Because There's More to Life Then Being Really Really Ridiculously Good Looking

This past weekend I had the chance to volunteer at a 200 mile run relay race called Ragnar.

Ragnar is a relay race done all over the country. This particular race was held from Cumberland Maryland, to National Harbor, DC. Me, Jen, and Seth Klein volunteered for our friends who were running in the race.

Quick rundown of Ragnar- teams of 12 people taking turns running over a 24+ hour time period to reach the finish line 200 miles away. Intense yes? A lot of our close friends signed up together and have been training since spring to accomplish this task. 284 teams participated. Our friend's team name was "Blue Steel Projekt."

First off, we got the BEST volunteer position in my opinion. It's a position that if I were in any other, I would look at and wish I was doing. We got to welcome the runners across this finish line and hand out medals/water!

Man, that was an awesome role to play. A first hand look at the faces of accomplishment. It inspired me to want to do it SO bad. (I haven't ruled it out yet)

Sadly, our shift did not last until our friends crossed. But we did get to talk to them and hang out a bit before they did "officially cross" the finish line. Teams are in a back stage sort of area shortly before the finish line waiting for the last runner to finish their leg. Back there I saw some interesting things..

1. One team carried one of their injured runners across with them. I don't know if she ran and got injured on the run or what, but I thought that was pretty cool.

2. Some teams just didn't care at all when they crossed the finish line. I mean, I get having no feeling after a 24+ hour run with "sleep" stops scheduled in- but why would you not celebrate? How could you not be moved to express some sort of celebratory emotion? Is this just another event in their running career? If I am on a team- that's mandatory. We aren't crossing (no matter how tired we are, or how much our relationships were destroyed in the process...hehe) without passionate screaming, waving, and giving sweaty hugs to strangers.

On the contrary- Blue Steel Projekt

 I got to talk to them before they crossed and heard amazing stories of accomplishment, craziness, and inspiration. awesome to hear how God worked through their entire process. I wish I got a photo of kruz's (barefoot guy) "speed suit" beforehand....epic.

It reminded a lesson Nova taught me along time ago. Runners are crazy. Not just the type of people who say out there things every once in a while crazy, no, a special kind of crazy that involves stories that belong in books and on blogs crazy.

Between starting this blog and finishing it I agreed to run a 5k for Breast Cancer October 15th...No 200 miles BUT- still excited. It will be my first official run.

Edit: This pretty much rounds up my point of runners entirely...(courtesy of Beth Sweatman!)

Life Lately- Boldness And A Passion Pursued.

 -Soul Surfer is a fantastic movie. Carrie Underwood is a great singer. Unfortunately, someone decided to combine the two to create that which would later result in the executive decision to have her go from speaking roles in the first part of the film, to significantly looking at things in the latter. Still a great movie though and worth a watch.

-I have recently been in a lesson about boldness from God. I think the point is- what I would miss in life if I didn't take certain steps (sometimes out of shear terror)...for instance...

•    I would never have met my wife. In fact, I constantly tell her I bet some alternate version of myself is out there somewhere watching my life and kicking himself for never asking her out as he scores his 160th Fantasy Football victory in a row. Awesome? Yes. Guinness worthy? Maybe. Worth it? Absolutely not. He knows and weeps this fact.

• I never would have experienced the moment of practicing God of This City with the lead guitarist from Crossroads, to then have the drummer unexpectedly add a beat to our session mid-song. Indescribable, and electrifying really. 

•  I wouldn't get to know people. Hear their stories, and learn from their experiences. 

-Watched the season premier of survivor the other night. Ever wonder how you would socially react on that show? I do. A few seasons back there was a guy who was really interesting socially. He lied, cheated, stole, and promised a lot of people he would take them to the end.(where your fellow survivors get to vote if you win or not) He actually did make it to the end twice (no easy task) only to be shot down by voters who saw him for who he truly was. His claim to the money was that he played the game so well he deserved it, but in the end, non of the jury voted for him because of his character. I find that fascinating.