Devil Dog Duathlon - Camp Pendleton Races

An amazing day at the 5K/30K/5K Devil Dog Duathlon on the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base in sunny north county San Diego.  It was a tough month leading into this race as a workout incident in the gym left me with a cracked tailbone a few weeks ago just after I had committed and signed up and paid for the event.

Once again I simply gave this one to God, asked for tons of prayer, and allowed him to work it out as to whether I would be able to complete or not.  Just Monday this past week while traveling on business I went out for a tough 8+ mile hilly run and it hurt quite a bit which gave me some doubt as to what would happen today when I lined up.  For the first time I actually think I wished there was a swim involved in this thing.

What it did was it made me stop, pray, and realize that no matter what my body would do I would be able to see a huge number of fit and interesting people of all ages coming together to test the limits of the abilities God has given them.  And of course represent the COLORS of MultiSport Ministries as a witness as to why I race and what really matters.  It was great to be sporting the new race kit and being so bold it had the effect; even before the race during the setup I had multiple people asking me questions about it and allowing me to point them to the website and offer my contact info - praise God as he always shows up.

So with the conversations and distractions I had forgotten completely about my sore backside and just got final preparations for the start completed.  The airhorns went off and we were on our way.  The race itself is inspiring for all the Marine Corp volunteers and also the work by MARSOC, the Marine Corp Special Operations Command, who support the race and make sure everything goes off without incident.  My body outperformed my small-minded human limitations and carried me through a great race.  I finished 1st in the Clydesdale division in 1hr 35min including a 23.4 mph average speed on the rolling bike course.  It was most certainly way above my expectations; shame on me for limiting God.

But even better than that was connecting with Scott, a MARSOC recruit screener, recently arrived from Michigan and looking to connect with local athletes and a Christian community - Praise God as I connected him with http://www.multisportministries.com.  Also connected back with Pat Thomas from the Challenged Athletes Million Dollar Challenge ride from 2009.

All is well when God has the reigns!