SpeakFree

Lately I have been preparing for a race.  More specifically a time trial.  I have been cycling for about 4 1/2 years and this year I decided that it was time to do a couple races.  My first race was a Triathlon at the end of May, which was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it immensely.  However, since cycling is my strong sport I wanted to do a road race as well.  So I decided that I wanted to enter a time trial and see how well I could do against other cyclists.

Training for a time trial is a little different than training for any other type of bike race.  A time trial is a specified length of road and the racer needs to complete that length in as fast a time as he or she can.  There are individual and team time trials and I will be competing in a team time trial with a good friend of mine.

Well all that training almost came to nothing the other day.  My friend and I were doing laps around the Andrews University Campus, interval training.  On our cool down lap just before we were going to ride home we entered the final roundabout and I was watching to make sure the car on our right realized that we had the right of way.  Before I knew it my wheel got caught in the gap between the cobblestone and the asphalt and my bike slipped out from under me.  My full weight landed on my arm and I went spinning wildly on the ground.  First crash in 4 1/2 years of cycling!

Thankfully, I didn't break any bones or get seriously injured, only a deep gash on my arm and some road rash on my upper thigh.  It definitely could have been much, much worse.  I have been running the events through my head over and over trying to figure out what I could have done different.  I could have made sure I was on the asphalt instead of the cobblestone, I could have slowed down a bit, and I could have just watched where my wheel was going.

However, I realized something.  As Christians we compare our Christian walk to a race, Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:7, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race.  However, many times we forget that to be in a race, one must prepare for the race.  No Olympic champion ever just entered the race unprepared.  There were many hours of practice behind their entry into the race.  And something that goes along with practice is pain and injury.

You see, while we practice, and while we race, we go through trials and tribulations.  These things are to help us understand and do better in the future.  I will never take that roundabout in the same lazy way that I took it that day.  You bet that I will be careful and more assertive in what I am doing.  The same is with the Christian walk.  We make a mistake, we get an injury, we get back up and make sure we don't do it again.

Oh, and my time trial is August 8, I'll let you know how it goes.