I just wanted to take a moment to ramble about something that I witnessed while attending a local race as a cheerleader for my Tri4Him teammates.  The race was the 20+ year old Shawnee Mission Triathlon and I was excited to attend (for once) as a spectator to watch the race from "outside the ropes."

I stood by the swim exit and watched all of the faces of my fellow competitors emerge from the water and head to their bikes.  What I wasn't prepared for was the perspective I got being able to see the friends and family cheer for their loved ones as they took on this challenge.

For those of you not from Kansas City, Shawnee Mission Park Triathlon is a very well established race, and for whatever reason attracts many first time triathletes every year.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the entire race is run within the confines of the park, but you can plan on lots of first timers doing this race each year.

All of the long course competitors were out on their bikes and the short course athletes were coming in now.  As I stood there waiting to make sure I hadn't missed any of my teammates, a group of red-shirted spectators walked up to watch the swim exit.  Their shirts said "GO JASON" and had a picture of Dad and Son on the front.  We've all seen these groups and some of us have been lucky enough to have our own cheering squads show up with matching shirts, cowbells, signs, the whole bit.

Well next thing you know, here comes "Jason" and his Mom, Dad, Wife, 2 sister in laws, Mother in law and son(4 yrs old or so) start hollering and cheering him on.  It looks to me like Jason is a guy who took on this challenge and while not in the best of shape has gotten himself to a place where he can toe the line at a multisport endurance event.  I only mention his physical condition because it helps you understand the reaction of his family as he ran by.  They cheered and screamed for him as he went by and then when he was gone I looked back at the red shirts and noticed that there were about 4 red shirts huddled around one lady, his wife, who was crying.  I was close enough to see her wiping her eyes and saying "I'm soo proud of him!!" 

As I think back on this moment I can't help but think about how we spend so much time worring about split time, total weekly volume, equipment upgrades, etc, we sometimes forget about the accomplishment of just getting out there and training for and competing in this wonderful sport.  God has blessed us all with the physical ability and the supportive families to Tri4Him and I think sometimes we all need to take a deep breath, bow our heads and thank hiim for this awesome blessing!!