Overcomers

Yesterday Mike and I went downtown to cheer a friend of ours on in the Denver Marathon. We saw him at mile 18, mile 20 and at the finish line. It hasn't struck me until today how much of an accomplishment this really was. I've never run a mile in a my life unless you count an elliptical machine running. I'm a walker and a hiker, not a runner. Mike said yesterday that when he runs less than a mile on pavement, his ankles and knees start killing him. Granted, both of us could probably run a marathon if 1) we really wanted to and 2) if we trained. But from our vantage point today, running 26.2 miles is quite a feat.

Our friend finished in just over four hours -- about 10 minutes over his goal. He took the missed goal in stride, though, admitting that he hadn't trained as much as he wanted to or needed to. He has the Ironman triathlon in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, to look forward to and train for next June. My younger brother and uncle just did the Ironman Wisconsin in September, so I know what our friend is about to endure.

After the marathon, our friend said he started to struggle at about the half-way mark. As his legs burned and he willed himself to keep going, he told us he praised God for the pain, praised God that he even had the legs to run the race. Several fellow marathoners along the way -- one blind, one in a wheelchair -- served as inspiration for him to keep going.

I saw this article (linked below) today about a man who was paralyzed, learned to walk and eventually run to compete in yesterday's race. All we need is stories like this to remind us that we are capable of far more than we imagine. The battle to overcome is in our minds, not in our limitations.

Denver man overcomes paralysis to complete Denver Marathon - The Denver Post

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This image by cartoonist Drew Litton captures exactly how I and a lot of Colorado Rockies fans feel about our team today. They lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Phillies Monday night. The Phillies will go on to play the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series. We Rockies fans are left to reminisce about the year and look forward to next spring.

It was a disappointing finish because the Rockies this year were a better team than maybe they've ever been, winning 92 games in the regular season. The last time they went to the playoffs in 2007, they went all the way to the World Series. But that doesn't happen every time. In '07, the Rockies were the hottest team in baseball in September and October, even though they fell to the Red Sox in the actual World Series. The Rockies ran over the Phillies and the Diamondbacks in the divisional and championship series, making it look easy.

I had to remind myself last night as I watched the Rockies lose that baseball playoffs are tough, and the better team really does usually end up winning those series. Compare that to the football playoffs, which often involve teams that have no business being there. And if football teams had to play one another multiple times in the playoffs as in baseball, the result would likely be different.

Baseball is not football, however. The sheer length of the baseball season makes it mirror life in so many significant ways -- the anticipation of a new season, pressing through losses, injuries and other hard times, the excitement of a winning streak, the disappointment of a losing streak. A team that wins only half of its games is considered pretty decent -- imagine that! But take your own life over the course of six months -- how many of us have about as many good days as bad in that length of time? And then when the playoffs come, and we fans get to see the best baseball of the entire season, there are more ups and downs. How many times have the Los Angeles Angels, for example, gone to the post-season in recent years and not made it to the World Series? How many decent teams are still waiting to get into the playoffs at all?

Speaking of the Angels, I'll be rooting for them to go to the World Series and win this year -- mostly because they aren't the Yankees or the Dodgers (I can't bring myself to root for either of them). And the Phillies won last year. Besides, friends of ours in California are HUGE Angels fans . . . and if our team is already knocked out of the playoffs, we'll join our good friends in rooting on their team.

Finally, this is from my husband Mike. It's a little commentary he wrote about the Rockies:

TOO OFTEN IN PRO SPORTS, THE OUTCOME IS THE ONLY FOCUS. THE RESULT IS TOO OFTEN ALL THAT IS CELEBRATED OR CRITICIZED.

CLEARLY THE ENDING OF THE SEASON - AND HOW IT HAPPENED - IS NOT WHAT THE ROCKIES OR THEIR FANS WANTED.

HOW THE ROCKIES HANDLED THEMSELVES IN DEFEAT IS MORE THAN ADMIRABLE...HOW THEY HANDLED THEMSELVES IN MOMENTS OF TRIUMPH THROUGHOUT THE SEASON IS EQUALLY IMPRESSIVE.

THE 2009 ROCKIES GAVE US A SUMMER TO REMEMBER AND ALSO WHAT EVERY BASEBALL FAN YEARNS FOR...DRAMA IN AUTUMN.

FOR ALL THOSE THINGS I SALUTE AND THANK THEM.