100 mi. just before 9:00 a.m.—the 24-hour mark, or halfway point—and went on to 105 to reclaim the pole position on the leaderboard. I don’t want to bore anyone with details, but suffice to say, the lead changed hands like 3 or 4 more times as Day 2 wound on. However, somewhere around midnight, I was comfortably in 1st place at 150mi. Tershl—another world-class multi-dayer from Canada—tried to encourage me to press on, that I could hit 200mi. if I just pressed on, or at least 300Km (186mi.), with 9 hrs. to go. However, I allowed my ultra-mind to decide, and showers and a nap seemed far more enjoyable. Oh yeah, it had started to cold-rain and I had gotten extremely chilled slow-walking with a gal who was hobbled with severe plantar fasciitis (a.k.a. plantar “fascist”). So, I bailed, and went and got a shower, and staggered to bed.
After I got up at 7:00 a.m., and made some coffee, I decided to take my chip around one loop wearing street clothes—cargo shorts and sandals and a sweatshirt; it was about 8:00 a.m. Anyway, as I did, I decided to run, just to see how bad it hurt. And it didn’t. So, I jogged on around, and the sister of one of my competitors’ says, “Dude, you got passed in the night.” I ditched my shirt and ran my 2nd loop (mi. 152), and on the 3rd, picked up a guy who pushed me and we ran the 3rd and 4th loops (miles 153 and 154 for me) faster than any I’d run before, 9-something minutes per mile and 8-something, respectively. I share that not to brag, but to offer the proof-positive that I gave-up too early. I did not run my best, did not lean into the strength of the Lord when the going got tough; I just opted for the easy route. The final top 3 finish distances (1st, 2nd, 3rd places) were 155, 154, and 152 miles; we were all neck-in-neck.
Why I gave up, why I didn’t walk the walk, why I didn’t do what I envisioned, and give the battle to the Lord, I don’t know. All I can say is that I pray I will learn from my mistake and do better on the next one.
On the upside, I was able to encourage many runners along the way, and share Jesus and the Runners’ Church mission. I gave out a couple singlets and hope to see some “singlet pics” soon. The R.C. temp tatts were a big hit with the kiddos who got some, so that was cool. And, I think that the Race Director’s tone and timbre toward Runners’ Church changed positively, so that was also very cool.
I definitely need to come up higher in several areas, most of which I’ve already mentioned. I ask you to pray for this ministry, but also, please pray for me, that I will be bold for the Lord so I can be a more effective minister of the Gospel.
Run long and journey-ON!Mark
“And how are they to proclaim Him unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘Blessed are the feet of those who bring the Good News’.” ~~Romans 10:15
