Run your race, you are UNSTOPPABLE

It’s been a lovely long weekend of races for me; I completed my first 10km on Saturday and another 5km on Monday. I prepped my muscles the night before my 10km race and my nerves were absolutely shot. I kept asking myself if I was up to it. Ironically, I got lost on my way to the race and ended up being late. I was literally the last person to start the race. Within the first 15 minutes of the event my muscles started giving up on me. I had 2 options, I could either quit and get someone to take me back to the start or I could push through and finish. I am grateful that God blessed me with a determined never say quit mentality because it took every bit of mental and physical strength I could find in order to complete the race. I started last with everything against me but I didn’t finish last, in fact, I finished in the top 200 and received a medal to go with it. #Accomplishment. It was at that moment that I felt unstoppable. There are a couple of rituals that goes with running a race and the one I take full advantage of is the carbo loading ritual. I trained in the week as well, just enough to ensure that I didn’t hurt anything, ate correctly and I was certain that I was ready for the race but nothing could stop my heart from beating like it was on some sort of erratic drug come Saturday morning. I stopped for a second looked at all the people around me gearing up for their 5km race and a thought raced through my mind as I set off. Imagine if I knew the outcome of the race before it began? What if victory was promised before the starting gun ever sounded? There would be no nerves or pre running jitters. Every thought in my mind would be different to the current ones. I would be running with a different kind of confidence. It wouldn’t matter that I was late or that I was the last one to start.

A little over two months ago I started running; I will never forget the first day I decided to go out for what was meant to be a walk. I walked for about 100 meters before every fibre in my body shouted at me to start running. Needless to say I never looked back. I would find myself rushing to get home after work so that I could change and hit the roads. The air, the rush of everyone trying to get home, the traffic and the beauty of it all just disappearing to the background kept me going back every day. I felt unstoppable; nothing could get me to quit – the sore calf muscles, the insane shin splints, the tired hamstrings & the pain in my chest from a fast beating heart just seemed so temporary when compared to the victory of becoming faster and stronger. My mental endurance was growing just as much as my physical endurance – I felt like I could take over the world. Why did I start running though? I mean who just decides to put themselves through something so hard for fun? Well, not me. I started running because the pressure of life got too much for me. I was diagnosed with internal bleeding Hemorrhoids by the Dr and was told that I would need to go for an operation. I didn’t have medical aid at the time so the first step was to get that sorted, as soon as I got that sorted I was told that there was a three month waiting period before anything could happen. Okay, so three months of being sick and questioning why me? That should be fun! It always worked out so well in the past! No, not this time. This time it was going to be different. I decided that I was going to put into action everything I have been learning at church. It was time to drink from the river of living water because I got the power and I am destined for greatness - my miracle was around the corner. This is my fight of good faith or rather it was time to lace up my sneakers and start running my race. I spoke to a friend of mine and told her that I took out medical aid and that I decided to start running in the meantime while waiting for the three months to pass because I believed that half of the problem I encounted was due to my lifestyle of being lazy, eating junk and not exercising. I told my friend that I really felt that God was going to do something new in me by the time the three month waiting period came to an end. I gave God three months to make me whole again, I was going to do my best and He was going to do the rest. I changed my diet completely – no more junk! And I geared up for what was about to be the race of my life. I ran for almost a month and there was no change in my health besides that of loosing weight. I had to take medication everyday, sometimes three times a day just for something to happen to my system. Eventually I grew tired and decided that it was time to open up to God. Its time He knew how I felt about this sickness. Its time He knew that this battle was one too many things He was throwing my way and it wasn’t on anymore. A still voice replied back to me that day assuring me that I could do all things through Him who gives me strength. I realised that was God telling me to keep on going through the process. It’s no secret that I enjoy talking so I decided that I was going to use this time to talk to God and without fail God met me halfway and spoke right back. I could feel my body getting worse, the internal Hemarrhoids started to spread externally as well but my mind kept telling me to push my body and go through the process. Through Him in whom I trusted I was limitless.

This led me to running my first competition; I ran it with such excitement and was so proud of myself for finishing it in less than an hour. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t the greatest of time, what mattered was that I was running my race. Over time my race times became better and I found myself running in qualifying times but something else changed too, my body started working without the medication. My system was reacting to the food I was eating on its own but the external growth got worst. I woke up one morning and told myself that it was time to fight in prayer. I prayed every morning before work, ran every afternoon after work and left the rest to God – my saviour, my redeemer, my healer. God is faithful and keeps His promises; soon after that I found the external hemorroids getting smaller, words won’t be able to explain the joy that came with that realisation. I prayed, I worked, I ran and God did the rest. My medical aid card was delivered to me on the day that I realised that almost all of the external Hemarroids weren’t there anymore and what was there wasn’t as painful as I am used to. God did a new thing, and in the space of a month and a half as opposed to the three months that I initially gave Him.

I often try to put words to what this last four months have been for me and it’s been very hard. It started off lonely, sick, stressed, painful, hurt (emotionally and physically), confused, irritated, frustrated and disappointed. As I have run this race I have realised that the words began to change to healed, possible, victorious, whole, happy, joyful, peaceful, comforted, complete, winner, UNSTOPPABLE. See, we were all born to run a race and each race is different from another persons race. We were born to run the race that God has placed before us but we need to start running our races with God confidence no matter what the circumstance in front of us may look like. I see it like this, there will be many challenges in your race, circumstances will come against you, there will be tough times and then times that will want to make you want to hang up your running shoes forever but if you keep going through the process you will realise that you are unstoppable because you are running the race you were born to win. This is what I learnt in this time:

• Not everyone is going to be happy for you, your successes or your journey – it’s not about people. Run your race anyway. The people that you thought will be your biggest cheerleaders may not even give you a high 5. In fact they may be the ones completely ignoring your journey but that’s okay. Don’t let it affect your race; they too are running a race of their own. Does it make them bad people? No, it may just mean that they aren’t your people though. Place your focus on where you are going, God will always surround you with the right people. 
• Run your race, not anyone else’s – you were born to win your race, you cannot complete anyone’s competition but your own. Let your race be an inspiration by doing what you were meant to do.
• See the storm through – there will be many days that will aim to stop your race – the rain, the sun, the wind and sometimes the bitter cold will stop you in your tracks but keep pushing through it. The storm doesn’t last forever but the victory and the strength that you find through your perseverance will never leave you.
• Don’t listen to the discouragement – you will often get discouraged, you will feel like you are not good enough. You will feel like the pain is too much. People may tell you that you are too small, too big, too young, too old, not strong enough. Block off the negativity, God wouldn’t have given it to you if he didn’t think it would grow you, mould you and refine you. Stick to your plan, your determination will set you apart.
• Remember why you started – there was a seed planted in your heart to start running this race. Remind yourself daily about where you are going.
• Focus on your goals – My first goal was to get healthy, my second goal was to loose weight and my third goal is to run the Comrades Marathon in 2020. I am reminded daily that nothing is impossible. I will accomplish my goal and run the Comrades Marathon. What are your goals in this race?
• And lastly know whose you are – throughout this journey I made a powerful realisation that I can’t loose no matter what may happen or hard life and this race may get because, you see, when Jesus died on the cross for me I automatically became unstoppable. I became a victor. I became a winner. You won’t become who you were destined to be without difficulty but trouble, well trouble prepares you for the next level because greater is He who lives in you than he who is in the world.

It doesn’t matter if you are slow out of the blocks, don’t give up. Tripping and falling is part of the journey too, it doesn't mean your race is over. Obstacles will come and they will leave you disheartened but keep going you will make it. This is your time, this is your moment. Your race is now. You can never loose as long as you are running with God, it’s time to run in a new way.

Until next time, remember that you are running the race you were born to win. It’s time to realise, that you are………………. UNSTOPPABLE.

Loshnee