I’m a very fortunate individual and often times, it takes a little time to kind of decompress and take account of the day’s good fortunes.
I didn’t stumble on a pile of money. No, something much greater actually.
Just a realization of all of the great experiences, opportunities and people that God placed in my path today.
I believe that we let our lives become so busy that we don’t take the opportunity to reflect upon the goodness of life that we sometimes miss in appreciating.
After Waverly and I went to get breakfast at The Egg and I after this morning’s race (Memorial Hermann Ten For Texas in The Woodlands), I came home and napped for a little more than three hours.
It was much needed after a long drive home from Decatur Thursday evening and a busy day of work, preparing to announce today’s race and covering Texas private and parochial high school athletics in the late evening.
However, when I got awake and checked my phone like so many of us do, I saw a post on Facebook from my Mom, who is back in Pennsylvania with my Dad to visit my 92-year-old grandmother, that her brother Fisher had passed away earlier on Saturday afternoon.
As I write, I don’t yet know all of the details, but my Mom is from a family of ten.
Seven of her siblings had passed on before. Well, one of those seven – Tommy – actually nobody is quite sure because the family hadn’t heard from him in decades.
I share this not from sympathy for me – although my Mom and her family’s relatives would certainly covet your prayers, but rather to explain how we believe.
While I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior – something that I don’t share as much as I need to, and have to make an effort to have the personal relationship with Him, at times, I have questions that could best be interpreted as doubts.
Yet, most of those times, my doubts are put to rest when I see events unfold as I did today.
My parents simply went back to Pennsylvania three Wednesdays ago to visit my grandmother.
However, as they were a day or two from leaving to return this past Wednesday, my grandmother’s heart rate had fallen to 40 and while not in distress, she went to the hospital and was admitted.
They put in a pacemaker, but my parents changed their flight to return this coming Wednesday.
During their first two weeks back, my Mom went to see her brother before he passed today.
I believe that God puts us into positions that we can only explain are as a result of His direction in all of our lives.
While my Mom was there for my grandmother, she was able to see her brother what proved to be one last time before he passed – and had she not gone into the hospital she wouldn’t have been able to be back in our family’s hometown when he did.
Earlier today, I spoke with a fellow endurance sports athlete Peter Bardenhagen near the finish line of today’s race. All of the runners from both the 10-miler and the 5K had left the start line area and were running their races.
It gave us about 20 minutes to carry on a great conversation.
Peter complemented my daughter, Waverly, who when the previously scheduled National Anthem singer didn’t show she stepped up and sang it today so very well.
As I spoke briefly about her, I explained that there was a moment that I realized that Waverly possessed a certain God-given ability to where I had the confidence that she could handle the moment that she did today.
It was of a young woman in our endurance sports community who had a special needs child who passed away more than six years ago before her ninth birthday.
I was friends with that woman at that time and she had asked me to lead her daughter’s memorial service and for Waverly, just a sophomore then, to sing.
I shared with Peter that I saw Waverly step up to the platform in front of a packed chapel of about 300 people, including the young girl’s classmates.
She placed sheet music – on the podium - with notes that had been marked after practicing the song with her Choir Director at Spring High School, as she needed to sing the song in a different key.
And she did so very well, even reaching down – in mid-song – for a tissue (which in the moment I thought she was needing because she became emotional but rather it was) to dab a running nose.
In that moment, I believed that she had a special “it” to be able to handle a pressure situation and perform with such poise.
What I didn’t know is that three years to the day, January 17, 2014, my sister would pass away and Waverly and I would need to perform the same roles in the midst of a storm with our family.
In 2011, we simply believed that God allowed for us to use our talents that He gave to us to comfort and help bring peace to a hurting family and friends, but He was preparing us for a day that we didn’t know soon would come.
It is times like these that we don’t often take the time to give God the glory in those abilities – and opportunities.
Waverly never goes to a race expecting to sing, despite what one race director this year believed.
And, in fact, there have been times – short of a pinch of a situation like today – that she’s either not been interested in singing or she just wasn’t feeling that she could do her best.
I’ve always appreciated her honesty in communicating effectively with me.
Yet we both know, especially with me announcing, that it allows – for a short period of time remaining – for us to share the Gospel in a soft, unobtrusive way with saying, “here to sing our National Anthem, Liberty University graduate Miss Waverly Walk from Spring.”
Many believers know that Liberty University is a Christian university.
Many who do not believe or have not heard the Gospel message may also have never heard of Liberty – and by hearing it today on race day, maybe they’ll see the commercials on TV for the University or Google it online when it crosses their mind.
We have to be willing to be ready to give witness when called upon or put ourselves in a position for God to take and use our effort to reach more for Jesus Christ.
I also had the opportunities to have two meals with my daughter today and we spend this time to reflect and discuss a lot of this – and these types of things.
The one thing that we’re both placed in is situations where people place a lot of trust not just in our abilities, but rather how we handle ourselves.
While, for example, I got paid as part of the race’s budget for the services I provided, The Township staff still places an incredible amount of trust in me to use wisely discern many different situations and to do so extemporaneously.
I’m honored and humbled by the responsibility and trust placed in me.
Because I don’t have to be micro-managed, and am more than just a voice, it frees the team up to handle other situations.
I think people hear my voice on race day and see one thing, but there’s a lot more to what I do.
I was especially pleased that aside from two situations where The Township needed to ensure that the courses were totally clear, we basically got the races started on time and without major issue.
We had to juggle a little bit during the awards today, but let me provide a little bit of a background.
I certainly understand that athletes want to get their awards and go.
I also appreciated that it got hot today too
All of The Township races have an opportunity for a member of the Board of Directors to be represented.
At Muddy Trails back in April and today at Ten For Texas, it was Director Laura Fillault.
We also had the on-site representative from Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Center, Linda Nelson.
While we wanted to get the 5K awards going first, we wanted to make sure that we had a picture opportunity for the sponsor and The Township’s benefit with our 10-Mile overall winners before Laura and Linda departed.
Then we shifted to the 5K awards. We handled the overall, the masters and the grandmasters and were starting to work our way down the list starting with our most experienced athletes first – and there were 10-year age groups instead of five-year.
We had the timer reprint them, but in the meantime, transitioned over to the 10-Mile awards.
It pays to be able to adjust on the fly, keep things moving and to balance between adequately recognizing the athlete’s accomplishment while letting them get on with their day – especially given the conditions.
As a race announcer, I’m all about making that finish line experience as special as I can be.
However, I have my limits.
When I covered Texas private and parochial high school athletics from 1994-2001, I told myself that if I did anything that I was aware of that a young person got a bigger head from my efforts that I would back down or away.
It is fun to see the effect that recognition has on people, especially in a positive sense.
There was a female athlete today whose spouse gets recognized for his abilities day-in and day-out – and they’re certainly well deserved.
Yet, while she had already picked up her award, she, her husband and their two children stayed just long enough to her name announced.
It was cute, but I got it. It is good to be recognized for doing well.
Although, some take it a bit too far.
I won’t mention the individual’s name, their gender nor their place, but simply that they asked me – in the moment – to present their position in an accurate and alternate way simply because “it sounds better that way”.
I was stunned. And didn’t.
In actuality, although I wasn’t thinking on my feet then, I did present it the way that I was asked when the athlete crossed the finish line.
There were so many people that I came into contact with today.
I’m so grateful for those opportunities to interact.
I was especially excited for my daughter to spend time this morning with a couple of teachers who are athletes that were to provide her wisdom – for today – and an ability to call upon – in the immediate future – if she wanted to work in that teacher’s district.
Again, I’m just floored at how well people accept – and trust – my daughter.
I was on-site early this morning – arriving just about 5 a.m.
The first person I saw as I pulled into the Market Street garage before they started to control access to it? My best friend, Bill Dwyer.
It is always good to interact with Bill as we’re able to help each other relax and get ready for a busy morning, given our different sets of responsibilities.
The final thing that I want to share, if you’re still reading, is in the preparation that The Township put in to today’s race from a safety and security standpoint.
As part of the race team, I was shared the race’s Emergency Response Plan.
All 42 pages.
In the post-Las Vegas world, the team was prepared for everything.
I had a woman get upset with me when I asked her to leave the start line area because she had gotten on the inside of the metal fencing before the start of the Kids’ race.
If she’s running with her child, that was one thing, but she wasn’t.
While not likely, she could have been strapped with explosives. If she was and I didn’t take action, would I have been able to deal with knowing that I could have done something to stop it?
Honestly, having read the plan before the race, I was cognizant of the risks after waking and before I left my house, but once I got out there and going, I never really thought about the possibilities.
In hindsight though, I might have been one of the first persons that somebody could have picked off as I’m in front of the start line all the time before the start of the race.
So I’m certainly thankful that I’m able to sit here in my chair, write and share my experiences with you.
I try my best not to take any and all of these moments for granted.
Please don’t stop running races in light of the risks associated, but be vigilant in looking out for your safety and of those around you.
It all can happen in the twinkling of an eye.
