This Sunday was a first for me.  Finally I managed to win a race! To make it even better I received Rs. 50000 prize money. It was a 21 here in Chandigarh. I almost did not run because of my standing appointment with church on Sundays, but thanks to several people who encouraged me to go, I decided to do it. (Thanks to everyone at church for not only understanding, but also encouraging me)

This whole episode shows me clearly that 1) God knows what is going on. 2) God cares for me. (And for you too). Our family are about to experience a financial loss and this makes up for it even before it happens. If everyone came that registered, my chances would have been much less to win, but because of the cold weather and continuous rain up till shortly before the race I think that many runners did not come.

I did not run for the money. I kept on remembering these verses from the Holy Bible:   1Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,2fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Romans 12:1-2)

So I also thank Jesus for the circumstances and the ability he has given me. Not that I did not train. But training is mostly just some more fun for me.

I also thank the organizers and sponsors for the event. Thanks for making it cheap and still giving away a T-shirt.  Having said that there are quite a few things that they could look at to improve for next year.

  • One could not register online.
  • The event started 4o minutes late.
  • Before we could start the organizers did a roll-call!
  • The veterans (above 35 years!) were asked to move to the back before we started. I have never heard of a race where this happened.
  • The first water we got at around 8k.
  • There was only water throughout the race. Sports drink would be appreciated or even just some coke.
  • There was a lot of people, but very little support. Very little clapping or shouting.
  • Twice I had to shout for people to clear a path for me.
  • There wasn’t anybody keeping time as far as I could see.
  • Some of my friends did the 5k and they told me there was no water at all for them – only afterwards. There must have been thousands of 5k runners and on a hotter day this lack of water would have been a serious problem.

So keep running! Maybe you also will have your chance to be first.

Stephan

P.S. If you are interested to run with me, let me know by posting a comment on this post.